Hope's Party and the Lady Bug Cake

Although Hope didn't turn two until yesterday, we celebrated on Sunday with extended family for convenience. It was a blast. I simplified the menu and we spent time with family and friends who are like family. Hope was wonderful. She was acting very much like a two year old that morning, but cheered up after her nap. She hugged her baby cousin....
She loved her presents.... (She even gave hugs and said thank you!) She even said thank you and hugged for her gifts.
She was able after much effort to blow her own candles out. Then smiled one last time for me to get this picture.
Ate cake and ice cream like a champ.


After the whole icing fiasco, I was a little nervous about decorating her cake. With Doug's help on the detail work (he shaped the body and put on all the spots and eyes,) we finished it with an hour and a half to spare. That is a first in our house. We put the cake up on top of a dresser so we didn't have a repeat of Macy eating the cake. There was no way I could bake and decorate this one in 40 minutes.

She was so worn out and slept until 10 am on her birthday; her present to Mommy I think. :) We had again her birthday night. We ate left over cake. Followed by her opening her presents from our family. Yes, you are seeing correctly. We bought our own child a drum. She absolutely loves music and so do Ty and Becca. Much of the day was spent having a marching band parade around the home. I'll take the noise if it means peace among the siblings. And for today, it did!