Happy Birthday, Julia!

Hey, remember how last week was Julia's birthday? Oh, you don't? Because I haven't posted a single thing since April 12? Oops.

Guess what? Julia turned 2! And we had a Hello Kitty party to celebrate! We invited a few of Julia's friends over for the party (I figured a 2-year-old doesn't need more than 3 friends over, don't you agree?), and I thought we all had a great time (especially Julia, which is really all that matters).

Behold, my cake decorating skills:

I was stewing about the cake for weeks, but I think it came together rather well. Thank goodness for candy melts, because I really can't decorate a cake with frosting.

I also made this cute banner:

I'm particularly excited about the fact that we can reuse it. So stinking cute.

We played a couple of games, including "Pin the Bow on Hello Kitty." It was kind of over the kids' heads, and I don't think any of them were too keen to have a blindfold on, but it was fun to just spin around and stick the bows on anyway.
We also had a few rounds of "Ring Around the Rosie," and, "The Wheels on the Bus," and maybe another song or two that I can't think of right now. What more could a 2-year-old want?

I swear a got a better picture of the spread, but I think it got deleted when my camera batteries died as I was loading the pictures onto my computer. Stupid batteries. Anyway, we had pink popcorn, goldfish crackers, cake, and a trifle. The trifle was sort of a surprise addition to our party. We were going to have strawberry cake, but that cake turned out. . . less than good. Pretty lopsided, to be specific. Coupled with my pitiful frosting skills, a lopsided cake is pretty much asking for disaster. So I took my Mom's suggestion and made a trifle with it instead. And then made another cake (chocolate this time) for the decorating.

The birthday girl was so excited to blow out the candles!

Her words: "Mmmm, that's yummy, delicious!"

And because she wanted to have pink frosting, I plopped some on her plate. Birthday girls get whatever their hearts desire.

And then we opened presents! Oh, it was exciting. The paper was flying! And she was so excited by each and every thing she opened up, exclaiming, "It's Hello Kitty!" Or, "It's Rocket!" Or, "It's a new baby!" She was thrilled by every gift.


Not to mention the big gift from Mom and Dad:

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And then we gave everyone a little box to take home.

Good times.

Oh, we also had my parents, and my Grandma, come down for the birthday. It was so fun to see them, especially my Grandma. I was so glad she decided to come. They took Julia out to dinner at Red Robin, where she firmly stated that she would be drinking milk when the waitress asked for our drink order, and then chose to dine upon chicken fingers and french fries. She also received a birthday sundae, complete with balloons and singing. I think it was pretty magical for her.

And to finish off the day, we decided it was high time to turn on the sprinklers, and I told Julia she could wear her swimming suit and run through them. That was a great idea. I think it was a great way to round off the birthday.

Happy Birthday, my darling girl!