Abby's second birthday

Phew!  I'm almost caught up on the blog.  Last weekend we celebrated Abby's second birthday.  Man, two years....it all happens so fast.

Thankfully the weather held out and though it was warm and a little sticky we got through the day without rain and the pool was even warm enough for at least Ryan to get in.  It's been such a cool summer that we've hardly used the pool at all.  That and the fact that Abby has been terrified of the pool all summer hasn't helped.  We were so excited that Ryan and Kayden could finally coax her in even if it was just for a few minutes.

Abby has NOT been afraid to go in her little purple pool though.  I think her favorite part of the whole party was when we finally put some water in the pool and let her and all her little baby friends jump in.  They had so much fun and luckily I'm friends with some smart mommies because everyone had a second set of clothes to change into.

This little trike is one of Abby's favorite birthday gifts.  She doesn't quite understand how to use the pedals but that's ok because Grandpa and Grandma McGrath were smart enough to get one with a push handle for Mom and Dad :)

Oh, and a Mickey balloon from Auntie Erin, now THAT was a win!

I was so excited to get to meet this new little one.  Her name is Brianna and she's Mike and Kristina's new baby.  She was born 5 weeks early so her quilt isn't even finished yet!  The good news is that I couldn't keep it a secrete any longer so I've already given Kristina a sneak peak.  Now I can share pictures of it with you guys!

Brianna was just the tiniest sweetest little thing.  I thought Abby was small at 5lbs 6ozs but this little peanut was down to under 5 lbs after being released from the hospital.  They got out just in time because they usually want babies over 5lbs before they release them.

Aside from the trike, her new sand and water table, and balloons, the cake, that was her next favorite part.

We'd been talking about birthday's and signing Happy Birthday and working on "blowing" for a few days before her party so I was excited when she actually knew that she was supposed to blow out the candle.  It was a little too windy that day so I'm pretty sure the candles went out as soon as we moved the flame away, but oh well, she thought she blew them out herself.

Eating the cake though, THAT was the best part of the whole day.  She was a little tentative with it at first and Ryan really wanted her to do the whole smoosh it in your face thing.  She wasn't a huge fan.  My girl likes her silverware, what can I say?

I know there are a million pictures in this post but how can I resist these "I love cake and frosting so much" pictures?

Have you ever tried to watch a 2 year old open presents?  It's like wrangling cats!!  It's fun for them for all of about 3 seconds until that first present is open and then all they want to do is play.  Especially when all the other kids are running around playing.  Look at how cute and perfect Bradley is sitting...just waiting til Abby invites him to play.

So - I actually did most of the opening but boy did Abby make out this year!  She got tons of coloring stuff which is great because it's one of her favorite things to do.  She'll even sit down with it for more than 3 minutes which is saying something for a 2 year old. She also got some clothes for fall, and some brand new toys that she's been loving on all week.

This girl and her purses!  She loves them....

Yes, I have a wrapping paper problem.  It's called "I fold it all up nice and reuse EVERYTHING!".  I haven't bought wrapping in years people, YEARS!  Try it out....you won't regret taking the time to put it away nicely.

Baby Stella's mom was in charge of the camera during the party and boy could you tell!  I had a whole lot of pictures of this little lady.  This one just happened to be too cute not to post.

All in all it was a great day.  We had tons of family and friends come to visit and we ended up with tons of leftovers (I'll remember that for next year).  We're so thankful for everyone that came out to help Abby celebrate. We're one lucky family!