Wednesday, March 16, 2011

A Happy Birthday, Indeed!

On March 5th, we celebrated Lily’s 2nd birthday with a Yo Gabba Gabba themed birthday bash in our neighborhood’s clubhouse.  What follows are WAY too many pictures, but I want to make sure I have all these photos in the photo book I will eventually make from this blog.  Also, I figured this was the easiest way to share with her friends who were there and might want some of the pictures.

First off, here is a phenomenally exciting picture of me unfolding a tablecloth. 

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Why, might you ask?  Because I wish I had more pictures of my own parents from my childhood, and I’m pretty much always the one behind the lens.  See, Lily?  This was what Mommy looked like.  See the sparkle in the eyes?  This is well before “the teenage years.”  I was still very cool to you at this point.  You were, perhaps, not the most informed on the subject, but your 2-year-old self pretty much thought I was the coolest thing on 2 legs.  Crazy, huh?

Before the party started, Lily got to check the place out and give it her stamp of approval.

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She was a big fan, by the way, of her personalized Foofa dress.

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She checked out the cardboard house we had for coloring and playing, and the dress-up table:

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As promised, here is her stamp of approval:

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Okay, so you’ll just have to believe me that she approved.  I don’t know why she was on the floor.

Here is some of the setup:

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Michael’s Mom sewed this incredible banner as well as amazing owl and robot crayon rolls for favors!  I forgot to take picture of them unrolled, but I was so impressed!

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When the kids arrived, they decorated straw cups to use during the party and take home afterwards.

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After that, it was pretty much a free-for-all at the various activities. 

Most kids started at the dress-up station:

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While a most kids enjoyed the dress-up jewelry, I would have to say Ana B. and Katelyn were frontrunners in the most-accessories competition.

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Haha…Katelyn was apparently determined to test the strength of these bracelets.

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I did make sure there were some gender-neutral items available, too. 

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The kids seemed to really like the cardboard house…

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(gee…one of the kids has an awfully big hand in that picture…)

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Then, there were other random entertaining moments:

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And, or course, just enjoying Jack Black.

At a 2-year-old’s birthday party. 

It’s not as sketchy as it sounds on paper.

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Every 15 minutes or so, I threw out something new like punch balls…

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…hula hoops and bean bags…

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…and I even made balloon animals to try to keep the tots entertained. 

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Finally, it was time for some snacks and cupcakes!  Lily wanted to sit in her little chairs for her snack, so we chose not to argue with the birthday girl (even though her friends were all in the big people chairs!).

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Haha…this one below has a “I refuse to smile for this school picture” look to it.

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Lily definitely enjoyed having the happy birthday song sung to her, and also really enjoyed her cupcake…icing.  She really didn’t care too much about the cake, but scraped off all the icing with her thumb.

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Thank you to all of Lily’s friends for coming to celebrate her special day!

Ana P. and her parents.

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Landon and his mom.

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Logan, little brother Cole, and their parents.

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Lexie and her mom.

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Emery and her mom.

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Ana B., her mom, and little brother Tate who didn’t make a peep the entire party!

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Evan-Marie and her mom.

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Katelyn and her parents.

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Happy Birthday, Lily! 

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Trust me, she’s happy on the inside.  I am 100% serious when I tell you that she didn’t want to pose for a picture because she wanted to go play “talk.”

*facepalm*