Claire's Birthday

Claire turned two last Thursday! On her big day, she woke up to a present of dress-up clothes (a tutu, feather boa, and a few things from the Target dollar spot - a hat, wand, and bunny ears) and her favorite breakfast of chocolate croissants. Oh, and Aunt Allie, who I had picked up from the airport the night before!

This is the best picture of the little "two" shirt I made for her. I just printed a two (Arial font in the biggest size that would fit on a sheet of paper) traced it onto some fabric and appliqued it onto a Target shirt.

It was a beautiful spring day, so we walked over to the park.

Our friend Steven (who we know from college and just moved here to work for Adam's company) joined us for dinner. We had pizza, salad (Claire insisted on licking the Italian dressing off each piece of lettuce - weirdo) and éclairs for dessert. Get it?

By the end of the day, our poor little girl had come down with yet another cold and has been grumpy pretty much ever since. So I guess we're being ushered into the terrible twos properly!

We arbitrarily decided that we'd wait until Claire turned two to take her for her first hair cut, so on Saturday that's exactly what we did. Allie watched Maggie while Claire got out on a special date with just mom and dad. For this very first time, we splurged on the fancier kids' salon at the mall.

She sat on Adam's lap and didn't exactly love the process, but didn't cry either. I really thought about doing something drastic, like a cute little bob, but in the end we just went with a trim to even things out.

We intended to let her loose in the big indoor playground there, but with the whole sickness issue, we gave it a pass. I think the chocolate cupcake made it up to her though.

We did some shoe shopping at Stride Rite, which is sneakily located next to the Disney Store. Since we're suckers and couldn't say no to the birthday girl, we went in.

She picked out two little Minnie Mouse dolls and declared that one was for "sister," which was pretty much the sweetest thing ever, so we let them come home with us. Have I mentioned that we're really big suckers?

We ended the birthday celebrations with a simple party after Mass on Sunday.

We made quiche, a veggie tray, fruit skewers, and an amazing peanut butter chocolate cake. Well, actually Allie made the cake while she was watching Maggie on Saturday. She's the best! Since we knew some guests were cutting back on sweets, we tried to make an infused water instead of serving lemonade or something. But it turns out that just slicing up some lemons and limes and leaving them in water overnight is absolutely not how to infuse water. So, so sour. Yuck.

For the decorations, we hung up some tissue paper pom-poms saved from last year's party and a few lanterns from the Target clearance rack. I also printed some favorite Instagrams at Walgreens and taped them to the chalkboard we used to baby-proof the fireplace in our old apartment.

We set up our folding table in the living room, decked out with our family birthday napkins and table runner. We hung Claire's birthday banner over the mantle and tossed some Claire-related art up there.

We ate lunch, watched her birthday video, opened presents, and dug into that cake. It was even better than it looks!

In addition the dress-up clothes she opened on her actual birthday, we also gave her some Mega Blocks and a tool set. Oh, and I made her a pillow! I don't know anything about embroidery, so I basically just winged the whole thing, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Allie made her the cutest little cape. There's even one for her beloved dolly!

Of course, Claire did not at all appreciate the presents we lovingly sewed for her. Stinker.

And that's a wrap! Maybe next year will be the start of the themed parties? I thought about doing a Madeline themed one this year (Claire is obsessed with the books and show) but I'm so glad we kept it simple instead. I'd love to continue the tradition of some solo time with mom and dad. Maybe for turning three we'll do a first trip to the movies?