The Cupcake's 2nd Birthday

The Cupcake turned 2 on Thursday.

We celebrated by going to Storytime. She got a free cookie from the cafe, and all the kids at Storytime sang the birthday song for her. The rest of the day (the whole week pretty much) was spent trying to prepare for her party today, Saturday.

It was a Winnie the Pooh party, of course. :-)


I designed the invitations myself (the blue (purple?) square is hiding my RSVP info).

I would be lying if I said I was truly happy with the party. It was absolutely a great time, and R had fun with all of her friends, but we did not give ourselves enough time to set up. The party started at 10, and I rolled into the parking lot at 10:03. Senpai was there already, setting up an elaborate tree decoration in the middle of the park pavilion (that we did not get pictures of!!! SOB), but there was still so much else to do. I rushed to get food arranged on tables, accepted all help that was offered by guests, and then we settled into the party without having taken pictures of anything (sob!). But it was a blast. I must emphasize that. As disappointed as my perfectionist self is that everything was not arranged and photographed "just so," I have to let it go and admit that it was still a fun party.

This is the only picture where you can get a hint of Senpai's tree inside the pavilion. Beautiful birthday girl, though.

UPDATE: Senpai pulled this still shot of the tree from some video we had taken. You can see my beehive piñata hanging from it, as well as a couple of goody bags. You can't see it here, but a Pooh garden statue is also hanging out in the tree. The strong wind that day gave life to the streamers and flowers as they fluttered and snapped in the breeze. It was truly enchanting to watch.
  


She had 7 friends show up!


Senpai and I spent a couple of nights last week making papier mache beehive pinatas. We each made one.


Here's the one I made. Senpai decided mine was too pretty, so his was the one that the kids demolished for candy. I wasn't sure how well two-year olds would do with a piñata, but it was actually really cute to see them all take a whack at it with the stick.


I ordered the cake from a local bakery. I had waaaaaay too much else to do to worry about how to make a Pooh cake.


We had served lunch of pulled pork that I cooked through the night, fruit and veggie trays that I cut myself (a friend helped to assemble them at the party; thank you!), beans, potato chips, and we also had huge tubs of potato salad and hummus that never made it out of the cooler (!!!). Sigh. Lots to do.


Here are the food labels I had worked on last night as my last project for the party. They got set aside somewhere at the park, forgotten about, and then not found until we were cleaning up. I wonder if more people would have tried the iced tea if they had known that it was honey green tea. Oh well.


This is what the goody bags looked like. I am happy to report that every child left with a goody bag; I didn't forget anyone! This one was leftover because we had a no show party guest.


We had balloons! There were these three mylar balloons and then we also had ten red ones. A friend tied some balloons to trees around the pavilion (thank you!) and the rest were just clipped onto the grill. So much for table decorations, lol.


R didn't spend too much time on the park equipment, but she did have a fun moment with the swings here.


Here is R on her "birthday throne," aka the travel potty set up next to the trash cans, haha. I'm happy to report that she made it through the party with no accidents! The whole day, even! And she's getting better at waking in the night to go potty. All of this means that we have a diaper-free two year old! Big girl!!!


After such a fun, enjoyable party, this is what we get to look forward to tomorrow: clean up. :-P



Happy Birthday, Cupcake!!

When You Wish Upon a Star...

A Cupcake's dream comes true.



This image taken by Disney Photographers.




We went to Disney World. It was R's second time going. You may recall how she missed meeting Pooh last trip. We more than made up for it this time around. She saw Pooh three times!! The first, captured in the photos above, was at Hollywood Studios. The second, below, was breakfast at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom.







The third was our last hoo-rah at the Magic Kingdom. We were on our way out of the park when I happened to spy this photo op right at the exit. We couldn't let R leave without saying goodbye to her dear friends.




It was a good trip.

This image taken by Disney Photographers.

A Very Pooh Halloween

Wow, it's November already: we set our clocks back, Guy Fawkes continues to live in infamy with the numerous Facebook posts of the Gunpowder Treason poem, and Veteran's Day is at the end of this week. So, maybe I'd better post about Halloween already. ^_^

But first, this is just too cute not to share:


With the front rail removed from her crib, R now has the freedom to get in and out of bed as she chooses. This day, she wandered all around her room when she was supposed to be down for her nap, and then sleep unexpectedly caught up with her. When I went upstairs and found her like that, I stood next to her for a good five minutes wondering if I should leave her be or pick her up and drop her bed, possibly waking her. The carpet is well padded underneath. Senpai and I have each slept on that carpet before, so we know it's comfortable enough, but it was the baby doll pillow that sold me on leaving her there. I covered her up with a blanket, but then she started to stir so I went ahead and put her in bed where she finished her nap.

By now-- especially after seeing the above picture with the little lady still holding onto her Pooh doll even in slumber-- you should know that R LOVES Pooh. So there really was no question of who we would dress her up as for Halloween this year. Behold, the Pooh Cupcake.


I happily bought this costume from Babies 'R Us. No stressing out over sewing a costume this year!

Last year, she wasn't crawling yet. I thought it'd be great to have her dressed as a mermaid, but I didn't like any of the store-bought infant costumes and thus set off to sew one myself. Here's a reminder pic:


Awww... Okay, back to this year. She celebrated Halloween at several different events. The pic above was trick or treating on our little town's main street. It happened on the Friday before Halloween, so the place was packed with little kids, all getting a jump on the early candy handouts.



Saturday morning there was a special Halloween Storytime at Barnes & Noble where they decorated bags and then went trick or treating through the store. R lost interest after the bags were made, though, so there wasn't much candy from this venture.


Saturday night there was a "Trunk or Treat" event at a local church where you trick or treat in the parking lot where everyone has their car trunks decorated. It was fun, and fruitful (or, should I say, candy-full?).


We went to the Zoo on Sunday. At night, the zoo had fun Halloween lights and activities. During the day, when we went, it was just normal zoo operations, but they still had this Frankenstein guy up, perfect for catching a Franken-Pooh. We didn't mean to have R in her costume at the zoo, but it was so incredibly cold and windy that day (not at all what the weather forecast had said), that Senpai ran back for the costume we had left in the car for R to have some extra warmth.



Monday was another regularly scheduled Storytime. Since she had already worn her "official" costume on Saturday, I dressed her in a Pooh outfit that we had bought at the Disney Store during our Florida vacation.


Halloween night. Senpai borrowed some decorations from our neighbors (who always go overboard in their decorating. This year they even borrowed the front yard of the house next to them on the other side.) and made a haunted entrance to our house.


Here's what it looked like in the light. We didn't take R trick or treating through our neighborhood on Halloween night, but she enjoyed handing out candy with Mom and Dad. The play table is there to keep her occupied.


Here's R the Pooh, standing guard over our wilted pumpkins.


The pumpkins looked nicer when we first carved them. See?


Well, that was our 2011 Halloween! We had a blast, and I hope you did, too.

11 mos... almost a year

The changes are coming fast now. (Haven't I said that before?)

We are so close to R's first birthday, and she is picking up the pace to catch up with other one-year-olds. She can go from crawling to sitting back to crawling again. She can get up on her knees. She can pull herself to standing when she's in her crib demanding attention. She asks for things that she wants, like snacks or to be held standing up. Tonight she surprised both Senpai and I by crawling over to the tv and yelling at us. We talked to her, "What's wrong, Sweetie? You're okay, you don't need to yell." She kept at it until I picked her up. From her new viewpoint in my arms she could see the "Winnie the Pooh" dvd case on the tv stand, and she started wiggling excitedly. I laughed at Senpai, "I know exactly what she wants!"

We set her up with a pillow and her Pooh and Tigger dolls, and just watch what happened:



As I was recording with my point'n'shoot camera (sorry for the sad digital quality), I couldn't stop myself from giggling. I looked up to see Senpai's reaction, and he was having just as hard a time keeping himself together. Even after I stopped the camera, we couldn't pull ourselves away from watching her get into the movie. I'm trying to think of why this is special to us. I mean, she's reacting to her favorite movie, whoop-de-doo. But... she asked for it. And look at how happy she is that she got it! (Uh oh, we're in trouble.)

She is proving every day to be more and more of her own person. The parenting book I'm reading states that, "You are responsible to your kids, but you don't own them. They own themselves." Thank you, R, for showing me the pure beauty of you.

I'm Home!

It's been a lo-o-ong day. So long, in fact, that I went to bed that night after writing only that first sentence. Okay, let's try this again.

It was Senpai's idea. My parents' birthdays are both at the end of January. Mom had called me earlier in the month to remind me that Dad was turning 60 this year. Uh oh, I thought, I gotta do something special, but what? Then Senpai asked me, "Why don't you go down to see them?" He has to spend a week in Texas sometime soonish for work training, and he wanted to offset that delightful week on my own with R by sending me on a fun trip to Florida to see my family. "That's great!" I said, "But I'm taking R with me." He had braced himself for the idea of spending the weekend alone with R, but I convinced him that the surprise visit would be more of a gift to my parents if they could see their grandbaby as well (they've seen enough of me in their lives, ha!). I called up my brother and asked if he could pick us up from the airport and lodge us for a couple of nights, and he agreed. It was set!

There was a minor setback when my brother told me that Mom and Dad were spending the entire weekend at Disney World. Um... R and I don't mind tagging along at Disney World; they'd take us, right?? Bro was under the impression that Mom was looking forward to spending the time alone with Dad, but I was hopeful that R and my unexpected arrival would spur a family day.

The flight out on Saturday morning went (thankfully) without a hitch. Bro and his wife, pregnant with twins, and their 17 month old daughter, C, met us at the airport and took us back to their house until the birthday dinner. The dinner was at a hibachi restaraunt in Orlando (Bro made the reservations). Mom texted him an hour before the dinner saying that they were there already. I was worried that she would find out how many people were on the reservation! When we got there, it turned out the restaurant hadn't even opened yet; other groups of people in addition to Mom and Dad were all waiting outside. Bro and C distracted them while R and I unloaded ourselves from the minivan (no quick task when there are carseats involved!). SIL held back to take pictures. I sidled up to Mom just as Bro said, "I hope you don't mind we invited a few other guests..."

She screamed at us.
"OH MY GOD!!! OH MY GOD!!!"

Ahahaha, oh man, I wish we had recorded it. SIL got pics, which I can't wait to see. I didn't see Dad's initial reaction, but when he came up to R and I his eyes were shining. ^_^


SIL, C, Bro, and R at the birthday dinner.


Oma, Grandad, and C at the birthday dinner.

We all went to the Magic Kingdom the next day.


R with Oma and Grandad at Toon Town.


R and C in Minnie's House.


Mommy and R with her new Winnie the Pooh doll.

R's favorite Disney character is Winnie the Pooh. She already had a Pooh doll at home that Grandma had given her for Christmas, but when R was fussing at Disney World and in need of a new toy, a Minnie plush would not do. Oh no, she had no love for Minnie, so then I held up that Pooh doll you see in the picture, and she smiled real big. Yeah, she has two Pooh's now. Oh, and I'm so sad! We had just rounded the corner to the Pooh attraction and there were the Pooh and Tigger characters, getting pictures taken with people! They had just finished with one group and I held on to R for dear life and made a beeline up to them, but then the Disney guards closed in and the characters started walking away as they waved cheerily. I was so heart broken. :-( It made no difference to R because she was looking the other way and didn't even see the characters. Oh well. Maybe she'll get her picture taken with Pooh next time.

Our time in Florida was extended due to the storm as I mentioned in a previous post. Mom and I went to Universal Studios on Monday while Dad watched R (Butterbeer is gooooood), and then R and I packed up to finish our stay at Mom and Dad's house. I got to watch Mom's play rehearsal (she's always in a play. It's hard to keep up sometimes with what character she's doing in what show, but she's a very good actress.), and then Dad took R and I to the local wildlife park to see the manatees and Florida's only hippo.

It was a very pleasant trip. I missed Senpai terribly by the end of it, but he was making good progress on R's room, so it was good that he stayed up in the snowy north. Mom and Dad enjoyed their birthday presents, Bro and family got to meet R and vice versa, and it was overall just a great idea. Thanks, Senpai.

Update: Mom ordered this pic from Disney. Group photo! (Just ignore Mickey kicking R in the head.)