Happy Birthday Cee!

Yes, I do realize this was three months ago, but in my defense, I was waiting on getting most of these pictures uploaded to my laptop. Anyway, it's here at last! I've done a new 4th of July post also, but I've inserted it into the correct order on the blog so you can click here if you'd like to read it.

Cecilia and I arrived back in Oregon the day before she turned two. Her birthday was in the middle of the week so we didn't do anything, but I thought she should blow out some candles so I got a creme cake from the store and she blew out her two candles (a couple of times). She was also able to open her presents from her Grandpa John and Grandma Adrienne that night. She loved her new Fergus books (with matching stuffed animal) and big Legos.

Her birthday party was on Saturday afternoon and was at the Sunset Swim Center. We had the party in their rec room and then went out to the wading pool, which is perfect for kids her age, as it's only like 10" deep.

For the party, I did a fruit/bright colors theme. For the activity, the kids (with their parent's help) decorated canvas bags with stickers, glitter, fuzzies, and their names. My plan was to then place their favors in those bags, but with the amount of glue the kids put on them, they weren't dry in time. The favors included fruit-smelling bubbles, a curly straw, fruit-flavored/shaped candy, a mini pinwheel and squirt gun (it was a swim party after all), colorful play dough, and a "place-mat" with pictures of different fruit that they could color from this book. That was actually supposed to be another activity, but we didn't have time for it.

Decorating the bags

A couple of the bags when finished

I went a little overboard on the food (as usual), but there are just so many cute ideas out there it was hard to choose. Here are the majority of them.

"Ladybugs" made with strawberries and grapes

Jello "Watermelon"

(yes, it actually will stick to the rind if you let it set in an empty watermelon)

Banana Pops

(chocolate-coconut and peanut butter-chocolate)

A Fruit Rainbow w/pot of gold

Enjoying the fruits of my labor (ha -ha)

Cee opening her presents

Cee's Cake (supposed to be a strawberry if you can't tell)

Cee "smiling" for the camera

(her cake eating abilities have much improved from last year)

Swim Time!

The party went well and the kids had fun. Thanks to everyone who came.

Now let's see if I can remember what she was doing three months ago. She's a smart girl and understands a lot, sometimes we can't believe how much. She can sing her ABC's (but often skips m, n, and o) and can even identify a few of the letters. She can count to 12 and get up to 18 if she skips a few numbers. She talks really well and talks a lot (we call her Little Miss Chatterbox), although can't say her S or L sound very well on some words. She is very independent and wants to do everything herself. She plays well and likes to play with other kids and is fairly social (although can be shy at first when she doesn't know someone). She loves animals and wants to touch/pet/hold any kind we come in contact with. Too bad for her since we'll never have any (we are not animal people). At her two-year checkup she was still in 90th for both height and weight and I think head is in the 60th percentile. She is a really fun and cute girl and gives us so much joy. I am very often overcome with how blessed I am to be her mommy and love having her as my little sidekick. We love you so much Little Miss Cecilia!