Abbi's 2nd Birthday Party

I want my children to grow up knowing they are special, and that their birthday is a special day.  I debated about what to do for Abbi's birthday this year - she's still not really old enough to remember things, but I wanted to do something fun.  And the hard part about having a January birthday is that you can't do anything outside.  (Although one of these years, I want to have a snow picnic.  I think that would be a lot of fun!)  And our house is so small that it's hard to do anything there.  So after some discussion with my sisters, we decided to have some fun at Kangaroo Zoo then have a light dinner and cake at our house.

Abbi has been to Kangaroo Zoo once before, and she's been to Jumpin' Jacks a few times, but she's been scared of the "rides".  (For those of you that don't know what Kangaroo Zoo and Jumpin' Jacks are, they are places that have a lot of the big blow up rides/slides/jumping rooms for kids to play in.)  I was hoping that now that she is 2, and is normally so fearless, that she would jump right in and want to play.  She talked about going for weeks before her party.

But no such luck.  All she wanted to do was play in the little 2 and under area that had some little baby things to play with.  I don't know why she was so scared!!

Luckily, the other kids all had fun!

And Abbi had fun playing with Gavin in the little area.  And she was just thrilled to have most of her cousins there with her!

After some jumping fun, we headed back to our house for dinner and cake.  I was a little disappointed in my cake decorating this year.  I wasn't very smart in the first place, and only gave myself about 45 minutes to build and decorate the cake.  And then I decided to do whipped cream frosting instead of buttercream, which wasn't very easy to smooth the fondant over.  So I got lots of tucks - but hey - I tried, right?!?

We enjoyed sandwiches and chips and fruit and veggies.

And Abbi even attempted to eat a vegetable!!

She was so excited to blow out the candles.  She had been practicing for days!

She needed a little bit of help from daddy, but the job got done! 

We had said no gifts, but lucky Abbi had a few gifts to open, which included a new coloring book, a stuffed froggy, and a chipmunks card.

And then from grandma and grandpa, she got a pretty purple tutu and a whole dress up kit, complete with high heels!  She was in heaven!

Abbi was sad when her party was over and can't wait for her birthday next year!!