Birthday Week!

We have had a kind of crazy (in a good way) week over here in Cori-land. My daughter turned two on Wednesday. I have always been one to make a to-do of my birthdays, and because she is the center of my world of course we had to have a party for her, even though she is entirely too little to really realize what's going on. Since her birthday was in the middle of the week, we decided to go ahead and have her party this past weekend, on Sunday evening. I am super glad we went that route, because it allowed us to get all of the crazy work part of the celebration out of the way and then just enjoy the rest of the week basking in the glow of the aftermath.

We hung balloons and streamers, picked up some barbecue, and I made cupcakes. I got bouncy balls for all of Baby Girl's friends, and set up Duplo and coloring stations for the kiddos. There were leis for everyone in general--until Baby Girl decided that she must have them all, that is. There was also Baby Girl's slide/fort that I put together inside the house when we got it and still haven't moved outside because it's too darn hot. Add to that family and friends and it was, I must say, a rousing success. Here are some of the highlights:

Balloons and streamers!

Indoor slide! Complete with QA Cat.

Bouncy balls for everyone!

Pineapple cupcakes, with lemon or strawberry frosting.

The birthday girl's cake.

Lei Collector in action.

Must have more leis!

Blowing out her candles.

She wasn't quite too sure about her cupcake, though.

Hugs for everyone!

Of course, that didn't mean that we did nothing for her actual birthday. Hubby took the day off and we spent it together. There was her two-year checkup in the morning, but we got that bit of unpleasantness out of the way bright and early. It wasn't even that bad, Baby Girl was incredibly well behaved, she didn't even cry when she got her shot, or her nasal flu vaccine. The doctor was impressed with her laid-back nature. I remarked to Hubby on the way out that Baby Girl sure does have everyone fooled. In the last six months she has managed to jump from the twenty-fifth to seventy-fifth percentile in height. She also jumped up from the very bottom of normal in weight to the twenty-fifth percentile (whew). Gonna be tall and skinny. She defintely doesn't get that from me. Thank goodness she takes after her father!

After lunch we let her open the rest of her presents.

Tony tests out the trampoline.

An easel to stretch her creative muscles.

She is starting to get the hang of this unwrapping thing.

Wally checks out the stomp rocket.

3..2..1...LIFTOFF!!

Feeding her My Little Pony a bottle.

I can't stress how much she wanted me to get Elmo out
of the box RIGHT NOW as soon as she saw him.

We wrapped up her birthday with dinner at a Mexican restaurant--that kid loves her salsa. She will eat it with a fork or spoon (and did this time) if I don't pay close enough attention. Then we went home, had brownies, and played until bedtime. All in all, it was a good day.

Of course, that's not the end of Birthday Week, oh no. Because today, my friends, is MY birthday, yay! (Baby Girl's first gift to me was saving me from having to go through labor on my birthday by arriving more or less on time.) We won't be doing anything quite so elaborate as the celebrations for Baby Girl. But Hubby did take the day off again, so I look forward to spending it with him. I will also be going to the yarn store in a little bit. Tonight I'll have dinner with my friends and family (we're going out to eat this time around so I don't have to clean up), then catching Conan the Barbarian after that. I mean, come on, shirtless Jason Momoa in a movie opening on my birthday? Clearly this is one of my presents.

So I am off to enjoy my day. I hope yours is lovely. Have a fantastic weekend folks, and I'll see you back here Monday.