Olivia and Malaya's Special Day

So my children are very blessed to have their birthdays right around Christmas, Malaya is in November and Olivia is in January, so it seems like for 3 months it is an awesome fun time of celebrating and getting together with friends and family and lots of presents but then there is this 9 month lag with some holidays, which we make as special as possible, but nohting specifically celebrating our babies. Now as most of you know we wished and prayed for these little miracles for quite some time so we truly feel so thankful everyday for them so to pick another day to do something special and give them a present just to tell them again how much we love them and how much they mean to us......pretty much a no brainer so we made July 22 Olivia and Malaya's Special Day!!!


DISCLAIMER

Now we know that presents are not important and we focus on the real meaning of Christmas and definately tell them the story of how hard we prayed and what little miracles they are on their birthdays but let's face it kids like presents and again let's face it how much fun is it to get a bike in December or January when it mostly pours rain all the time and you have to wait months to use it....right? So although presents are not the focus of "special day" they are definatley a part of it and if I am being brutally honest my kids don't get a lot of extra gifts and special things out side of birthday's and Christmas from family, so if you think we are spoiling them I am okay with that just wanted to make a little disclaimer before I start receiving emails wondering why we feel the need to do an extra "special day" for our kids......we want to and we are going to and if you don't like it too bad and don't read on any further. :)

Angel had some vacation time coming so he took 6 days off over the weekend of the 22nd so we could do some fun things with the kids everyday and really have a mini vacation here at home. We went to the park, and did a fun shopping day, we went swimming in the pool here and just enjoyed our time together as a family. Now my kids love the water and so we were thinking that the water park at cornwall park would be awesome for their special day so we planned the water park and then a picnic and then to Olive Garden for dinner becasue they both love the Olive Garden. Of course wouldn't you know it it was cool and cloudy on the 22nd so plans changed.

We decided to do chuck e cheese and then have the picnic at home for dinner. So the day started with a special breakfast of colored pancakes, pink for Liv and blue for Malaya, and then they got their presents. Malaya got a huge bag of Lego blocks which he kept wanting everytime we were in the store and Olivia got a dollhouse. They were really excited and loved their gifts but we needed to get ready for church so we got ready and then off we went to church. After church we headed to Burlington for lunch at Chuck e cheese. They really like it their and they go crazy for chuck e. We played a bit, had lunch and then played some more. Every time chuck e the mechanical one that comes out on the stage would come out they would go crazy!! So I thought let's have chuck e , the real one, bring out a cake for them for their special day so after a little explanation they had chuck e bring out the cake. Now for some reason they were not nearly as excited about the really chuck e as the stage one.....but they loved seeing him and enjoyed their cake then it was time to head home.

Once we got home, naps happened in the car which we definately needed, they played with their new presents and I fixed our picnic for the living room. They love picnics and eating on the floor in the living room is a real crowd pleaser with those 2 so that's what we did. After our picnic we just played and then it was time for jammies and bed. They had a pretty full day and were exhausted.

For the next couple days Angel had remaining off we did the Mc DOnald's playland and the library and then finally on Tuesday the weather was nice enough so we went to the water park which they LOVED!!! So all in all it was a great mini vacation and we really enjoyed doing their "special day". Angel and I cannot Praise Jesus enough for the blessing those 2 kids are and we truly are so grateful to have them. I hope we make them feel special everyday but on July 22nd we will always celebrate a little extra for the gift of these 2 amazing children and offer up praise and thanksgiving to our heavenly Father for the blessing he has given us.

Here are some pictures.......enjoy!!