Olivia's 2!

Can't believe that my little precious baby is already 2 years old! I can't imagine life without her. Her birthday started out with a trip to Starbucks, where we ordered a Venti decaf. Java Chip Frap. with an extra cup. The extra cup was so that Olivia could have her own special cup of coffee. Mind you, this is the first time she's had her own cup of coffee. Normally if she gets any it's only a sip or two. Dolly's Donuts was our next stop and she ordered a chocolate donut with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. Of course after she had eaten the sprinkles and frosting off she was done with the donut. Back at home she "helped" Ryan work in the yard a little bit, then came inside and played toys with me for a little while. When Ryan finished with the yard work, he took her to the park to play on the toys while I finished some things inside the house.

Playing with mega blocks. I think we were building a train.

Oops! Dropped her cup while trying to drink the last little bit.

I was going to clean it up for her, but she really wanted to do it. She loves to clean.

We ran to Taco Bell for lunch. She had her usual - beans and rice.

Then it was naptime. She normally goes down around noon, but it was about 1:30 that day. Her party was at 2:30, so Ryan had to wake her up when everyone got there. Thankfully she didn't seem to mind too much. She even let me rush her into the bath tub for a quick bath before I dressed her. I think she was just so excited to see all her friends that she didn't care. We had Steve and Laura, Al and Mel, Jill (the girls were with their dad), Pawpaw and Memaw, and Shane and RaeAnne. The weather was beautiful outside (70's), so we had the party on the back patio. Last year we had everyone over for dinner, but this year we decided to go simple and just have cake and ice cream. We had found a Birthday Bear Care Bear cake pan at a yard sale/thrift store last year, so that's what we did for the cake. I have to say that I exceeded my expectations in the cake decorating department. I'm not trying to brag - it just turned out way better than I thought it would. ;) I didn't have to buy any tips or colors either, because it just so happens that my MIL had everything I needed. Lovely! So enough about that. We started out with having the kids find goodie bags that Ryan had hidden in the yard. They were filled with bangles (for the girls), plastic bugs, silly straws, kazoos, and sidewalk chalk. Then we moved on to opening presents and eating cake and ice cream. Oh, and I made a little sparkly drink by mixing raspberry lemonade concentrate with lemon-lime Shasta - YUM!

Olivia and Claire opening their goodie bags.

Getting ready to open presents.

Brooklyn, Claire, Brandon, Olivia, Corrine

CAKE! (That's what Olivia said every time she saw it.)

It was a very relaxing party and I think all the kids had fun. I never heard any complaints, at least. :) Grandpa and JoLinda stayed after the party and, after visiting for a while, they took us to In N Out for dinner. While we were there we started talking about Louie Giglio and they asked us if we had seen Fruitcake and Ice Cream. We hadn't, so when we got back home that's what we did. Amazing story! It's less that 30 minutes long, but it leaves you with chills. At least it did me. I'm so glad that Grandpa and Jo were able to be here for Olivia's birthday and that we got to spend the afternoon/evening together.

The Beach

Picture lazy day. Warm sun. Beautiful calm waves. Eating burritos on the beach. Of course, I forgot to take my camera, but we did go to the beach on Saturday. It was gorgeous! When we first got out there, we thought we had gotten there too late for the warm part of the day, but we were just in time for it. The clouds moved away and let the sun shine down intensely on us. Olivia had a blast. Her favorite place is the sand. She loves to lay in it, crawl in it, swim in it, you name it. She never sat still the whole time we were there. She had her bucket and shovel and hardly used them (although, you know if some of her friends had been there they would have been fighting over it). Ryan took her down to the water and they waded in it for a while. After a bit she wanted to go down there again, so I took her. She didn't want to get out of the water. No, the water was not warm - it was freezing. So were my feet. Actually they were numb and starting to hurt. We stayed down there until I couldn't bear it anymore and then I had to force her to go back up to where Ryan was reading a book. Afterwards we stopped at Rite Aid for ice cream and ate it outside. Great way to end a beach visit. It was marvelous. Sorry you guys weren't here to enjoy it with us.