Birthday Madness

My baby girl turned 2 on Monday. I can't believe it. We had a small gathering for Lily on Saturday morning. We had originally planned on just having family, but you can't have a birthday party for a little girl without some other little girls, so happily, a couple of our friends were able to make it, too. 


After general playing together time was starting to wear thin, we made some ribbon dancers out of old bangle bracelets and some super clearance ribbons. Grown-ups helped tie the knots, but the girls mostly got to pick what they wanted theirs to look like. 

Then it was starting to get a little warm out in the sun, so we moved inside to play dress up. Louise went with the garden fairy princess look. And Lily went for more of the crazy gypsy bride look. I don't have a picture of Ainsley, but she looked very sweet in a little white dress with matching slippers and a tiara. We put on a new CD that the girls gave to Lily and danced and danced. 

Then it was time for cake! I made a Wonder Pets cake for Lily. If you haven't seen Wonder Pets, you should. I made a flyboat out of fondant and sugar sheets, little celebration flag banners from sugar sheets and icing, and the figures are plastic. It was a white vanilla cake with Nutella filling. 

We've been playing birthday a lot with Lily. She likes to make 'cakes' then bring them over to someone while singing and then pretends to blow out candles. When we did that for real, and for her, she was filled with pure joy. This picture pretty much says it all. 

We weren't really planning on opening presents with the girls there, I thought it might not be much fun for them. But I was wrong. It turned into a group effort and everyone had fun seeing what was in all of the pretty packages. After everything was open Ainsley politely requested that the next time we come to their house that we please bring all of the dress-up clothes and all of the presents so she can play with them out of the boxes. I love it. 

Joe and my's big gift to Lily was a little push trike. She is IN LOVE with this thing. She wants to ride it everywhere. There's a little foot rest so she doesn't actually do much pedaling right now, but I hope she'll figure it out the more she rides it. 

At one point each little girl was on a different wheeled vehicle and tearing off in every direction while still in full dress-up regalia. It was quite an amusing little parade. 

I made a celebration banner out of some pillow cases I picked up at Goodwill. I was inspired by Becky and her sewing conquests. So I tried my own. I got the pattern from Domestic Nest. I think they turned out really cute and added a certain festiveness to the room. And I love that they're reusable and won't disintegrate while in the closet. We might pull them out some night just because!

A close up of the ribbon dancer. 

And finally, at the end of a long birthday celebration, what's left to do besides put on your jimmy-jammies, cover yourself in stickers, and sit down on a stair to strum your new tiny guitar? 

It was a perfect morning surrounded by friends and family, food and fun. You can be sure there were some serious naps that happened that afternoon. Happy Birthday Lily!!!