A party for our birthday girl

Hard to believe, but Kate's second birthday is TOMORROW. We celebrated yesterday with a small gathering of friends and family at our house. (Gutsy, huh, considering I'm about 39 weeks pregnant? I had a horrible headache all day--my first in MONTHS--but my absolutely wonderful hubby helped me pull off the party. He even vacuumed. What a man!) The theme? "Hello Kitty..." as every time we pass by the massive Hello Kitty head in the Target girls' section, Kate says "Meow!" and blows an air-kiss (her seal of approval).

The Hello Kitty cupcakes were a pain to put together but turned out so cute. I found the recipe cupcakes at this site: http://www.merryantoinette.com/2009/02/hello-cupcakes.html

Happy Birthday time:

Kate absolutely did not know what to do with her birthday candle. She sat and stared at it for awhile before trying to grab it with her fingers. Guess we should have done a few practice rounds.

Being very silly with her cupcake:

We definitely crowded our small kitchen! Would have been nice to have a finished backyard for overflow (or at least some grass), but right now, there's just dirt out there.

Jack really, really wanted to open Kate's presents for her. He had to be restrained:

Oooohh! A tea set!

Kate became a very determined present-opener, refusing help of any kind:

Charlie had fun eating his cupcake:

Jack, Dylan, Kate, and Marissa trying out her new toys:

Kate's first real "dolly" (complete with stroller):