Lily's 2nd Birthday

Lily's two years old! Yes, my little tiny baby is long, long gone. Miss Priss is super independent and super stubborn. She's also a huge fashionista and extremely opinionated on all things related to what she might be wearing. We often hear "otro ropa" (other clothes) a couple of times before she will agree to put on whatever we pull out. Joel and I live in secret dread of what it's going to be like when she's older.

For the birthday celebration at Lily's school I had to provide sandwiches and the cupcakes, along with juice boxes and all the plates, etc. Abby was on winter break that week at her school so she came along as my helper.

Lily's class has a tradition that the kids color pictures for the birthday child, and they get a crown with their name on it. After a while, Lily decided that having her own crown was pretty durn cool.

For her birthday party, we pulled out all the stops. We also turned it into a "farewell party" for both girls since we are going to move soon. So, between Lily's preschool class, Abby's preschool class, their church friends, and all the neighborhood posse, we invited almost 70 kids. I lived in daily panic that all of them would show up.

My other fear was that the weather would be bad. Which of course it was! It rained all day long and was super cold, and in fact, for about an hour that morning, it actually snowed!  So much for having the birthday party outside. So we emptied out everything on the first floor of the house, childproofed as much as possible, and just let all the kids run amok.  I think we ended up with about 25 kids plus parents and nannies at the party - just about right for a house our size.

We rented these little cars from a party company, along with several "kiddie gym" type things. The kids LOVED it.

And we had a Dora themed party. The girls just love Dora and I thought I better do a Dora party now before they were on to something else.

Lily was very interested in the food. Which is normal. We call her our little piggy.

The cupcakes. Yes, I made 70 of them for this party.

The food for the kids (the food for the adults was in the kitchen). 

And here are the kids having a great time.

I know she looks angry here, but she was just so tired by this point. And she was upset we wouldn't let her eat the cupcake first without blowing out the candles.

But a little sugar . . .

goes a long way . . .

to perking a toddler right back up.

The party company brought tons of kid costumes too. I almost keeled over when I saw Abby in the Strawberry Shortcake outfit. I LOVE this costume! (We're big into Strawberry Shortcake too.)

This is the playroom on the first floor (converted master bedroom). In here we had the ball pit, large slide and "kiddie gym" stuff. In the dining room we had the food and huge kiddie playhouse.

As the sugar rush wore off and Lily was tired again, we quickly did the pinata.

Lily went down for her nap immediately after, and all the big kids kept on going - you know, the "After Party Party"

This is Abby and her best friend Cata, putting their backs to the camera so I couldn't take their picture. My sister and mom will get the joke in that.

Here are shots of the insanity in the living room.

And as the party was winding down and the natives were getting restless, I pulled out coloring pictures and crayons. My "go to" backup toddler activity. Works every single time.

So, that was our "Lily is two" birthday party extravaganza! See you next year!