Celebrating Molly

My little girl turned 2 today.  I can believe it.  She's been displaying signs of "terrible two's" for months now.  With the passing of the anniversary of this special day, I am honored to look back and be thankful for the gift she is to me, my family, and our friends.

I'm not a huge fan of birthday parties.  Maybe it's the overwhelming guilt of spending money and asking others to spend money that makes me get a knot in my stomach.  It's not like she needs anything.  The girl's favorite toys are giant bottles of spices from BJ's.  They have names.  I call them paprika, garlic salt and red pepper flakes.  To her they are Tenga, Minga, and Coco.  Sometimes they are trains, sometimes they invite each other over for dinner,  sometimes stack on top of each other and they are towers.  I just love her and her imagination.  ...alright, maybe the girl needs some dolls.

But...as the date quickly approached in between the middle of the chaos of summer ending and school beginning, I felt the need as a "good" mother to make sure the day was celebrated.  And I'm glad I did.  Today a few of our friends and family gathered at my parents' house under their beautiful picnic pavilion to tell Molly that she was loved.

Last year the theme was "girl."  This year the theme was "flower."  I'm trying my best to avoid the Disney princess party that I see looming in the very near future...  (I want to wait until she's going to remember it so it can be extra special if I'm going to pony up the cash to buy the necessary Princess decor.)

bouncy house = another way for Molly to boss other kids around.

centerpieces...  

B, birthday girl, one proud mama

she loved her watermelon...

...as you can see 

cupcakes that took way to long to make, but I loved them. 

2! 

Special Agent Oso from Pop-pop and B.  She was giggling and just saying "He's so si-wee."  over and over.  It was adorable!  

and the big hit of the day from Uncle Gregg....

It took her forever to get going because each time she pushed the button to make it go two inches, she felt the need to celebrate her accomplishment.  

"I did it!"

"I did it again!"

Then she got the hang of it...

...and then it was Oso's turn to push the button.  

and of course, there was a whole lot of Sadie-passing around...

and some sheep feeding...

I'm glad we decided to celebrate our sweet girl!  

Happy Birthday, Molly Grace!