The Big Birthday Bash!

Garage Banner made by Christine Woods (the same creative genius that designed my nursery)

After weeks of planning, preparing and baking, the day of the big birthday bash arrived! We really wanted to do something for the babies birthday that included everyone who had helped us out this past year. Making it through the first year is a huge milestone, and I know we wouldn't have been able to do it on our own. When I started making the guest list, I was amazed at the number of people who had helped our family in some way this past year. I send out 223 Evite invitations, and (unfortunately) I still missed some people, which I felt really bad about!

When I first sent out the invitations, I had no idea of how many people to expect! I thought we would probably get around 100 people at the party. But the RSVP list kept growing, and we ended up with around 187 people at the party!

We also had a lot of family here for the celebration. My brother, Ryan, who is on break from dental school came for a week. He was great to entertain Riley and Kaiya by taking them to the pool, movies, McDonald's, etc. so we could get things ready for the party. My sister, Tiare, was also here. She has been living with us for several weeks this summer as my "Quint Nanny". My mom flew in 1 1/2 weeks before the party to help me out (she is great at party planning). My aunt Jeanie and her daughter Kiera also flew in from Arizona to be here for the babies birthday. Jeanie is the one who took care of me and my family while I was on bedrest in Arizona. She also let us completely take over her house when the babies came home from the hospital. She is so amazing, and I am so glad that she got to be here for the big day!

The party was so much fun. The babies looked totally adorable in their coordinating outfits. My mom found outfits in all their colors when she took a trip to Hawaii. My cousin, Kiera, did the girls hair. Unfortunately, things were so busy at the party, that we didn't get very many pictures of the babies! My mom did snap a few before the bulk of the people arrived.

Kassidy, Rustin and Kaydence--Not quite sure what the fuss is all about!

Kassidy

Ryder

Kaydence

The party was "come and go". There was a "Quint Quiz" trivia game with questions posted throughout the house (If you want to check your Wilkinson Quint IQ, I have listed all the questions in the post following this one). There was also lots of food. I started making rolls for sandwiches about two weeks before the party and freezing them. I have to admit that I got a little bit carried away---every time I made a batch we ended up eating some, plus I undercooked the first batch, so I kept thinking that I needed to make more to compensate. I think in the end I made about 300 rolls. Fortunately they freeze well and no one in my family is sick of them, despite how many we have eaten lately!

Besides ham and cheese and chicken salad sandwiches, we had chips, several different appetizers brought by friends, cookies, ice cream and of course cake. The ice cream was provided by Dreyer's. I entered an essay contest for a Dreyer's Slow Churned ice cream party and I was a grand prize winner! They actually give away 1,500 "grand prizes", so it isn't quite as prestigious as it sounds, but hey---its free ice cream!!

Here are some pictures of the food and decorations:

The Food

High Chair Decorations. After the babies were born, my mom's friends threw her a "Quint Mimi" shower. The gal that hosted the shower made the baby cut-outs and signs. They are so cute, I was glad to have an excuse to use them again.

The Family Room

Another angle of the Family Room

The crib room--the signs on the cribs were part of the trivia game.

The Cake

Of course, the cake eating was the highlight of the night! We all sang happy birthday and each baby got a cupcake frosted in "their" color. Rustin was the first to dive right in. Ryder immediately started crying (so typical of their personalities!!!) The girls were all a little unsure of what to do. I love how my sister-in-law, Tobi, described in on her blog. She said, "If this had been a Quint Olympics then Rustin would have won hands down. He was the first to grab his cupcake and smother the life out of it. So funny to see them all clutching those cupcakes until they resembled play-dough!" Eventually everyone figured things out and made a pretty good mess of themselves!

Ryder, Kassidy, Kaydence, Kyndall and Rustin, moments after getting their cupcakes.

"Yum! I get it now!"

Kassidy

Kaydence

Rustin

Kyndall

Ryder

After most of the guests had gone and we had cleaned up the cake aftermath, we let the babies open a couple of presents.

Like most one-year olds, they were more interested in the tissue paper than the actual present :-)

All in all, it was a great day!

The Big Birthday Bash!