Vivienne is 2

My “baby” is 2 now.

Her actual birthday was last Sunday, August 2, and then we had her party this past Saturday, the 8th. It’s been a busy couple of weeks, which is why I have once again fallen off the blogging wagon. I love Instagram, you guys. It is so much easier for me to keep up with and I love looking back at my Instagram feed for memories of the daily snippets of our lives. If you don’t yet follow me over there, you can find me @heatherkj. I post way more over there than I do here, I promise.

Anyway…

On Saturday night, the night before Vivienne’s birthday, I sneaked into her room and took a few pictures of her as she slept her last night as a 1 year old.

The tush in the air, the diaper hanging out, the blankies. I want to remember it all.

When we woke up in the morning, we went in to get her and get dressed right away. We were planning to continue our family tradition of going out for giant pancakes on the kids’ birthdays, and since it was a weekend, we were nervous the restaurant was going to be crowded so we wanted to get there as early as possible.

I tried to take a pic of Vivienne standing in her crib under her name but she was pissed about me putting her back in there after she had already been out, and decided to show us that she can lift her leg up over the rail now. Probably should drop the crib another notch or two…

We were pleasantly surprised at the restaurant—we didn’t even have to wait! It pays to be the “early bird” on a Sunday, I guess. :)

Vivienne got her very own mammoth pancake and we put a couple of candles in it for her and sang. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.

She rather enjoyed the pancake, though. Little piggy! We still came home with plenty of leftovers for the rest of the week, though. Pop leftover pancakes in the toaster and they are good as new!

On the way home, I mentioned on the spur of the moment that we should try a bike ride. We hadn’t yet gotten around to trying it this year, and I thought maybe Vivienne would tolerate the trailer better now that she’s a little older (she cried in it last year). So we came back to the house, got changed, got the bikes and trailer out, filled all the tires with air, etc. A little while later, we were ready to go!

It was a completely gorgeous day. Just perfect. And the girls loved riding in the trailer together! They kept giggling whenever Michael went over bumps. It was really cute.

We rode a few miles and decided to stop at a playground to let the girls run around for a bit.

After a while, it was getting close to lunchtime, so we decided to head back home. Surprisingly, Vivienne got back into the bike trailer without a fight (she is not usually very happy about leaving a playground!), which I guess means she REALLY liked it.

We fed the girls a little lunch and then Vivienne went down for a nap. Nora and I got busy making homemade pesto and brownies for Vivienne’s birthday dinner and dessert. Our parents and Michael’s sister were coming over for an early dinner before Nora’s baseball game.

Vivienne LOVES pesto (just like Nora), so dinner was a hit.

We sang to her and she was NOT A FAN. Poor thing would’ve crawled under the table to hide if she could have. I don’t blame her—I hate being sung to, too!

Sissy helped her blow out the candles. And she did rather enjoy the dessert part, though.

Shortly after, we all headed out to Nora’s T-ball game. Nora enjoyed herself as she has been (so cute watching her play!) and Vivienne had fun running around with our niece, Sadie, and the rest of our family. Our nephew, Hunter, is on the same team as Nora so it’s like a mini family get-together every time they play, which is perfect!

Fast-forward through five days of work and nights of baking and decorating cookies and cakes and we were at party day. This year, we chose to go with a “mermaid/beach” theme, which we followed pretty loosely. The invitations, the cake and the cookies were all in line with the theme. Everything else was just a color scheme—yellow and aqua for the sun and the sea!

We had a pretty good crowd at our house again. It’s always nice to have an excuse to see our more extended family, and some friends. I love getting everyone together for a few hours. And we really lucked out again with the weather… it was mid-70s and partly sunny/cloudy so it was quite comfortable outside all afternoon. So nice!

We made a giant crockpot full of pulled chicken and served it with slider rolls, and we also made some baked beans. Our moms and a few other family members pitched in by bringing some appetizers and side dishes. Good stuff.

Vivienne was dilly-dallying with her SECOND serving and taking forever so I eventually cut her off and threw away her plate when she was on one of her jaunts away from the table. She caught me doing it, though, and she was PISSED. Threw a big old hissy fit complete with real tears in front of everyone, making me look like an evil mother for STARVING her or something. But I was trying to keep the party moving and wanted to get her started on presents so I gave her a cookie to placate her. I figured I’m not above bribing with sweets on her birthday. :)

She was only half-interested in presents. It was tough to keep her interested. She got a lot of really nice stuff, though, especially clothes. Love it! And she has been enjoying the toys, too, now that she has had time to open and explore them outside of the chaos of a birthday party.

After presents, we did cake. She was still not thrilled with everyone singing to her, but she DID attempt to blow out her own candle afterward, which was heartbreakingly adorable.

A lot of people started taking off shortly after cake, so things began to wind down.

Before my brother and his family could leave, though, Nora had to get in her baby fix. This is our new niece, Brynn, who is only two weeks old. Nora is in love. As is Vivienne, but she was too distracted to pay her too much attention by this point.

Sadie is a big fan of our newest family member, too. Love all of these cousins!

We spent the rest of the afternoon/early evening outside, cleaning up and playing with the girls while catching a few moments of relaxation in between. It was really such a nice day!

And I had to chase Vivienne around to get a few photos of her with her birthday crown on. Our daycare provider makes them these beautiful handmade paper crowns every year and they are just too cute for words.

At one point, Michael was sitting down in a chair watching Nora on the swing set. Vivienne literally dragged her own chair up right next to his and sat down in it. Thankfully, I still had the camera hanging around my neck so I could snap this moment! How stinking cute are they…

Another successful party in the books. We get to do it all over again next month for Nora’s 5th!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, spunky, silly, smart Vivienne May. I love her so.