“Let Them Eat Cake!”
Happy 1st Birthday Henry, Brooks, Clark, and Isaac!
We had an awesome time celebrating LIFE today! We started off the day singing “Happy Birthday” to the boys (individually, of coarse) in their cribs, prayed in their exact time of birth (12:33pm-12:35pm) with our parents, and celebrated with close family this afternoon. I have lots, lots more to share, but here’s what you’ve been waiting for – THE CAKE!!!! For those of you who have known me pre-quads, you’ll know that I’m not really into “mess”, so this was a stretch for me (God’s sense of humor coming through giving me 4 BOYS!), but it was worth every “bite”.
(These pictures were taken Thursday for our 1 year photo shoot….today we opted for CUPCAKES!)
Brooks enjoyed playing with the icing like play dough, more than eating it! He also ended up sitting on his cake!
Clark caught on very quickly and went straight for the middle of the cake! YUM!
Isaac looked like a kid at Disney World. He smiled like this the entire time!
5 Lessons Learned from 4 Babies Devoring Cake:
1. Plan Ahead….4 Individual Cakes should be ordered ahead of time…I found only 3 at Marsh the night before the pictures and then saw a lady pushing a cart around the store with my 4th cake. How dare she! I thought about taking her out and making off with the cake, but I just didn’t have the energy.
2. Be prepared for the biggest mess EVER! I think our bathtub is still a blue tint.
3. Even if it’s snowing outside use a garden hose. This icing must have been dyed Crisco – it didn’t really wash off, it just spread like butter all over their skin.
4. Never let your husband go to work during pictures. You owe me, Brad. =) =)
5. Much to my suprise, babies are capable of sleeping after ingesting sugar. Thank goodness!
A HUGE thank you to Megan for creating these awesome memories and to Kristy for coming to help me manage the chaos. More birthday posts to come and check out last night’s post if you haven’t already…..
Our family talked about your family tonight at dinner and God’s grace and life he gave you and Brad:) We are rejoicing with you’ll on their first birthday:) We were laughing at thinking of them eating their cake:) I will look forward to showing them the pictures tomorrow. We have just 13 weeks until we get to meet Baby McKenzie. I can not beleive we will be a family of 5 🙂 We just don’t know life without excitedmint, just like you’ll:) These years for you and Brad are full but life will get easier 🙂 Just think you will just have one basketball game to go to Saturdays and not three different ones like our team:) You get to have all the boys on one team. That is a blessing:) God’s blessings and love, The McKenzie Team
1) You’re correct about the icing. I have a small side hobby making cakes and the base of most buttercream icing is crisco…some recipes are nothing more than crisco, water, vanilla, and powdered sugar!
2) What a fantastic idea – doing the cake pictures as actual 1 year old pictures! I’ve always just seen pictures from the birthday party – never an actual photo shoot for just the cake digging! I will definitely be stealing your idea when (if) I have children. Haha. 🙂
3) Happy Birthday boys!!!
Happy Birthday little ones!!! Happy Birthday!
Totally original idea on the pics!!! Unforgettable to say the least.
I am curious though…were they done in a studio? Just wondering how the clean-up was for them. I did see that you said the bathtub was still blue, but I am figuring that is just from their baths afterwards.
FELIZ CUMPLEANOS, MURRAY BOYS!
(happy birthday in spanish in case you did not know)
Happy first birthday Murray quads!
From,
The McDowell Triplets 🙂
Happy Birthday to our 4 FAVORITE boys!!! Jen, you will LOVE LOVE LOVE all the fun that year two is going to bring. I can’t wait to see those boys grow and change. They are so beautiful!
OXOX
Gen, Conor, Russ, Ally, Molly and Libby
Happy Birthday!!! YAY! i love the pics! makes me thankful our birthday is in AUGUST so we can just be out side and hose off in the baby pool. it’s fun to squirt kids with hoses anyway–is that mean?!:) what fun!
we love ya guys and we’ve never even met.
God is Good all the time….
Jenny
With all three of my sons, I have been overwhelmed with cleaning off ONE boy full of the one-year birthday cake! I can’t imagine four all at once!
But I’m sure there were a multitude of smiles that came along with that event! Great pictures, and happy birthday again to the boys!
Devin in Illinois
oh. my. gosh! i LOOOOVE the professional birthday cake pics! never thought of that before! (i too cringe at all the pics of babies with food all over their faces! funny! but THOSE were priceless!) what big, beautiful eyes!!! funny to see what each boy did with their cakes! LOVE the different personalities! i’m SO glad you had a WONDERFUL weekend! we thought about yall constantly! happy birthday brooks, clark, isaac, and henry!
Thanks for sharing those gorgeous photos of the boys first moments with their cakes :o) So glad they had a great birthday! Congrats to you and hubby on a job well done!
What fun! We, too, let the kids dive into their cakes for their birthday. Yes, it was a mess, but priceless memories and they had so much fun. So glad your guys slept…my daughter didn’t…at all…that night! No more sugar for her! haha!
happy birthday BROOK, CLARK, HENRY, and ISSAC! Yay you are now 1 years old! Welcome to toddlerhood and running around the house…hehe
So sweet!!! Congrats on making it through the first year!!!
Happy Birthday to your birthday boys!!! God has trully blessed your family!! What a beautiful life!
Im very curious, Im a fan of Suz’s quads and have read about the bands around their babies heads. Im so amazed how your babies heads are so perfect, or so they appear in pictures. How in the world did their heads change from the first picture they had together in the birth room, its trully an amazing and precious picture, yet I can help but notice their heads are a bit out of shape…..which is obviously because of lack of space in the womb, yet…..Im still amazed they didnt need a band. I hope Im making sense…if I am… perhaps you can explain a bit.
Thanks a million, Ill keep you and Brad in our prayers as you reach more exciting and exhausting milestones…just believe me, there is never a dull moment being a parent. ENJOY your gifts… your boys!!
Your christian friend in Indiana
Love the pics. What a good idea!! Hope the weekend was wonderful!!
awe im so glad you used this idea!! Someone emailed me (i forget who… sorry) asking if it was ok if she told you about this idea for a photoshoot. We did this w/ my 1 year old as well months ago and LOVE how the photos turned out. Such an innocent and sweet time in their life. Glad they came out well. The blue icing is beautiful in the photos as well 😀
Too cute! What a happy celebration. And to think your quad boys were delivered a year ago! Wow! I can’t wait until we reach these milestones, first with the delivery and then with the 1st birthday 🙂 Enjoy your four blessings!
Happy Birthday Murray Boys!!!! I LOVE the cake pictures!!! I hope you guys had a wonderful celebration. Congratulations again on your precious miracles!!!
Cute Cute! Jen did you take these pictures? Great Job!!
jz
Happy birthday, boys. What a neat idea w/the cake pictures–I’m sure that’s a lot easier than worrying about the perfect outfit and stressing over getting them all just right for a picture. (or at least that’s how I always am–I’ve given up on trying to take all five for professional pictures…it’s not worth the stress on me 🙂 I’m sure it was easier to strip them down to their diaper and let them get as messy as they want. (And probably turned out cuter, too) 🙂
You have a lot to blog about! I love it! Cute and great post!
Clappy Shoes
Happy Birthday!! One looks like a lot of fun from here 😉 Thank you for sharing all of your faith and memories with us. -Mari
I stumbled upon your blog and have been reading for a while now. You all are so blessed. You have a beautiful family. My daughter is nearing her 1-year birthday in April…and I just love this picture idea! I too am a “clean freak” so maybe we’ll do this for pics, and then do cupcakes on her actual birthday. Keep up the wonderful posts… I look forward to reading about the boys! 🙂
Happy Hapopy Birthday! And oh the mess of first year cakes! If you’d planned better, you could have had your kids in the summer like I did. Ha! We did a quick rinse off in the kitchen sink and then plopped them all into the kiddie pool in the back yard! Perfect! Great pics by the way! I’ve never seen that before. It’s a wonderful idea!