2 years old! the belated Birthday post

Sorry this took so long to get up. Pictures will be forthcoming.
.
Sunday, January 24th, 2010 was Moira's 2nd birthday. We had been talking about it with her for sometime prior and she was looking forward to it.

The night before I made her requested Elmo cake. The pan was rented from a bakery supply shop and I got all the icing needs together. It was the first time I'd tried doing proper buttercream icing with a bag and such, but it worked out all right. The Elmo cake, while time consuming, looked pretty good by the time I was done. It also weathered the overnight in the fridge well too. The interior was, of course, chocolate.

That morning we got up when she did. Moira had already discovered the little wooden Ikea bed that Darcy had assembled for her the night before. it was sitting in our loft. I came out of the bedroom to find her moving some of her dollies to it, so I helped her relocate it to her bedroom. There was a wooden highchair for her dollies too. Moira was very happy about getting presents and eagerly searched her room for the penguins that I hid within. There were two penguin puppets (a baby and daddy according to Moira) and two penguin pillow pals (a baby and mommy, again as she determined). All had been bought some time ago, the baby pillow pal being from Moira's Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. She also got a set of Sesame Street wall stickies and she delighted in telling me where to place them (Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Oscar).

We eventually managed to convince her to get dressed (in her new Elmo shirt of course) and eat so that we could go out and get her the promised balloons. She got to pick her big foil Elmo balloon (she chose the biggest one, which is still floating in our living room) and a few additional regular ones (pink, blue and a purple one with number 2 on it). We let her look as the weights that were available to tie the balloons down to and she found the one Sesame Street one (with Ernie on it). Moira also attempted to take an Elmo DVD as well (the balloons were in the party sections of a video store), but we pried that out of her hands. Once home, the big full body Elmo balloon got lots of hugs from Moira - it's about the same size she is.

She had a good nap and afterwards we had lots of friends drop by. We'd sent out an email inviting people to pop in anytime that afternoon and a lot of them did. Moira was thrilled with the visitors, literally skipping and jumping when some of the kids arrived. Cake, ice cream and snacks were had by all. At the end of the day there was little of Elmo remaining. Moira talked about the Elmo cake and how she and the other kids had eaten it at her little table for some days after the party. We also got a bit of a chance to show off Moira's room. She was happy to take people up there and play.

Present wise she had fun. These were from relatives mostly, as we'd told friends not to bring gifts - Moira was mainly thrilled with having so many people to grin at. The clothes she got have already been eagerly worn - a pink pair of sparkly pants from Grandpa are coveted, as are all the clothes that she's gotten over Christmas and her birthday from her fashionable Auntie (these are demanded whenever she sees them in the closet). Anything that was Elmo-ish is beloved and she's already made use of her paints and painting supplies. A little wind up crocodile is now a fixture in her bath too. Some things probably won't get too much play until she's a bit older, but I I'd sort of hoped for that. Her birthday and Christmas are so close, I was aiming that some things would last as playthings as she grew throughout the year.

So now is where I should post the photo links. Unfortunately, they aren't up yet (harass Darcy, not me!). I'll see if they're off the camera and try and get a few up onto Facebook soon. We got a new camera the week before the party and I think it's nicer than our old one.