Happy 2nd Birthday Abby!

Two years old already! Whew! Where the heck does time go? One of the kids' favorite things to do right now is look through photo albums. Their favorite album is one when I was very, very pregnant with Abby. They always point to my belly in the photo and tell me that "that's Abby in your belly, mom!" And every time I see it I can't believe that it was two years ago that it was just the three of us with one on the way. Of course, I can't picture us any other way than with two kids. It's like both of them have always been here and we were just biding our time until we were united. Strange. Here are the two wee ones right before the birthday party. Best photo of them to date I believe.

On to Abby's birthday. After four big, planned birthday parties, I called it quits. I wanted nothing to do with the big hullabaloo of a party. Just cake, ice cream (soy), and presents. I did the total dorky thing and put up a notice on Facebook to family so anyone who wanted to have some cake and ice cream and a good time with the kids could come. The only ones who made it were both sets of grandparents and Mandy and Sean with the kids. But it was nice. I used a bunch of my old decorations from past parties to give it the feel of a party and decorated her a cake (which, by the way, was made from scratch because I couldn't find the strawberry cake mix she wanted without milk). Here's the cake. I didn't really have a plan for it. I just started decorating.

It went really well and Abby had fun. She got a few presents and blew out her candle. Yes...I had an open flame in front of my kid. But in my defense, she was really looking forward to blowing out her candle. She's been practicing and is really good at blowing. So Happy Birthday my sweet baby girl! It's been a crazy ride so far and I can't wait for more!

I would also like to send a big Happy Birthday greeting to my niece, Linsey. Her and Abby share a birthday. I know she wanted to come out and ride the pony this year, but they couldn't make it. Don't worry, Linsey...I'll have Oreo ready and saddled when you visit next and you can take an extra long post-birthday ride. We hope you had an awesome birthday!

Now it's time for the rest of the birthday photos. Enjoy!

Opening presents with a little help.

A pony. She loves ponies.

Aunt Mandy gave her princess dress up gear. And if you'll notice the dress she's wearing, I'd like to thank awesome Aunt Heather for packing up all her girls' outgrown clothes for miss Abby. She loves her dresses. Thanks Heather!



Luke, our social kitty, was in love with the tutu. He was in hog heaven while playing with it.