ADOPTION PARTY!

As promised, we threw our 2nd biggest party (the first being our wedding of course) to celebrate becoming a forever family on December 3rd, 2015! Honestly it was more than I ever could have asked for, everything was absolutely perfect. We had numerous friends travel from out of town, some as far as Wisconsin to celebrate with us. I know I shouldn't be surprised by our support system after the last 2 years but I am still delighted and surprised that I had so many people come out to celebrate with us!

The party was at McCormick Stillman Railroad Park - a big, big thank you to Jeff and Jenn for booking the party for us (Scottsdale residents get a pretty large discount)! Jon's sister, Amy, did all the decorations. When she offered I was hoping for a couple streamers and balloons, what I got was so much more that can't be explained in words. 

The guest book - I love her homemade table runner!

Homemade tulle balls hanging!

Love It, Cherish It, Take It!

Somehow I missed taking a picture of the beautiful entrance with balloons on each side and a "Lyons" banner.

She also made an awesome photo booth!

My sister's family

College friends

Our Forever Family!

A huge thank you to Amy for outdoing all expectations I had on the decorations, we got so many compliments!

My sister also outdid herself with the cake. I asked for something similar to this. This is what she took from that picture:

It's all cake!

Details - down to Maggie's different colored eyes!

Thank you for the amazing cake, Lisa!

Jon and I both had speeches to thank everyone for all their love and support over the last 818 days. The kid's lawyer even showed up! The kids had a blast riding tricycles, jumping in the bounce house, and riding the train! Even some adults joined in the bounce house and train riding fun!

Grandma jumping with Jaxson!

The party flew by too fast for me but I had more fun than I could have imagined! Since so many people came from out of town, we had a small after party at our house after the kids went to bed. The plan was to have s'mores but as usual time got away from us so we just sat around the fire, reminiscing and drinking. It was the perfect end to the most perfect party.

Purple Drinks

Panda costumes = great night!

Thank you to everyone who celebrated with us. Thank you for everyone who helped throw an awesome party. Thank you for your love over the last 2 years! We hope we can raise these two children to make everyone proud!

You only get 1 first birthday so make it a good one!

Our twins just had their first birthday and of course we had to throw them their first birthday party! In a couple of books I read, it said to keep it small, don't overwhelm baby. Just a couple of people baby knows really well, that's all you need. Welllll I couldn't figure out how to cut our guest list so 50 people were invited! About 40 showed up and because our kids are all-stars, they did absolutely amazing!

I wanted to make it feel like a kid's party versus our normal adult parties so I made some decorations:

I also made beer labels for Jon's homemade beer - I posted those on a previous update Beer Labels. They were adorable on all the bottles! I also made a collage for each baby with a picture from each month. My sister made 4 cakes, yes I said 4! She made one small cake for each baby and one large cake for each baby. All of them in the shape of Mickey or Minnie heads. I would post a picture of their cuteness but they have their names on them.

The party was a lot of fun, the only downside was we had it set up outside due to the number of people invited and it was a little on the hot side. Most people just dealt with it and enjoyed the party.

The twins cake smash was priceless. Baby girl just kept stuffing more and more cake into her mouth. She was a happy girl, even licked the frosting off her fingers. Baby boy also very much enjoyed the cake but he was confused as to why so many people were watching him eat.

Definitely a memorable day!