Birthday Bash

Three days before Julia's actual birthday, we had her second birthday party. It was considerably smaller this year, less stress on the preggo mommy! We were again blessed with a beautiful sunny day for an outdoor party, though windy. Only problem with a windy party...

lighting the candle! We tried and tried, but it wouldn't stay lit. Oh well, there's always next year! Julia wasn't so concerned about the candle anyway. Notice in the photo above that while we were all huddled around the candle, she was sneaking her little hand in with a "yoink"!

No tears for the birthday song this year.

Finally, she got her flowers. And once she did, she wouldn't let go. Of all the gifts that day, the cake decoration was her favorite thing! That's a two year old for ya. She carried them around for days, even took them to bed. Goofy girl. I'll have to make sure those find their way into a keepsake box.

She did remarkably well with her cake. I just gave her fork and let her go to town (not like she'd let me help anyway!), thinking she could get as messy as she wanted, but she was very neat and careful. Such a big girl!

Since cake isn't the kind of thing we eat at home, and she hadn't really been to any parties all summer, this was her first experience of it (that she can remember). For days after the party, she would look out onto the deck from the living room, with her arms held out, shrugging her shoulders, saying, "Where cape go?" or "Cape gone!" It was as if she expected to eat cake on the deck all the time after that!

Pile 'o presents.

The touching of the ears means she's tired. We had passed nap time at that point and it was obvious. She kept trying to squirm down away from me. We got through it without a major meltdown, though, so that was good.

Overall, she did well, and it was a fun afternoon. Thank you to everyone for all the gifts, and for coming to celebrate with us!