Brooke and Brecklyn are Five Years Old!

Who can believe my precious twinbies are FIVE years old?!? They are, for sure, no longer toddlers, but are now BIG kids. They are the age that Brianna was when they were born 😢.

I wrote a whole post about Brooke and Brecklyn getting bunk beds as their birthday gift this year. They were THRILLED with this, and we were all happy with how cute everything looked in their bedroom. 

Because they knew they were getting new beds for their birthday, they didn't really have a wish list of items they wanted as gifts. They did, however, have quite a wish list of things they wanted to do for their birthday! This is the first year that I can really remember them having a definite opinion about what they wanted to eat and do to celebrate. 

We began their birthday celebration the Saturday prior to their birthday (which was on a Monday this year). A few years ago, we decided to stop having large parties for birthdays, but instead have a few friends and family over for a more low-key time. Brooke and Brecklyn requested that we invite Grampy, G-Jo, Russ, Lisa, Chloe Jo, Ross, Tia, Sadie, and Caroline over for the evening. We kept it super simple with pizza, fruit, and cupcakes!

Caroline, Brecklyn, Brooke, and Sadie

Brianna and Chloe Jo

The girls were so tickled when we all sang Happy Birthday to them, and they got to blow out their candles.

Brecklyn

Brooke

I realized when I was looking through photos that somehow I missed getting any photos of Grampy and G-Jo. You can kind of see Grampy eating ice cream in the photo below, though :-).

Russ, Brianna, Chloe, and Lisa

The twins were quite excited to open a few gifts after we had cupcakes!

They didn't realize until this moment that they'd have a few presents that evening!

Brooke, Brecklyn

Like I said above, their birthday was on a Monday this year. They woke up to the hearth and mantle all decorated with gifts and balloons like we always do.

For breakfast, Daddy made them pancakes and fruit with a bit of whipped cream. These are for sure their, "We are so excited because it's our birthday!" faces!

It's so hard to believe how big my girls are! FIVE WHOLE YEARS!

Brooke

Brecklyn

This may be my favorite photo from this photo shoot. It really shows their personalities!

Sweet twinbies <3

Momma and her twin baby girls

One of the things that the girls were most excited about for their birthday was having cupcakes at school. They felt like everyone in their class had already had their birthday (and that was mostly true), and that their day would never come. G-Jo and I brought cupcakes and drinks to their class about 40 minutes before dismissal (which is at 10:30am). 

Brecklyn and Brooke

So excited to have Momma at school!

While G-Jo and I set out plates, napkins, drinks, and cupcakes, the girls' teacher, Mrs. C, read the class a story.

They just knew they were the most special girls because G-Jo came to visit their class!

In addition to eating cupcakes with their classmates, Brooke and Brecklyn really, really wanted to eat lunch with Daddy "at his work". Chris and I planned it, but Brecklyn kept asking if he would have a meeting or something while we were there. She was concerned that she wouldn't get his undivided attention! 

Brecklyn and Brooke love visiting downtown Tulsa!

Daddy picked up food for us from Billy's (my favorite!), signed us in as visitors, and we ate in his break area. 

Momma and Brecklyn

Daddy and Brooke

After the girls finished eating, they sat down to do some light reading in the break area. It made us laugh so much!

They loved being with Daddy at work!

We visited Daddy in his office for just a little while, then we all walked over to a donut shop a few blocks from the building where Chris works. They have a large selection of unique donuts, and it was a tough choice for the birthday girls!

Brooke finally decided on a birthday cake donut (fitting!),

while Brecklyn went with a simple chocolate sprinkle donut!

The best part of this little outing was not actually the donuts. Rather, it was the girls absolutely breaking it down when a Beastie Boys song came on. They both jumped up and danced with all their hearts. We were cracking up and so were the employees and other customers. I love how little ones don't get embarrassed or worry about what others think of them.

YUM!

Daddy had to get back to work after all the fun, so I took the girls and headed toward home. We were just a few minutes down the road when I realized the birthday girls were taking a little nap. I guess all the fun was tiring!

That evening, Brooke and Brecklyn requested that I make chili and hot dogs for dinner. We always let the kids choose what they want to eat on their birthdays, and while chili and hot dogs were easy for me, I was surprised that they asked for it. 

For dessert, they wanted brownies since they had already had cupcakes on Saturday and at school that morning. A cupcake, a donut, and a brownie all in one day? Only for the birthday girls!

We sang to them so they could blow out a candle again.

In the past, if the kids have a birthday on a school day, we let them open their gifts in the morning before school. Since the twins had already received their big gift (the bunk beds) and opened a few things on Saturday evening, we made them wait to open the other gifts. They were ready by the time we finished dinner.

New pull-over jackets!

I love how they watched each other open things while they were opening their own packages.

And of course, they worked together, too!

They received quite a few joint Christmas and birthday gifts, and it has never bothered them yet. I hope they are always this way. 

Opening a few new Calico Critters was the cause of some great excitement!

Then, of course, they had to sit down and discuss what each other opened :-).

Their last request of the day was to go upstairs and watch a show with their siblings before bed. Once they had a bath and got into their pjs, we let them do just that. They rarely get to watch anything on TV on a school night, so this was a special thing. 

I think it's safe to say that these two little ladies had a great day! There had been so much anticipation for their birthday that I was a little afraid it might not live up to all the hype. Thankfully, I was wrong about that. We were able to do just what they wanted, and they enjoyed every bit of it!