Happy 2nd Birthday, Laura!!

It's hard to believe our baby turns 2 tomorrow...time sure has flown. It seems like just yesterday she was a little immobile ball of joy with spiky black hair. Now she can't sit still for more than a few seconds at a time and her preferred gait is running (she seriously never walks anywhere!). Anyway...enough reminiscing!! We celebrated her birthday with a big backyard bash yesterday afternoon. The rain was threatening the whole time, but fortunately all we got was a little wind and thunder. Enjoy the pictures!

Mommy and Laura are all ready for the party to start. Laura spent most of the day pointing at decorations saying, "O Wowah's burday pody?" (Translation: For Laura's birthday party?) and singing Happy Birthday to herself. It goes something like this: "Hoppy to you, Hoppy to you, Hoppy Wowa, Hoppy to you. Yaaaay!"

She just couldn't wait to get in the pool. I had hoped we could keep her cute outfit on until all the guests arrived, but after the first guest she ended up in her swimming suit. It was only about 75 degrees out and overcast, but the kids played in the pool until their little lips were blue and they were all shivering.

The kids eating their dinner. We had 13 kids, age 5 months to 4 years (and their parents). I'm so glad the rain held off since I wasn't sure how we would fit everyone inside!

Granddad graciously posing while filling his plate.

Trying to light birthday candles in the wind isn't easy! We finally got them lit, though, and Laura tried really hard to blow them out. She kept getting her little lips closer and closer to the flame before I just blew them out. I was afraid she was going to get burned!
Laura enjoying the icing on her cupcake. All day she had been asking for a cupcake ("Cake, mommy?") so I thought she would devour it once she was given one. After licking all the icing off, though, she told me "All done, mommy! Don't yite dat!" (Translation: Don't like that!)
Opening presents is always fun. This is when the weather started getting really stormy looking, so I rushed us through. I actually think that worked well because she didn't have time to get attached to a toy before we moved on to the next one. But today she had a great time playing with everything. I took it all out of the boxes and packaging last night and laid them out in the center of her playroom. She was in awe when she came downstairs this morning to play!

After a lot of the guests were gone, Laura started playing around the pool again even though she was dressed. I kept an eye on her because I figured it was very likely she would fall in -- and she did! She thought it was great fun to play in the pool in her clothes and shoes. Mommy didn't think it was quite so funny!
After she got all dry with new clothes (and mommy and daddy dumped the pool!) she had a good time playing on the swing set until the last family left.

Overall, we had a great party. When I asked Laura this morning if she had a fun birthday party she said a very emphatic, "uh-huh, mommy!!" Thanks to all our friends and family here and far away that helped make this 2nd birthday so special! Laura loves you all (and so do her parents:)