Birthdays!

My sweet baby turned two! I can't believe it. I was already pregnant with Emalyn when Maddie turned two, and I thought she was so grown up, which is so funny because Emalyn still seems so little to me!

She has changed so much over this past year. She has definitely found her voice and is not scared to stand up for herself (and let the whole house know about it in the process)!  I have had so much fun getting to spend time with just her when Maddie is in school. I am amazed at things she knows that I have no idea she does. It hit me a few weeks ago as we were playing hide-and-go-seek with Maddie that she didn't know how to count. So I thought that would be a great opportunity to start working on it. And I said Em start counting with me, "One..." And then she took off all the way to 10! I was shocked. Sweet little thing doesn't get much of a chance to show me what she knows!

We started her birthday morning with Donut Den as has become the tradition. They love sitting up on the stools. 

 And then we had to run back home to get ready for school. Her birthday was on a Wednesday this year, which is the day she goes to school. And there is no other way she would rather spend her day. Every time I drop Maddie off, Emalyn will ask "play with Ann Byrn? (her teacher)" The first week back at school after Christmas she had a meltdown each time we dropped Maddie off , and she didn't get to stay as well.
We made monkey cookies for her class that day. 

Still working on perfecting the icing of sugar cookies, but I will say they turn out better each time I attempt!

Bebe came over after school to bring her a cupcake.

(And yes, all of my Christmas cards were still up. These January birthdays are so hard! I can't get fully regrouped from Christmas before its birthday time!)

She always licks the icing off first!

Mimi and Grand D came over after dinner to give her her presents. 

She loved it as you can tell...

After doing two separate parties last year and still being crammed into our house, we opted for Monkey's Treehouse this year for the party. 

Hard to tell from this picture, but it is her Happy Birthday Banner with monkeys w/ pink bows. :)

The Party Room

I found the cutest monkey printables from this shop on Etsy. She was great to work with me and put together a smaller package of just the things I wanted. 

And for party favors I found monkey stuffed animals on sale on Amazon and monogrammed a bag tag with each of the children's name on them. 

The birthday girl sliding down the slide (holding Bebe's hand of course!)

Inside the treehouse w/ Maddie and Macie!

Oh yes, that would be Neel's child mid-air! They had lots of fun in the ball pit. 

After some time of playing, it was time for snacks and cupcakes. 

 Tried to do things with a monkey theme: we had peanut butter & banana sandwiches in the shape of monkeys and monkey cheese cut-outs and banana cupcakes. 

 Let the snacks begin

Then it was time to sing to the birthday girl. We had just sung to her 4 days earlier but I guess with all of the people, she got scared. She starts off with her hand covering her mouth (like mom I cannot believe you just put a "no touchy" in front of me) and by the end her head is buried into my chest.  

 Thank goodness for big sisters to blow out the candles for you! 

But a banana cupcake makes it all better! :)

January is a month full of birthdays.  We celebrated 7 birthdays on Chris' side of the family, including my sweet husband's 30th! My plan was to surprise him with a weekend away (yea right! I kept it a secret for all of 2 days before I spilled the beans). But we went to the Grove Park Inn for a weekend, and it was wonderful! We dropped the girls off with the Hills (or Honey and D-Doc as my girls call them) in Knoxville on our way up. Its amazing how refreshed you can come back from a weekend!