Birthday Parties!

There was never any doubt that my son is loved, especially in the wake of grief we all experienced after the loss of our twins. Seeing family and friends come together to celebrate Maxwell's 1st birthday was seeing love in action. 

We had two parties, one at home and one at my sister's (approx 4 hrs north in NY) so that both sides of our families and our closest friends could celebrate. The NJ party was the smaller if the two with just the our immediate families and a couple of local friends where as the NY party was a bit bigger with family and friends from my side. Neither was elaborate, just a simple lunch, yummy cake or cupcakes, a few balloons and lots of love. 

I was to busy enjoying the days to take many pictures but we do have a few...

NJ Party

Cupcakes!

Balloons are fun!

Smash cake...oh yeah!

NY Party

Auntie Kim's handy work 

Lots of help from the big kids at present time!

On Maxwell's actual birthday day we went out for breakfast and he got a special treat (whip cream with sprinkles)

Then we went to the zoo but didn't stay long because it was insanely hot. We went for ice cream to cool off afterwords.

Look at those silly animals!

Favorites were the tortoise and sea lions

Both parties and Maxwell's birthday were fun and low key. The only thing missing were the big brothers we wish had gotten to celebrate their birthdays. The funk of missing the twins hit the days after the parties. I was glad we could focus on Maxwell for both parties with out a cloud of sadness distracting from the birthday boy. They were definitely missed though...always will be.

I still can't figure out how my tiny baby has grown so much and turned 1...time is going way too fast!