Cupcakes and Hazing

Never am I more aware of how many children I have, then when I'm in a public place with them.

A few days ago, Sean and I took our little tribe, fondly dubbed, "The Ishumites," to the birthday party of their twin friends. You would think that a large enclosed room in a church would make it easy to keep up with them. Ha! The joke was on us.

The party was pretty straight forward: lunch, cupcakes, bounce house. All within four walls. But apparently, that's all that two-year-old quadruplets need to get into trouble.

And because I know you all love reading stories about our adventures,

this is what it's like to take four toddlers to a birthday party:

Not long after we arrived, it was time to eat. Sean and I made four plates with various samplings of food that our kids were sure to love. Of course, once we caught all of them and had them sitting at the table,  all four kids refused to eat. Too much excitement! Plus, there was a bounce house. Can you blame them? But still, I wanted them to eat a few bites before running off to play.

As I tried to keep them in their seats at the table, my friend flagged me down that one of them had escaped and helped herself to the cupcakes. To the birthday cupcakes that were meant for the twins. Had we sung happy birthday yet? No, but Abby decided that ten minutes into the party was long enough to wait.

Grabbing her and the cupcake, I tucked her chosen dessert back on the counter, and turned around to see Caleb with his hand in the bowl of strawberries on the buffet table. "Son! Do not put your hand directly in the community strawberry bowl!" I glanced around hoping that his lack of buffet etiquette wasn't too noticable by the other guests. Trying to act nonchalant, and I'm sure failing miserably, I led my little scavenger away from the table and told him to go play. Lunch wasn't going to get eaten. I signaled to Sean that he might as well let the other three go play, so he let them loose. (Side note: thank goodness for parenting tag-teams!)

It was obvious that the bounce house, running around in circles, and grabbing random items off of the tables were more entertaining than lunch, so although I had briefly hoped that they might return for a few bites, it was pretty obvious that I was wishing for the moon. But I didn't want their lunch just sitting there where my kids could make a mess, so I started cleaning up the four barely touched plates.

...and then looked up just in time to see Abby pick up a cup of lemonade and attempt to drink it. Did I mention that the cup had no lid? She doused herself completely with the lemonade and stood there looking at at it in shock.

I ran back to the kitchen, grabbed a handful of paper towels and handed them off to someone else to clean up the puddle while I tried to clean my daughter up. Thankfully, we had a change of clothes since Caleb did the exact. same. thing. at the last party we went to a month ago. Hey, at least we are getting smarter. I stripped Abby down to her diaper, and she let out a scream.

I swear this girl is a never-nude. You know, like Tobias from Arrested Development? Not even kidding. We are "allowed" to change her into her day clothes in the morning, and back into her pajamas at night. But that's it. It would be funny if she didn't scream at the simplest things like removing her socks or taking off her jacket. *sigh* She screamed until her dry clothes were on, and then all was good. And yes, everyone wondered what the heck was wrong with my child. Proud mommy moment.

I headed back to the table with Abby in tow, and caught Elijah helping himself to his own cupcake. After confiscating that one, I planted myself next to the dessert table and just tried to keep all four of my children within my line of sight.

Sean was chasing the kids as much as I was, but he suggested that I grab some lunch. I told him that he should go ahead as I was guarding the cupcakes with my life. Nothing, not even barbecue, was going to pull me off of my post.

So Sean made a lunch plate and started eating as fast as he could. Abby ran back over to the food table and grabbed another roll, and when I turned around, Caleb had effectively used her diversion to get his own cupcake.

Seriously, kids?! You do NOT eat the cupcakes before we sing "Happy Birthday!"

My cupcake collection on the counter was steadily growing larger, and I found myself starting to pray over the remaining cupcakes. "Please, God." I breathed as I pulled Ellie's fingers away from the big birthday cake. "Please let us sing "happy birthday" soon before my kids destroy the dessert table."

Only a mother can understand a desperate prayer of that intensity.

Thankfully, not too long after, the birthday girls surrounded the table with their parents for the "happy birthday" song. Everyone stopped what they were doing, picked up their cameras, and prepared to take a photo of the candles being blown out as the birthday song went along.

...and then Caleb streaked across the room directly in front of the table as the song was winding down.

C'mon! I felt like the world's worst mother. Even with Sean and I both trying to keep them in line, we were so outnumbered, it wasn't even funny. Embarrassing. Humiliating. And then I felt the jealously start to crop up. I was jealous of my friends who were there with their singletons.

One kid at a time. You teach the kid to sit still, be polite, and there are always enough hands to keep them in line when they are toddlers. Even when there are additional kids in the family, they are different ages, and you can tackle each age's social developments one at a time.

And then there is me. Hot, sweaty, irritated, distracted, and ganged-up on. When we brought them through the door, they were our tribe. Now they are our gang. And they are hazing us.

It was a humbling, and not-so-gentle reminder that I still don't have any idea what I'm doing as a parent. The other guests (who were also friends) helped us collect our kids from walking out the door, stopped them from licking the sound system, and pulled curious fingers from hand bags and diaper bags. Without them and my husband, I might has well have handed Abby the entire cooler of lemonade and let her climb into it.

As much as I hated being massively embarrassed, I think God must have given me quadruplets to remind me that no matter how hard I try, I can't completely control the people around me or what they think.

But, of course, I wasn't able to come to that conclusion until later on in the day. The rest of the party was spent much the same way as the first half of the party. It was capped off with a manhunt of epic proportions for Ellie's Little Bunny who was AWOL.

Half of the guests ended up helping us look for it. All of the gift bags were gone through a second time, The bounce house was moved so that we could look under it, we crawled all over every piece of furniture, checked under every table, and opened every cabinet that was accessible to the kids. I even went through two trashcans, piece by piece, digging through the remnants of a barbecue lunch in search of Little Bunny. No bunny meant no sleeping. For any of us. Period. But after a huge hunt, we realized that Little Bunny had completely vanished.

We left the church with our stomachs in our throats. After our birthday party adventure, all six of us were in desperate need of a nap. And we knew that between the missing bunny, and the three cupcakes that Abby was able to sneak off and eat over the course of the party, no naps were in our future.

We eventually found Little Bunny, wrapped up in a changing pad at home. It looks like she was put in the diaper bag originally, and then one of the changing pads was taken out to make room. She got caught in it and missed the party.

Missed the party? Is it possible to be jealous of Little Bunny? Because her peaceful couple of hours in a quiet house sounded seriously appealing.

But no, I really love my gang. I do. And if there was another birthday party tomorrow, I would take them to that one as well. I want them to have as normal a childhood as they can even though it's not exactly conventional, and I'm grateful for my friends who choose to include my kids in their events even though we are clearly outnumbered.

I'll tell you this though, next time, I'm planting myself next to the dessert table as soon as we get there.

(P.S. Why isn't there a photo of Elijah in this post? Because he was moving too fast to snap one.)

Never am I more aware of how many children I have, then when I'm in a public place with them.

A few days ago, Sean and I took our little tribe, fondly dubbed, "The Ishumites," to the birthday party of their twin friends. You would think that a large enclosed room in a church would make it easy to keep up with them. Ha! The joke was on us.

The party was pretty straight forward: lunch, cupcakes, bounce house. All within four walls. But apparently, that's all that two-year-old quadruplets need to get into trouble.

And because I know you all love reading stories about our adventures,

this is what it's like to take four toddlers to a birthday party:

Not long after we arrived, it was time to eat. Sean and I made four plates with various samplings of food that our kids were sure to love. Of course, once we caught all of them and had them sitting at the table,  all four kids refused to eat. Too much excitement! Plus, there was a bounce house. Can you blame them? But still, I wanted them to eat a few bites before running off to play.

As I tried to keep them in their seats at the table, my friend flagged me down that one of them had escaped and helped herself to the cupcakes. To the birthday cupcakes that were meant for the twins. Had we sung happy birthday yet? No, but Abby decided that ten minutes into the party was long enough to wait.

Grabbing her and the cupcake, I tucked her chosen dessert back on the counter, and turned around to see Caleb with his hand in the bowl of strawberries on the buffet table. "Son! Do not put your hand directly in the community strawberry bowl!" I glanced around hoping that his lack of buffet etiquette wasn't too noticable by the other guests. Trying to act nonchalant, and I'm sure failing miserably, I led my little scavenger away from the table and told him to go play. Lunch wasn't going to get eaten. I signaled to Sean that he might as well let the other three go play, so he let them loose. (Side note: thank goodness for parenting tag-teams!)

It was obvious that the bounce house, running around in circles, and grabbing random items off of the tables were more entertaining than lunch, so although I had briefly hoped that they might return for a few bites, it was pretty obvious that I was wishing for the moon. But I didn't want their lunch just sitting there where my kids could make a mess, so I started cleaning up the four barely touched plates.

...and then looked up just in time to see Abby pick up a cup of lemonade and attempt to drink it. Did I mention that the cup had no lid? She doused herself completely with the lemonade and stood there looking at at it in shock.

I ran back to the kitchen, grabbed a handful of paper towels and handed them off to someone else to clean up the puddle while I tried to clean my daughter up. Thankfully, we had a change of clothes since Caleb did the exact. same. thing. at the last party we went to a month ago. Hey, at least we are getting smarter. I stripped Abby down to her diaper, and she let out a scream.

I swear this girl is a never-nude. You know, like Tobias from Arrested Development? Not even kidding. We are "allowed" to change her into her day clothes in the morning, and back into her pajamas at night. But that's it. It would be funny if she didn't scream at the simplest things like removing her socks or taking off her jacket. *sigh* She screamed until her dry clothes were on, and then all was good. And yes, everyone wondered what the heck was wrong with my child. Proud mommy moment.

I headed back to the table with Abby in tow, and caught Elijah helping himself to his own cupcake. After confiscating that one, I planted myself next to the dessert table and just tried to keep all four of my children within my line of sight.

Sean was chasing the kids as much as I was, but he suggested that I grab some lunch. I told him that he should go ahead as I was guarding the cupcakes with my life. Nothing, not even barbecue, was going to pull me off of my post.

So Sean made a lunch plate and started eating as fast as he could. Abby ran back over to the food table and grabbed another roll, and when I turned around, Caleb had effectively used her diversion to get his own cupcake.

Seriously, kids?! You do NOT eat the cupcakes before we sing "Happy Birthday!"

My cupcake collection on the counter was steadily growing larger, and I found myself starting to pray over the remaining cupcakes. "Please, God." I breathed as I pulled Ellie's fingers away from the big birthday cake. "Please let us sing "happy birthday" soon before my kids destroy the dessert table."

Only a mother can understand a desperate prayer of that intensity.

Thankfully, not too long after, the birthday girls surrounded the table with their parents for the "happy birthday" song. Everyone stopped what they were doing, picked up their cameras, and prepared to take a photo of the candles being blown out as the birthday song went along.

...and then Caleb streaked across the room directly in front of the table as the song was winding down.

C'mon! I felt like the world's worst mother. Even with Sean and I both trying to keep them in line, we were so outnumbered, it wasn't even funny. Embarrassing. Humiliating. And then I felt the jealously start to crop up. I was jealous of my friends who were there with their singletons.

One kid at a time. You teach the kid to sit still, be polite, and there are always enough hands to keep them in line when they are toddlers. Even when there are additional kids in the family, they are different ages, and you can tackle each age's social developments one at a time.

And then there is me. Hot, sweaty, irritated, distracted, and ganged-up on. When we brought them through the door, they were our tribe. Now they are our gang. And they are hazing us.

It was a humbling, and not-so-gentle reminder that I still don't have any idea what I'm doing as a parent. The other guests (who were also friends) helped us collect our kids from walking out the door, stopped them from licking the sound system, and pulled curious fingers from hand bags and diaper bags. Without them and my husband, I might has well have handed Abby the entire cooler of lemonade and let her climb into it.

As much as I hated being massively embarrassed, I think God must have given me quadruplets to remind me that no matter how hard I try, I can't completely control the people around me or what they think.

But, of course, I wasn't able to come to that conclusion until later on in the day. The rest of the party was spent much the same way as the first half of the party. It was capped off with a manhunt of epic proportions for Ellie's Little Bunny who was AWOL.

Half of the guests ended up helping us look for it. All of the gift bags were gone through a second time, The bounce house was moved so that we could look under it, we crawled all over every piece of furniture, checked under every table, and opened every cabinet that was accessible to the kids. I even went through two trashcans, piece by piece, digging through the remnants of a barbecue lunch in search of Little Bunny. No bunny meant no sleeping. For any of us. Period. But after a huge hunt, we realized that Little Bunny had completely vanished.

We left the church with our stomachs in our throats. After our birthday party adventure, all six of us were in desperate need of a nap. And we knew that between the missing bunny, and the three cupcakes that Abby was able to sneak off and eat over the course of the party, no naps were in our future.

We eventually found Little Bunny, wrapped up in a changing pad at home. It looks like she was put in the diaper bag originally, and then one of the changing pads was taken out to make room. She got caught in it and missed the party.

Missed the party? Is it possible to be jealous of Little Bunny? Because her peaceful couple of hours in a quiet house sounded seriously appealing.

But no, I really love my gang. I do. And if there was another birthday party tomorrow, I would take them to that one as well. I want them to have as normal a childhood as they can even though it's not exactly conventional, and I'm grateful for my friends who choose to include my kids in their events even though we are clearly outnumbered.

I'll tell you this though, next time, I'm planting myself next to the dessert table as soon as we get there.

(P.S. Why isn't there a photo of Elijah in this post? Because he was moving too fast to snap one.)

Monkeying Around to Celebrate Our First Birthday!!

I'm SO excited to write this post! Hence, it wins the award for the most photos ever to be put on our webpage at one time! You've been warned! :)

We have been in full Big Birthday Bash mode over at our house! Even though the kids were born on February 23, we haven't been able to celebrate their big one year milestone with extended family and friends due to their immune systems. We did have a small little gathering of our immediate families the weekend after their birthday, but we saved the big party until last weekend.

It ended up being AWESOME because Little Monkey Bizness in Shawnee Mission, Kansas saw an article in KC Parent Magazine about our family and emailed us last summer. They offered to sponsor the babies' first birthday party in style! And because they had read the article, they understood that we couldn't really do a party on their birthday, so they readily agreed to wait a few extra months until it was safe to take them out!

Okay, I just have to say, I was a little nervous about this whole idea. While it's really neat that a local business wanted to sponsor their first birthday party, it meant that, *gulp* I had to take my babies into a giant play land where other kids had been (what if they had been sick? What if they hadn't washed their hands recently??) and trust that it was going to be a safe place to take them. This was going to be a big stretch for me. Especially since I'd never been there.

When I called to book the party in March, I talked to the General Manager, Taelor. Without me even saying anything, she told me that they wanted to do the following:

• Donate the party to us! HUGE!
• Give us a private party room to eat dinner and cupcakes in! It was actually two big connecting rooms where they set up a line in one room for hot dogs and chips and another for cupcakes. Plenty of seating for everyone and lots of room to move around.
• Allow us to bring our own food in. I had already started brainstorming food and didn't want to pass up on the chance to get to participate as much as possible in the party preparations. I'm so glad because I loved making the babies' cupcakes!
• They shut the facility down to the public so that it was only our guests in the facility. They completely shut it down! Taelor told me that they wanted me to feel comfortable allowing my kids to play and not worry other people or germs.
• Taelor also offered to re-clean the play area just prior to our party so that is was squeaky clean. They didn't want us to worry AT ALL!

Uh...WOW!!

So, I signed on for all of it (seriously, who could turn down an offer like that?!) and got ready to party!! And what a blessing to me to have nothing to worry about. I was already in love with Little Monkey Bizness, and I hadn't even been inside the doors yet!

It was the best first birthday party ever! It was as great as the list above makes it sound! Nothing was left undone! The staff were incredibly accommodating and friendly, even going so far as to set up our food for us. The mother/daughter team (Carrie is the owner/Taelor is the General Manager) who run the facility both showed up to celebrate the event with us. Since it was on Saturday evening, I'm sure they had other things to do, but they both were just as excited as we were with our big milestone! The play land had areas for crawlers and bigger kids, perfect for letting our kids warm up slowly and move into the bigger area.

But for me, being the NICU mommy that I am, the best thing by far was how spotless it was. It was the cleanest kid place I've ever been to...ever! One of the other mom's who came used to manage another kid party place sort of like Little Monkey Bizness. She made a point of coming up to tell me that she was incredibly impressed with how clean it was and was actually having a blast herself even though she is an adult. I know for a fact that this place goes out of it's way to keep it clean for everyone  (not just us), because it has a reputation of being that on top of it! Yeah, I'm spending a lot of time talking about how clean it was, but for me, that was my main concern right from the beginning. The place was as clean as if I had done it myself...and we have stock in Clorox wipes at this point!

So, between me and my brother Mike, we took around 300 photos. I don't want to overload you, so I've narrowed them down to my favorite....40. Hehe!

Waiting just before our time slot began: Let's get this party started! 

Ma holding Abby and Ellie, and Me holding Caleb and Elijah

Ready. Set. PLAY! We started out in the crawlers area to give the kids time to warm up.

Ellie and Abby. You can tell Abby was ready to get to it!

Braelyn and Bailey with Eli, Beth, Ellie, and Abby P. in the background

To much to do to hold still long enough for Mommy to take a photo!

Abby, Daddy, and I think that's Caleb. :)

Abby taking a little break with Mommy

Some of the sweetest friends in the world! I could go on and on about how these women have invested in our kids lives, but if you read our blog, you've already seen their names and photos pop up several times. :)

Sarah (the other Sarah), Keri, Sarah (the sister-in-law) holding the other Sarah's daughter, Rachel, and Beth (Thanks, friends, for lining up in a way that made it really confusing to label this photo! LOL!)

And then Channel 41 came out to do a news clip on Little Monkey Bizness and our party. If you haven't had a chance to see it, click here, to watch!

Sean and I getting ready for the interview (I always get nervous doing these kinds of things!)

Once we finished with that, the kids were ready to move to the big kids area!

A view of the giant play land from the Crawling Area

Ellie took her time getting used to her new surroundings. For a kid with sensory issues, we were surprised by how well she did! Way to go Ellie!

Cita and Ellie taking it all in.

Peek-a-Boo! Elijah found this mirror in the toddlers area and loved it!

Eli

Awesome toddler treehouse to climb through! Wouldn't that be fun in our living room?!?!

Rachel

Elijah also found this fun climbing toy to play on. Such an explorer!

Eli

Who doesn't love a good slide complete with tunnels? It was so fun to see the kids' friends having a blast also!

Braelyn and Morgan taking turns down the slide

More fun!

Morgan

Aly

Rock climbing toy for little people

I never got a clear read on who this guy was, but I know he was an employee (quite helpful!), and he was running around in a monkey outfit. I think he must be the Monkey Mascot! :)

Monkey Mascot and Rachel

Don't these guys look like they are enjoying what exists beyond our living room? "Mom! You didn't tell us it was FUN out in the great big world!" I know kids. Just so you know, I really enjoyed getting out of the house too!

Daddy and Caleb

Mommy and Eli

At the far end of the facility was the whole huge area for older kids. A bounce house and things like that.

Not sure how Uncle Josh managed to get Elijah all the way up in the bounce house to the slide, but he did!

Uncle Josh and Eli

Lots of areas to climb around in!

I can't tell which kids the are from the back. Anyone want to claim them? :)

After about an hour, the kids started to wear out. Abby definitely was ready to move on to the food. I didn't realize until later that I forgot to give them their afternoon snack because of the timing of the party. Oops!

Mommy and Abby

So we moved on to the two connecting party rooms that they set up for us!

They drew this on the chalkboards in each party room. :)

Singing Happy Birthday to the Babies! 

Grandpa (my dad) holding Ellie, Me holding Elijah, Sean holding Caleb, and Pa (Sean's dad) holding Abby

The first party room with hot dogs, chips, and drinks!

The second party room with cupcakes and a few mementos of the babies' first year (since this was the first time a lot of our friends had met them).

Because I forgot to feed them their snack (oops!), the kids snarfed (seriously the best word for it) their food down. Ellie ate two hot dogs, a couple pieces of cheese, and part of a hot dog bun by herself! A few hours later, I discovered that I probably should have held her back at one hot dog, when she emptied the contents of her stomach all over my clothes (oops, again!). Thankfully, we were home at that point. BUT at least they all enjoyed it! Even Abby ate her dinner! :) 

     

Caleb

Abby

Eli and Ellie

Daddy surrounded by his four favorite babies!

And this is the amazing mother/daughter team who worked so hard to make our First Birthday/Introducing our Kids Party absolutely perfect!

Taelor, the General Manager and her mom, Carrie, the owner.

Thank you SO much!

And thank you for making it all the way to the end of this post and celebrating with us in spirit! It was SO nice to be free to take the kids out to Little Monkey Bizness and watch them have so much fun!

I'm thinking we need to head back soon. Anyone want to go with us? :)

Disclaimer Statement: Little Monkey Bizness did not ask us to write about their venue or the party on our blog. They did not in any way reimburse us in exchange for what I wrote above. We had an awesome time celebrating our babies and just wanted to share it with everyone else!

I'm SO excited to write this post! Hence, it wins the award for the most photos ever to be put on our webpage at one time! You've been warned! :)

We have been in full Big Birthday Bash mode over at our house! Even though the kids were born on February 23, we haven't been able to celebrate their big one year milestone with extended family and friends due to their immune systems. We did have a small little gathering of our immediate families the weekend after their birthday, but we saved the big party until last weekend.

It ended up being AWESOME because Little Monkey Bizness in Shawnee Mission, Kansas saw an article in KC Parent Magazine about our family and emailed us last summer. They offered to sponsor the babies' first birthday party in style! And because they had read the article, they understood that we couldn't really do a party on their birthday, so they readily agreed to wait a few extra months until it was safe to take them out!

Okay, I just have to say, I was a little nervous about this whole idea. While it's really neat that a local business wanted to sponsor their first birthday party, it meant that, *gulp* I had to take my babies into a giant play land where other kids had been (what if they had been sick? What if they hadn't washed their hands recently??) and trust that it was going to be a safe place to take them. This was going to be a big stretch for me. Especially since I'd never been there.

When I called to book the party in March, I talked to the General Manager, Taelor. Without me even saying anything, she told me that they wanted to do the following:

• Donate the party to us! HUGE!
• Give us a private party room to eat dinner and cupcakes in! It was actually two big connecting rooms where they set up a line in one room for hot dogs and chips and another for cupcakes. Plenty of seating for everyone and lots of room to move around.
• Allow us to bring our own food in. I had already started brainstorming food and didn't want to pass up on the chance to get to participate as much as possible in the party preparations. I'm so glad because I loved making the babies' cupcakes!
• They shut the facility down to the public so that it was only our guests in the facility. They completely shut it down! Taelor told me that they wanted me to feel comfortable allowing my kids to play and not worry other people or germs.
• Taelor also offered to re-clean the play area just prior to our party so that is was squeaky clean. They didn't want us to worry AT ALL!

Uh...WOW!!

So, I signed on for all of it (seriously, who could turn down an offer like that?!) and got ready to party!! And what a blessing to me to have nothing to worry about. I was already in love with Little Monkey Bizness, and I hadn't even been inside the doors yet!

It was the best first birthday party ever! It was as great as the list above makes it sound! Nothing was left undone! The staff were incredibly accommodating and friendly, even going so far as to set up our food for us. The mother/daughter team (Carrie is the owner/Taelor is the General Manager) who run the facility both showed up to celebrate the event with us. Since it was on Saturday evening, I'm sure they had other things to do, but they both were just as excited as we were with our big milestone! The play land had areas for crawlers and bigger kids, perfect for letting our kids warm up slowly and move into the bigger area.

But for me, being the NICU mommy that I am, the best thing by far was how spotless it was. It was the cleanest kid place I've ever been to...ever! One of the other mom's who came used to manage another kid party place sort of like Little Monkey Bizness. She made a point of coming up to tell me that she was incredibly impressed with how clean it was and was actually having a blast herself even though she is an adult. I know for a fact that this place goes out of it's way to keep it clean for everyone  (not just us), because it has a reputation of being that on top of it! Yeah, I'm spending a lot of time talking about how clean it was, but for me, that was my main concern right from the beginning. The place was as clean as if I had done it myself...and we have stock in Clorox wipes at this point!

So, between me and my brother Mike, we took around 300 photos. I don't want to overload you, so I've narrowed them down to my favorite....40. Hehe!

Waiting just before our time slot began: Let's get this party started! 

Ma holding Abby and Ellie, and Me holding Caleb and Elijah

Ready. Set. PLAY! We started out in the crawlers area to give the kids time to warm up.

Ellie and Abby. You can tell Abby was ready to get to it!

Braelyn and Bailey with Eli, Beth, Ellie, and Abby P. in the background

To much to do to hold still long enough for Mommy to take a photo!

Abby, Daddy, and I think that's Caleb. :)

Abby taking a little break with Mommy

Some of the sweetest friends in the world! I could go on and on about how these women have invested in our kids lives, but if you read our blog, you've already seen their names and photos pop up several times. :)

Sarah (the other Sarah), Keri, Sarah (the sister-in-law) holding the other Sarah's daughter, Rachel, and Beth (Thanks, friends, for lining up in a way that made it really confusing to label this photo! LOL!)

And then Channel 41 came out to do a news clip on Little Monkey Bizness and our party. If you haven't had a chance to see it, click here, to watch!

Sean and I getting ready for the interview (I always get nervous doing these kinds of things!)

Once we finished with that, the kids were ready to move to the big kids area!

A view of the giant play land from the Crawling Area

Ellie took her time getting used to her new surroundings. For a kid with sensory issues, we were surprised by how well she did! Way to go Ellie!

Cita and Ellie taking it all in.

Peek-a-Boo! Elijah found this mirror in the toddlers area and loved it!

Eli

Awesome toddler treehouse to climb through! Wouldn't that be fun in our living room?!?!

Rachel

Elijah also found this fun climbing toy to play on. Such an explorer!

Eli

Who doesn't love a good slide complete with tunnels? It was so fun to see the kids' friends having a blast also!

Braelyn and Morgan taking turns down the slide

More fun!

Morgan

Aly

Rock climbing toy for little people

I never got a clear read on who this guy was, but I know he was an employee (quite helpful!), and he was running around in a monkey outfit. I think he must be the Monkey Mascot! :)

Monkey Mascot and Rachel

Don't these guys look like they are enjoying what exists beyond our living room? "Mom! You didn't tell us it was FUN out in the great big world!" I know kids. Just so you know, I really enjoyed getting out of the house too!

Daddy and Caleb

Mommy and Eli

At the far end of the facility was the whole huge area for older kids. A bounce house and things like that.

Not sure how Uncle Josh managed to get Elijah all the way up in the bounce house to the slide, but he did!

Uncle Josh and Eli

Lots of areas to climb around in!

I can't tell which kids the are from the back. Anyone want to claim them? :)

After about an hour, the kids started to wear out. Abby definitely was ready to move on to the food. I didn't realize until later that I forgot to give them their afternoon snack because of the timing of the party. Oops!

Mommy and Abby

So we moved on to the two connecting party rooms that they set up for us!

They drew this on the chalkboards in each party room. :)

Singing Happy Birthday to the Babies! 

Grandpa (my dad) holding Ellie, Me holding Elijah, Sean holding Caleb, and Pa (Sean's dad) holding Abby

The first party room with hot dogs, chips, and drinks!

The second party room with cupcakes and a few mementos of the babies' first year (since this was the first time a lot of our friends had met them).

Because I forgot to feed them their snack (oops!), the kids snarfed (seriously the best word for it) their food down. Ellie ate two hot dogs, a couple pieces of cheese, and part of a hot dog bun by herself! A few hours later, I discovered that I probably should have held her back at one hot dog, when she emptied the contents of her stomach all over my clothes (oops, again!). Thankfully, we were home at that point. BUT at least they all enjoyed it! Even Abby ate her dinner! :) 

     

Caleb

Abby

Eli and Ellie

Daddy surrounded by his four favorite babies!

And this is the amazing mother/daughter team who worked so hard to make our First Birthday/Introducing our Kids Party absolutely perfect!

Taelor, the General Manager and her mom, Carrie, the owner.

Thank you SO much!

And thank you for making it all the way to the end of this post and celebrating with us in spirit! It was SO nice to be free to take the kids out to Little Monkey Bizness and watch them have so much fun!

I'm thinking we need to head back soon. Anyone want to go with us? :)

Disclaimer Statement: Little Monkey Bizness did not ask us to write about their venue or the party on our blog. They did not in any way reimburse us in exchange for what I wrote above. We had an awesome time celebrating our babies and just wanted to share it with everyone else!