Happy Birthday Baby!!

BB2 is officially 2. On one hand I am in denial because it means my baby is growing up! But on the other hand she is sooooo 2 years old. Yep, the temper tantrums and demands have gone onto a whole new level. At least she is balancing out the "bad" with some serious sweetness when it comes to giving loves and kisses.

Her party theme was monkeys - not Curious George - just monkeys. She got a huge purple helium filled monkey balloon which she loves and freaks out any time her sister tries to take it away from her, which is often. She started pulling down on the string and thought it was the greatest thing to watch the balloon go up and down. That is until it poked her in the eye and she needed some convincing the monkey wasn't trying to hurt her. I love the way kids brains work as they are so highly entertaining without even trying to be and so quick to recover from bumps and boo boos.

You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find cute monkey theme decorations with out having to resort to the Curious George ones.

Luckily by making the decorations myself it allowed me to tap into my creative side, which is a rare thing as my perfectionist side tends to take over, but luckily this time there was a pretty good balance between the two. I just have to say thank goodness we have a pretty good color printer and there were some decent monkey graphics in Microsoft Word Clip Art.

As for how the overall decorations turned out, just picture various sized monkeys and bananas hanging all over the house with green streamers and green curly ribbon (aka "jungle vines" ) also hanging all over the place. Lots of fun and BB2 loved it.

She did total justice to her birthday cake and I just have to give serious props to her Grandma L.(my mom) for having such a delicious frosting recipe. Fluffy frosting is by far the ultimate in cupcake toppings and a big thanks to Aunt CeeCee for reintroducing me to the fluffy sugary goodness.

We used to ask for it all the time growing up and it just takes me back to a happy place whenever I taste it. It had been way too long since my last indulgence and needless to say we all heartily partook. The bowl was seriously licked clean. Yum!

The picture on the left is of BB2 in her new ballerina dress-up with a matching one for Spice Bear that she wore around for the rest of the party.

She also LOVES her new chair and now doesn't want to sit anywhere else but in her chair. This could pose a problem at meal time.

All I can say is she is adorable (and yes, there is a huge amount of personal bias, but you have to agree with me!!)

Thanks to all the family that came up and celebrated the day with us. It was so much fun!!

And for those who were too far away, we know BB2 was in your thoughts as we were wishing you could be here with us!

Happy Birthday Baby - You are growing up way too fast!