Our first double birthday. Allison is 3 and Natalie is 1

Please enjoy way too many pictures from Allison and Natalie's double Birthday.

This fun Saturday started out like this....Natalie full of smiles and her older sisters so excited to get ready to go to lunch at Five Guys for yummy burgers and fries. What could be better?

Well, maybe not having to wear coats would have been better because it was still that cold....oh wait, it kind of still is. I'm sick of cold weather and I am ready for Ithaca to turn into a pretty green place again.

This place goes something like this....Get to the counter and order what size of burger you want and then tell them exactly what you do and do not want on it. Then order some yummy fries to go along with it. Find a table and go get some yummy peanuts to entertain you while you wait for your burger to get cooked. Allison gets sick of trying to open the peanuts sometimes and just pops the whole thing in, salty shell and all. Natalie is at the bottom of the picture, very relaxingly enjoying a bottle in her old baby car seat.

Once Natalie got done with her bottle she was ready to join us at the table. She's can reach pretty far so we could not leave anything even near her. But if you look in her left hand you can see the yummy French fry that she is enjoying.

Allison made funny faces when she was drinking from her straw.

My biggest birthday girl and me. Allison had been so excited for her birthday and she was such a sweetheart all day! She was also very sweet about sharing her birthday with Natalie. The 3rd birthday is always fun because they really understand that it's going to be special day and they get to look forward to it for weeks and really get excited about it!

Natalie enjoyed getting a drink of water from daddies straw while sucking on her cute little fingers.

I had fun decorating two caked the day before. Well actually 3 but one was not as cute. I had convinced Allison to want a watermelon cake since she was requesting exactly the same princess castle cake that Evelyn just had on her last birthday. She took a little convincing but I gave her a few other ideas and this is what she chose.

When I was decorating it Evelyn asked me who took a bite out of the cake. Glad that she thought the "bite" looked like a bite. What's a piece of watermelon without a bite out of it anyway?

I got a fun idea from a friend of making a "block cake" for a first Birthday. Thanks Brooke! I wish it had turned out a little more perfectly square but what can you expect from a cake made of 4 layers. Especially if the 4th layer is actually two scrap pieces that you didn't think you'd need until you realized that your planned on 3 layers was not quite tall enough to make a square. So I improvised and it didn't turn out quite as square as I would have liked.

The block had a "N" on top for Natalie, a 1 on front for turning one and an "A" on the sides for the first of the alphabet or for Asay, you choose.

The two cakes together.

Allison wanted pancakes for dinner so we made yummy buttermilk pancakes and topped them with strawberry yogurt, fresh strawberries and whipped cream. As you can imagine Allison requested just whipped cream for her second pancake since that was her favorite part on the first one. Also, the girls rip up the pancakes and spread them out in a circle around the outside of their plates. Kind of funny but it makes them harder to top.

She really enjoyed her dinner.

Natalie thought that strawberry yogurt covered pancakes were pretty good....until

I put whipped cream on her second one and then she thought that whipped cream was pretty good all by itself and it was actually pretty easy for her to pick up. So funny!

After dinner we had a few friends over to help us celebrate and lots of cake and ice cream.

The punching balloons were used as such for a while and then they became tails....But soon one tail was not enough but 5 were. Funny sweet girls!

Such a fun sweet happy little birthday girl! She is a happy walker and she is getting pretty fast at running away from me in the halls at church.

Natalie was a little overwhelmed with all the friends. She wanted to be involved and would go to wherever the kids were playing and then she'd get a little nervous of the kids everywhere and come running back to me.

Thanks to the friends who helped up celebrate!

My sweet big 3 year old girl!

Making a funny face, not sure why.

Evelyn was right along side Allison for all of her fun. Cake, presents and everything! There girls are the best little buddies it's so fun to watch them play together.

My sweet little one year old girl!

She really got a good grip on the cake plate and I had a hard time getting it away from her. She really wanted it. I just didn't want her to burn her little fingers on the candles like Evelyn did on her first birthday.

No smiles from Natalie but at least she is looking right at the camera.

Now get ready for a serious picture overload of Natalie eating her little smash cake! She was way too cute and my friend Natalie was so nice to take so many adorable pictures of her while I was cutting and serving the other two cakes. Thanks Natalie, you did awesome!

"Should I really just dig in and try this whole little cake in front of me?"

"Sure, just a little try won't hurt."

"Hum, these little pieces of frosting aren't so bad, maybe I'll try a few more."

"Is this really okay with mom and dad and they're just going to stand by and watch and smile and laugh and take picture, really?"

"Cool, I could get used to this."

"Caught in the act of shoving a good bite in and they're still okay with this? Wow."

"Alright I guess I'll keep going."

"Yeah, not too bad."

Finally Scott cut a smaller piece of the cake for her so that she could actually get to the cake too instead of just the frosting. I mean the frosting was pretty good, but that little cake had a lot on it.

"Oh, the messy brown part inside is pretty good too!"

Does she look like she's enjoying herself? I think she definitely was!

"Ice cream....sure, why not just use my hands? I'm doing all sorts of things I've never been allowed to do before.....not bad."

"My hand is starting to get kind of cold."

"That's yummy, maybe I should just shove the whole bite in my mouth since my little hand is getting cold."

"Um, yeah, I guess that made my little mouth pretty cold too, and my little brain."

"Okay, that was fun but I'm getting tired." This was one of the first times that she sucked her thumb without her blanket and crib....it's becoming a little more of a habit but she doesn't totally mind when I pull it out. And she doesn't usually put it back in either.

Allison is trying to cut her cake up with a spoon.

She of course loved eating her pink watermelon cake and ice cream that had pink strawberry swirled in it.

Can you tell which present Natalie was most excited about? She loved it when I put the little jingly-smiley face ball inside of the two smallest stacking bowls snapped together into a ball.

Going for some of the bigger bowls snapped together.

Back to the little purple ones with the jingly ball inside.

Allison loved opening all her presents and she was the center of attention for a while.

Very excited about the PEZ that Evelyn picked out for her. Come to think of it, I have no idea where that went that night after she used one candy pack in it. I'm sure it will show up sometime.

Some spelling with pictures and letters puzzles and some numbers puzzles.

Children's song book from Grandma Asay. There are a few songs that we know that Scott grew up having his mom and Grandma Hamilton sing to him. We'll have to learn the rest so we can sing some more fun new songs. Thanks Grandma!

Not sure what she was opening.....maybe the small fishing game.

Beadable blocks from Melissa and Doug. She loves these but they probably would be even better for a 2 1/2 year old. Since they're so big she can do them pretty fast but she still loves them. She also liked to string them and have me tie it together for a very big necklace.

Finally she got someone to open the small purple bowls ball and get out the jingly smiley face ball.....and then she played with it for a few days straight. She loves it. Thanks Grandma Asay....How did you ever know she'd like it so much?

Funny thing is she's played with the set before but never with the yellow ball and that was her favorite part.

Allison had plenty of help opening her gifts. Here her friend Emma is helping her get a cute outfit that matches the one Evelyn got on her birthday out of a bag. Allison was so excited to be able to match her sister! Glad they're not sick of it yet because I love it when they match. Thanks Grandma Sjoblom!

These snuggly pajamas have been worn the majority of the nights since her birthday. Only if she's worn them way too many nights and they are waiting for the next load of laundry has she not worn them. Thanks Grandma Sjoblom! They're so cozy and really it's still pretty cold here so I'm glad she has new warm pj's that she loves!

Natalie really loved the little yellow jingly ball!

And she played with it the rest of the night.

Even when we were trying to get her to rip wrapping paper off of one of her other presents.

Then she decided to try to eat it.

After the friends left Allison put on her new pj's and started playing with the stringable blocks. She and Evelyn had a lot of fun playing with them for a few minutes before bed.

Serious concentration!

Showing me what she was doing.