happy first birthday, Leila and Alyssa!

It was a dark and stormy night...
Strike that.
It was a grey and rainy afternoon...
Yeah, that's got it!
No matter, though. We had all gathered at Michael and Melanie's to celebrate the first birthday of their twin girls.
My great-nieces!
Leila came up to greet me as I came in the door, with a smile on her face and her arms up. She sure did! She and I imprinted in the hospital. We did! I think we would recognize each other anywhere!
Leila is the one that takes after her dad, my nephew. Alyssa, the slightly older and slightly larger of the fraternal pair, looks more like her mom. They're both beautiful!
I'll let them tell you about the party.
(smile!)

Here we both are,
gathered around
Grammy Melinda.
We've been opening
gifts and this is
nearly the last one!
What's in the bag??
That butterfly-bedecked bag??
What's there for us??

Oh, look!
It's a book!
How wonderful,
we love books!
What book is it?
Oh, it's G'Aunt Tina's book!
"Got Pumpkin?"
Yes, we do now!
What a pretty green cover!

Oh, more gifts?
In heart-shaped boxes, too!
Haha, Mom thought it was candy!
No, it's jewelry inside!
They're pretty beaded bracelets
with silver elephants!
And there's a joke, too,
about an elephant painting
his toenails!
Hahaha haha!

Then it was finally time for cake!
We had played and played with the ball pit Aunt Christina and Uncle Jason gave us!
Aunt Chelsea even sat in it with us, tossing balls through all the holes!
Such fun!
The grilled hamburgers, the baked beans, the potato salad and the pasta salad had been eaten until everyone was about to pOp!
Such good food!
But now it was time for those butterfly cupcakes made especially for us by Aunt Christina and Grammy!
And we got to eat them all by ourselves in these nice high chairs!
Grammy and GiGi and Nana couldn't seem to get enough pictures of us!
Such fun!

Thank you,
Grandpa Matt,
for coming
to our party!
Thank you,
GiGi and Pop
McEwen!

Thank you,
Grammy Melinda,
for making the
pretzel butterflys
for our cupcakes!
Thank you,
Nana and Grandpa
Johnson for
sharing this day
with us!

Time for us to have our baths and get into our jammies.
Maybe Mom or Dad will read one of our new books tonight?
Hope we can stay awake long enough to hear the end...
(yyaaaWWWWnnnn!)
Good night, everyone!
Thank you again for coming to our party!