Amelia's 2nd Birthday

I love celebrating birthdays and it was so much fun to celebrate Amelia's 2nd birthday all day long (we celebrated on Sat. instead of Sun. for a full day of activity).  I decorated the night before and when she woke up she was excited to see all the balloons.   And the party hats were a hit too.  We wore them at breakfast and lunch and dinner.

Amelia helped me make brownies.  I already had ice cream cupcakes for dinner (courtesy of Cold Stone Creamery), but you can never have too many sweets . . . especially for a birthday.

After lunch and a long nap, we started opening presents.  I say started, because Amelia wanted to play with everything as she opened it, so it took almost 3 hours to open 5 presents.  Amelia got an easel - one side has a white board and the other side is a chalkboard. 

"Yes Amelia, dry erase markers write on your hands . . . and new shirts, and no, it doesn't come out of clothes."  Bummer.

Amelia loves to draw, but perhaps her parents should have re-thought the marker and chalk gifts.  I veto'd watercolors, but I forgot how messy chalk is . . . and the markers require supervision.   But we scored on the bubbles, ball, and train set.

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Finally, after dinner, it was time for cake and ice cream.   Amelia eagerly watches Daddy prepare the cupcake and light the candles.

"I think I could have done it on my own, but thanks, Daddy, for helping me blow out the candles."

"This is pretty good stuff."

"No Daddy, this is mine."

"I'm getting pretty good with my fork, but who eats a cupcake with a fork?  Oh, the cupcake is actually ice cream?  Is that why it's melting in my hand?"  

We had the sister missionaries over for dinner; they loved helping us celebrate and even played along with the party hats.

(The girls may not look like me, but at least we know where Sophia got those big eyes.)

I think we succeeded on celebrating Amelia's birthday.  She was so wound up, it took her 1 1/2 hours to go to sleep.  And when she finally fell sleep, she had the bows from her presents, a party hat, and a balloon tucked in beside her.

Happy Birthday Amelia!