The Ruder the Better: Everett & Sullivan celebrate their first birthday!

Here's a fun video of the boys when they were about 3 months old. It's hard to believe these tiny little babies are now busy 1 year olds.

A little over a week ago we celebrated the boys' first birthday. We spent their actual birthday with just our little family unit hanging out at the Pirate's Hollow Pool in Port. The next day we did a ton of cleaning and organizing for the party. As most parents know, it's tough to keep the place clean with kids around. So we decided to take the kids down to Bastille Days since their tio and tia would be there. To our surprise we ran into my parents there too. It was hot but everyone had a good time eating and dancing.

The boys' party was on Sunday afternoon. We invited mainly family and a couple of friends. The boys were lucky to have both sets of grandparents attend, as well as their tio and tia (Lindsey & Andrés), Aunt Kathleen, Uncle Andy, and some of their great aunts and uncles, cousins etc. It's definitely nice to be close enough to be able to have family at these events. I can't describe the feeling of seeing such a beautiful relationship develop between my kids and their grandparents and family that they get to see on a regular basis.

Since Wisconsin is in the middle of a major heat wave we filled up the water table, water pool and slip n' slide for the kids to play with. Everyone feasted on some of the best brats I've ever had which are made at Bernie's in downtown Port Washington. Bernie's is one of my favorite local businesses in town. We also served my Mom's famous beans, fresh fruit, and other side dishes. I made both cakes for the two birthday parties Sofia has had so far but for this party I ordered the boys' cakes. We were camping the weekend before and I didn't feel confident in my ability to decorate the cakes according to the "Thing 1 Thing 2" theme. Everett loved his smash cake and destroyed it within seconds. Sullivan was a bit intimidated by the crowd of people singing to him but he still seemed to enjoy a bite or two of cake. Sullivan was much more comfortable with the small family celebration we had on his actual birthday.

Here are some pictures from the event.