N K T P: Happy 2nd Birthday!

Noel's 2nd Birthday party came and went as fast as her first. It was nice to actually have her birthday fall ON the day of her party this year...too bad it won't happen for another 7! We had about 10 people come, mostly family but a few of our really good friends came too. We're considering having her party in Roanoke next year to make it easier for everyone, since most everyone that came had to travel 2+ hours to get here.

Anyway, I decided to take a much lower-stress approach to her party by ordering pizza instead of worrying about food prep in addition to everything else involved when hosting a child's birthday party. I have to say that it was VERY nice to just pick up the pizzas and serve, and not have any clean-up!

I also MADE her cake this year, instead of ordering from a bakery. It wasn't nearly as beautiful as a professional cake, but it was made with lots of love! Dana and I weren't sure how to decorate it, so we brainstormed ideas and came up with a rainbow of colors from the top to the bottom, since the cake itself was "rainbow". It turned out kind of cool!

She received a lot of winter clothes, so I think we're set until spring. She also got a whole bunch of "art" supplies (finger paints, window crayons, regular crayons, large blank paper, coloring books), a Sit n Spin, a matchbox car, a ton of books, a cowgirl costume, and a 'little people' castle. She loves ALL of it and we've been playing with them all week.

After opening gifts, we were ready for cake! Noel didn't know what to think of everyone singing to her, she seemed stunned for a bit, and then a huge smile spread across her face. She tried to blow out her candle twice, but ended up mostly spitting on it. Hahaha...she definitely got an 'A' for effort (I'll try to get the video from Mom or Dana to upload here). We all ate our cake and ice cream and then all the children went outside to play on the swingset.

It was 89 degrees on her birthday this year! I kept thinking back to her birthday, when it was a little chilly and raining cats and dogs. So much has changed since then, it's hard to believe. I almost don't want to believe that we have a two year old!

Night before her birthday...taste testing the icing!