Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Twins' Play Dates

Our twins' first friends when they were only about eighteen months old and in day care, were another set of boy / girl twins who are only a few months older. The four kids have continued to be friends ever since that, despite going to different schools. Our daughters go to dance class together, and our sons will be playing baseball on the same team with their dads as co-coaches.

We have had double play dates, whole family visits to each other's homes, and split play dates - the boys go to one house and the girls to the over. Then, the next time we switch. This time it was our turn to host the boys. They almost wore me out last time we hosted them!

But now it seems that due to a scheduling conflict, only the girls will be able to get together. Unfortunately, my daughter just had a play date with a school friend, and my son has been waiting to have one of his own, but it has been difficult pinning one down from the kids' parents. Of course, this is difficult for a six year old to understand, especially when his friends have been inviting him. So my wife spoke to the twins' mom and suggested that it wouldn't be fair to our son if our daughter had another play date by herself. Our friend totally understood (because she has twins of her own) and so we are going to try to coordinate a different get together for the families, even if it is not a full play date. This is definitely a twins issue!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Our Twins' Birthday Party Update

Some of you may have read my recently published article in Twins Magazine. It was about planning birthday parties for twins, and I recounted each of our twins' birthday celebrations for the first few years. In the article, I also mentioned that we were in the midst of planning their 6th birthday party, a combined affair taking place at a trampoline centre. Here is an update on how that went. The party was very successful. Both my son and daughter, and apparently most or all of their attending friends, really enjoyed it! The party consisted of an hour of trampoline time, with fifteen children taking turns on six tramps. There was also a fun performance by the instructors, jumping and flipping over our twins, who were lying on their backs looking at the action above them. I guess that is why they require that all parents sign a waiver for their child. Afterwards, we had some snacks and the birthday cakes. Each of our children chose a theme for their cake as well as the flavour. My son had a chocolate cake decorated with Lego Ninjago. My daughter had a half chocolate / half vanilla cake with Hello Kitty decorations. We sang each of them "Happy Birthday" separately. The snacks included grape kebobs (put together by my wife and mother-in-law), watermelon, cheese strings, pretzels, popcorn, red licorice sticks, and bottled water. It was mid-afternoon so it allowed us to avoid having to serve a full lunch. We brought a marker to label the waters with each child's name. So, as I wrote in the original article, we were once again able to combine our twins' birthday parties. Whether this will happen again next year is anyone's guess. But I wouldn't hesitate to go back to the trampoline centre for a future party.