Happy Birthday to My Baby!!

My sweet little spit-fire turned TWO the other day. March 18th to be more specific. :)
It was SO MUCH FUN!! She was such a doll on her Birthday and we had so much fun!! Topher took the day off school, just to stay home and play with his baby girl! She loved it, and of course so did I. We just relaxed, played at home and enjoyed each other. My Mom was also in town and it was awesome to have her come visit as well.
We gave her a few little surprises throughout the day that she loved and we sang to her a lot. As a matter of fact, I woke her up by singing Happy Birthday to her. She looked at me like I was crazy, and kinda scary and asked for her Daddy. haha!! She warmed up to me later on that day though and really liked that we were spoiling her, showering her with attention and singing and clapping to her throughout the whole day. :)


So, the party, music, family, presents and friends didn't actually happen until the day AFTER her Birthday because we wanted as many people there as possible from our two families and Friday worked better than Thursday. Sadly, her fantastic attitude and demeanor sort of wore off by Friday. :( So she wasn't as happy for her Birthday party...but hey..she was still cute and happy and excited, probably just a little overwhelmed.

We decided to do a Princess Theme because lately Grace has been obsessed with Disney Princesses, more specifically Belle. My mom and I undertook a Princess Cake. One of the funnest things I've ever done!! We had Princess decorations, Princess music, balloons, tablecloths, banners, flowers, the whole works!! I've never had so much fun decorating in my life!! My mom thinks I did the princess party for me more than Grace...it is entirely possible that I had as much FUN as Grace...but I did actually do it for her. :)
My Mom and I stayed up past midnight baking cakes, decorating towers and talking and then spent almost the whole next day artfully crafting our masterpiece palace-cake. Then we made CDs, got food items together, and spent the early evening decorating my amazingly accomodating in-laws home for the party.


The cake turned out amazing if I may say so myself. : ) Thank you mommy!! You're the BEST!!
For the Dinner my sister Dacia had this FABULOUS idea from out of no where that we serve Grace's ACTUAL favorite foods, rather than real crowd-pleasing food. She may have been kidding, but I decided that sounded AWESOME! We ended up doing side dishes all around the table of all her favorite foods: Oreos, Pickles, Cheese, Grapes, Cocoa Puffs, Yogurt Melts, Cheese Puffs, Cinnamon Sugar Bread, Carrots w/Ranch, and a few others. So we surrounded the table with her favorite things and then did Spaghetti as the main dish, which is also one of her favorites. No doubt, the dinner was a hit, and then we had a lot of fun just playing games, enjoying each other's company and opening a TON of gifts. My goodness, that girl came away with way too many presents!!


So those are all the details of our super fun Princess Party and now I just really wanted to do something my sister always does for her boys' Birthdays. Sort of like a survey of Grace's personality at age 2.
1. Height and Weight: 23.6 lbs. & 33 inches

2. Fave Color: she doesn't know. obviously i need to work on colors more. hah! she does tend to pick brighter colors for things though. yellows and pinks.

3. Fave Movie: Beauty & The Beast, Shrek, Toy Story & Princess & the Frog

4. Fave TV Show: Mickey Mouse Club House

5. Fave Food: Pickles, Cheese, Bananas, Spaghetti

6. Fave Restaurant: Probably Texas Roadhouse because for her Birthday they let her ride their saddle. She LOVED it. She cried when they made her get off.

7. Fave Treat: Oreos. Any and all candy. Any and all chocolate.

8. Fave Toy: Baby dolls, Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Barbies, baby stroller

9. Fave Outfit: her Princess nightie. Yeah, I realize it's not an outfit she'd really be out in public in...but it's what she always wants to wear. Tied with the nightie however, would probably just be her 'birthday suit'. This girl LOVES to be naked. Or "nay-e!!" as she calls it.

10. Fave Activity: Playing outside. Loves to swing and slide. Loves to run around. Loves to play with anyone and everyone, most esp. her Daddy. Aside from that, she likes to watch Beauty and the Beast and have her Daddy TELL her the Beauty and the Beast story.

11. Fave Subject in School: this isn't really too applicable right now. :) My guess is that it'll be recess. :)

12. What do you want to be when you grow up: My guess for her right now...would be a mommy. Cuz she likes to do everything. And Mommies are the only ones that do it all. :)

13. What makes you happy: "Daddy happy" "My Joey". "Duh-ies! Wah! Wah!" "Swing. Sie. Ou-Sie". "Shower with Mommy Daddy." Translation: Daddy makes me happy. Joey. Duckies that go "quack quack". Being outside on the swing and the slide. Showering with Mommy & Daddy.


14. What makes you Sad: "Bi Nake! Git me! Eat me!" "My Joey!" "My pa-eh cut"
Translation: Big Snake! Gonna get me!! Gonna eat me!! This is new btw. As of last week when we went to the Living Aquarium, this is her biggest fear. The Joey one is pretty obvious. The last one, would be paper cut. She got a paper cut about TWO WEEKS ago, and still wants us to kiss it better more than once a day.

15. Best Friend(s): "Ellie Belly Boo" "Joey" "Maya". I would add her aunt meggie, and aunt Anni, and her cousins.

16. One Wish or Dream you have for yourself: "Eat Eat". "Eat eat Daddy".

17. Personality Traits: Affectionate. Crazy. Silly. Independent. Needy. Funny. Mischievous. Diva. Aggressive. Dramatic. Smart. Quick. Creative. Forgiving. Helpful. Friendly. Defiant. Energetic. Stubborn.

18. Your Testimony: "Jesus kie mommy daddy sad. Jesus ha-ie Mommy Daddy ha-ie." "Jesus pretty picture." Translation for that one is "Jesus cries when I make Mommy & Daddy sad. Jesus is happy when I make Mommy & Daddy happy." I taught her that. :) The last one is "Jesus is pretty in pictures.". She points at every picture of Jesus in our house and knows exactly who it is. Where the pretty came from, not sure. But she thinks he's very pretty. :)

19. Thoughts on you from the last year: Where to begin!! You are such a funny little girl!! You constantly make me laugh out loud, and probably just as often make me want to pull my hair out. :) You are a very energetic vibrant little girl and are constantly bouncing between extreme happiness and extreme sadness. You love to be outside, even if just in our ridiculous excuse for grass behind our apartment, running around finding birds. You love to play. You always want to make new friends. We took you to Nursery for the first time about a month and a half ago and even though it was a totally new envioronment with people you'd never met or seen, you probably hugged about two different little girls and were always very concerned if anyone cried. You love to laugh, you constantly make jokes and then clap at your cleverness. The other day we couldn't find your binki, people asked you where you put it and what happened to it, you said "Anni hide it". Then you smiled mischievously and laughed with your head thrown back. You are so defiant sometimes. This irritates the snot outta me, but at the same time, if we can learn to harness your defiance at the correct things and teach you to be stubborn about the right things, it might just make you a force to be reckoned with for good. You are very smart and catch on quickly. It makes me so happy inside when you see pictures of Jesus and know exactly who it is. You know how to pray, how to fold your arms and bow your head. Even though, the other day, Grandma says she peeked at you during prayer and you opened one eye, looked around to make sure no one was looking and stole a piece of dinner before the prayer was over!! You are so fun to be around. You definitely tire people out. But once people spend a good two STRAIGHT days with you, they get the gist of your personality and fall head over heels in love with you. You love to play tag...only you really call it "git me!!" or "I git you!!" You love to give hugs and kisses and always insist on getting kisses better when you get owies. Grace...I love you to pieces.

I want you to know I love you so so much little grace. And there really is nothing else I should be doing besides learning to care for and love you. You make my life so much more fun and full. You make me a better person and make me realize it's ok to rely on a 2 yr. old to be my best friend. I want you to know that that is something I look forward to: someday, maybe not too far from now, we will be the best of friends and you will hopefully love me as much as I love my Mom. I love you little Gracey!! Keep growing, learning and having fun! You've been given a second chance at life and I'm so grateful you are living it to the fullest!
Happy Birthday!