It's still so hard to believe my baby girl is 2! She has grown up so fast and developed quite the little personality. She is definitely a toddler now! She is quite the obstinate little girl and likes to say "No" and do the opposite of what I ask her to, just to make me mad. She also likes to tease Colton. She will sneak up while he is playing with his toys and grab one and run off, just to make him mad and get him to chase her. She is very talkative and is always telling me what's what and tattle-telling on Colton. Like I said, quite the little personality :) She is, however, also very sweet. She can give the biggest smiles and best hugs, kisses, and snuggles when she wants to. She loves stories and would be content if I would just sit and read to her hours upon hours. Not even exaggerating!
Katie also loves Dora the Explorer, and that's how we decided to theme her party this year! I may have slightly overdone myself with the party ideas and prep but I really like planning and throwing fun parties! It's fun to watch my kids and everyone else have fun and enjoy themselves!
Jon was in Mexico, on a 3 week Audit for Deere, during her birthday and I was newly pregnant with #3 and exhausted/off & on nauseous, but I managed to pull it all together and I think it turned out great! We made a little adventure course in the house, modeled after Dora and her adventures. Each of the kids got homemade "backpacks" and maps and we visited Musical Mountain, Star Rainbow, and Storybook forest in attempt to find the special Dora book for Katie's birthday!
At Musical Mountain the kids needed to help the mountain remember the words to his favorite song by singing, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. They all earned marracas for helping and singing.
At Star Rainbow, the stars had all fallen off the rainbow and the kids had to help put all the stars back where they went. They all earned a treasure (Dora fruit snacks and beaded necklaces) when the job was done!
At Storybook forest, the kids had to look through the rows of Trees (books) to find the special Dora book for Katie. When they found it, there were Dora stickers inside for everyone!
After the adventure, we opened presents and ate cupcakes! It was lots of fun!!
When Jon got home a few days later, we had a family birthday dinner and birthday cake for Katie (again, Dora themed). Katie was spoiled with lots of fun presents! She is obsessed with slides (for anything) so we got her a Little People car ramp. She calls those "car slides", and Daddy spoiled her even more with her very own toddler slide. Both the kids loved it and it only took them a couple minutes to discover they could go down all sorts of ways (front, back, side, stomach, back-on back, etc.) Katie loved her presents but I think the best present of all was finally having Daddy home!!
