Happy Birthday, sweet Hadley Kat!

Our baby girl turned TWO today! It's hard to believe it was two years ago we first brought her home. It's true what they say about the second kid - time flies by in the blink of an eye!  We never dreamed of the joy she would bring to our lives. She is smart, funny, silly, imaginative, sweet, charming and curious. We love you more than you'll ever know, baby girl!

Last year she was still a little clueless, but she's really starting to grasp it this year, which is fun.  There was a little bit of a build up too, which helped. Nana's package arrived last Tuesday and has been perched up high on a shelf. Too high for little hands to reach, but they could still see it. It was the constant topic of discussion. When Hadley saw it, she said "Oh! My birdday up dere! I open my presents now", but we told her she had to wait. Wyatt got it in his head that the box contained a puppy. He told us several times that Nana got Hadley a puppy. Dayven said there better not be a puppy in there! When I relayed the story to my mom, she was shocked. She asked "How does he know I got her a puppy!? It turns out there was a puppy in there (not a real one, of course). Since the cardboard shipping box was still sealed, we're pretty sure he's psychic, or has x-ray vision.

Hadley told me she wanted an Elmo cake, which was easy enough to do. I decided to forgo the store bought mold this year and use my imagination. The molds are super easy, but they don't really require much creativity. I thought it would be more fun to wing it. It turned out pretty good. The birthday girl knew who it was supposed to be and that's all that counts. She came into the kitchen the day before when I was baking it and with big wide eyes, she asked "What dat smell?..... I smell it! I smell my birdday!" Sure enough. She is such a smartie. I decorated it after she was sleeping and hid it so she wouldn't see it until celebration time.

The entire thing is edible. It's all frosting, except for his orange taffy-covered marshmellow nose!

We decided to officially celebrate her birthday in the afternoon. After our excursion on the streetcar, she was wiped out and took an extra long nap. She finally woke shortly before dinner and we went out back to open presents in the beautiful weather. We got her a few little things to open, but didn't go overboard by any means. She opened our gifts from us, then the ones from Nana and Poppy and she loved them all.

Wyatt was very interested in the presents.

Daddy helped open the presents...

She love to sing!

She loves to dress up and was thrilled with the costume bag I found at a garage sale.

 

 



We had dinner and then the Elmo cake made his grand debut. Hadley loved it! She was ready to just dig in with her fingers like she did last year, but I stopped her and cut her a piece. She gobbled it up and asked for more! Even her non-dessert loving brother seemed to enjoy it.

 

 

After dessert, the kids tackled the Abby Cadabby pinata. It's amazing how sturdy those things are. They were wacking it like crazy and it didn't even crack. At first they seemed to like it, but when Wyatt was really going to town on it, Hadley started to get a little upset and said "No! My Abby Cadabby!" We decided it was so cute and she liked it so much, we'd just let her keep it rather than destroy it. Dayven opened the trap door to release the goodies and we salvaged the rest of Abby. It was a low key celebration, but it was perfect and the birthday girl seemed to enjoy it all. Wyatt loved all the excitement just as much as she did. The kids were both having so much fun playing with all the new loot, we could barely drag them upstairs for baths.

She gives it a tentative whack...

Wyatt attempts to show her how it's done.

Here's how you do it Hadley! He doesn't have much luck either...

Dayven eventually just opens the trap door to release the treats.