Author: Laura Wilson
The first year of your babies’ life you’re navigating your new life and then all of a sudden, it’s your twins first birthday and you’re thinking what do you even get one year olds. There’s always somebody in your circle who tells you they don’t need anything or they won’t remember the day anyhow. But you want to celebrate, especially having multiples, it’s a huge achievement to reach one!
I started counting down to our twins first birthday from 12 days postpartum!
From 12 days postpartum, I’ve been counting down to reaching one year. I’m the type of person who really likes to focus on goals and achieving those goals. And having the goal of reaching one has been good for my mental headspace. But for the past six months, I’ve been trying to navigate what to do when we did reach one year old. I’d always appreciate connecting with other mum’s with babies of similar age to see what they were doing and throw around ideas. So I’m writing this article to share how I navigated my twin’s first birthday in the hope that it might just help you do so too.
Planning their first birthday
I’m going to let you in on a secret that I’ve since discovered twin Mum’s usually keep secret. Twins first birthdays are big. I know this well kept secret now because every twin mum I’ve talked to has acknowledged that they’re big and usually with a follow-up of ‘we didn’t want to tell you’. Presents from family can feel like Christmas all over again, there’s the organising and trying to make sure you’re balancing routine, healthy food, sleep with birthday fun. But it’s definitely fun and special.
For me, I had a couple of goals in mind particularly as being one year-olds, there was no way they were going to know what a birthday was so it was important to me that we could take photos on the day that they could look when they’re older, they could feel loved with and see how special that day was. Secondly with their party, I wanted it to feel like a wonderful playdate with their friends and family.
On their actual birthday, we opened presents and then headed off to the zoo, had our first babycinos and had a fun birthday dinner together with some extended family. It was jammed packed and lots of fun. Helping both our twins open their presents felt like Christmas day with presents feeling almost nonstop for a little while which we were not prepared for. But it was a day filled to the brim of fun and love for our incredible two.
Theme for our twins first birthday
I love a theme and particularly a colour-theme. We decided our twins’ first birthday party theme would be Cockatoos and Daisys theme in a pastel blue, yellow and white colour palette. It was bright, happy and didn’t feel too gendered particularly for my boy and girl twins. Whilst it was hard to find decoration for the cockatoos, having the clear colour palette made it easy to feel less chaotic and more on the happy side.
I loved the effort my mum made for my birthdays growing up to waking up to the lounge room decorated with birthday signs and balloons, the dining table dressed up beautifully and brightly wrapped presents. This is definitely something I wanted to do for my kids in one little way for them to grow up in a household where they feel loved and happy.
Party decorations
For decorations around the house, I created my own daisy bunting from paper, string and hot glue gun. We blew up blue, yellow and white balloons up to float around the floor. I also ordered a balloon bouquet with a number 1 balloon in it which was really cute to see their eyes light up when it was delivered the day before. I decorated the table with some wired flowers and some little light up letters and no.1 from Kmart.
For decorations for the party, with it being a park party, we used paper plates and cups. It was easy to find mono colour paper plates and serviettes. And because I forgot cups, I bought some last minute gold ones from Kmart. Gold, silver and white accessories are often easier to find so if your colour palette can closely align or include these colours, it makes it easier for any last minute items. I bought streamers too but they didn’t make it up on the day which was totally fine. Between the cake (in theme) and the plates, serviettes and cups, there was a lovely cohesion and not too much work.
Twins first birthday cake
Prior to having my twins, I could make some very good cakes. My specialty being gin and tonic cupcakes with a lemon and gin curd in the middle. But since becoming a mum, I don’t have the concentration to bake. I definitely have moments where I love to lean in to the fact we have twins and for a cake, I loved the idea of having a cake for each twin connected by a rainbow. Chloé’s would have a daisy theme whilst Jasper’s had a cockatoo theme, both within a blue, yellow and white theme. It was definitely fun and special.
I asked a friend and mother-in-law to cut the cake for us which I really appreciated which meant I could enjoy the cake moment with my twins. We sat down with Jasper and Chloé to eat a slice of cake – they had so much fun playing with the icing and even getting it all over their fingers and faces.
I had requested to have the cake delivered to our house the day before the party. I had not considered the cake logistics of needing to put it in the fridge the night before. Particularly being two cakes connected by a rainbow that was tall, it needed a lot of space, we needed to take out two shelves in the fridge and most of the food. Our fridge included a lot of party food too. It was definitely a learning experience about cake logistics for future birthdays.
Cake smashes
It was only the week before I thought perhaps if my sister wanted to help with something, baking a little cake for us to share on the twins actual birthday would be lovely. I hadn’t planned to do a smash cake but I’m very grateful I asked her for that help. It wasn’t until they turned up at my house that they arrived with a birthday cake for the adults, a small smash cake for each twin and an array of decorated cookies.
It was incredibly generous of them. On the topic of smash cakes, one of my twins had a little fun with it, the other spent almost half an hour having fun with it in pure happiness. Was such a joyful moment for us all and definitely convinced me that smash cakes can be fun for food focussed babies. The cakes were made with coconut sugar to reduce slightly the sugar content too which is a nice idea if you’re concerned about sugar.
Presents
When researching what would be good present ideas for two one year olds, I definitely struggled to see what would make a good present. At home, I’ve tried to align our play area and learning to the Montessori learning methodology and my twins really enjoy their books so these were two guidelines I used to help me work out what to get them. We ended up getting them some Montesorri style foam blocks for climbing and a reading corner, swimmers, books and a soft toy each. I placed them all in a big decorated box which was fun for both twins to open up and explore together.
Our family and friends definitely opened my thinking up to present ideas for one-year olds. I generally pointed people who asked for present suggestions in the direction of books and bath things. But I’m thankful that some of our family thought about outside activities including a swing, slide, easel, and bubble machines.
A friend of mine has an equation of what to get her kids, which includes a book, something to wear, something they need and something they want which can be useful when you’re trying to navigate the right balance.
Celebrate your achievement
Take a moment to celebrate you and what you;ve achieved! It might not be on the same day.
My partner and I did this by having a little movie date and opening a bottle of Veuve Clicquot afterward their birthday and family weren’t still visiting.
Twin birthdays are huge. I was more excited about it than my own. But it was absolutely special and fun and I know their future birthdays will be too.
Read Laura’s blog on “Preparing for twins. 10 things I was glad I bought before I had twins”
Laura Wilson
Twin Mum
Follow Laura on Instagram for play ideas and her multiples playgroup started