Terrific Two-year Old!

Olivia turned two on Saturday, and I can hardly believe it.  I thought her first year went fast, but her second year went by in the blink of an eye.  Really, my daughter is TWO?!

She is the sweetest little girl and so funny. We can hardly believe how she has changed...she was so serious in her first year year of life - it was all we could do to get her to "laugh," which, for her, was a whopping "he" sound.













A year later, she is constantly smiling and laughing, and is the ultimate ham! The picture above was taken on Friday when she stole my lipstick from my purse... she was so proud of herself! This little girl will come running up behind while you are sitting on the floor and jump on your back.  She'll tackle her brother, who is twice her size.  She is fearless to the point of jumping off diving boards in the deep end at 18 months old. 

She is the sweetest little mommy to her baby dolls.  She rocks them, feeds them, has us change their clothes.  She kisses them and loves on them, pushes them in the stroller, sits them in her shopping cart while she shops, puts them to bed and tells us to "shh."

Olivia dislikes wearing jeans.  She loves comfy play clothes, dresses, and especially her tu-tu from Grammy.  She even wore her tu-tu for her two-year pictures that we took with Ms. Jana a few days ago.  She will smile for the camera and say "cheese!"  She's got the 'run, stop, look back over your shoulder, and grin' pose down pat!

We had a Japanese cherry blossom themed party for her and invited a few of her little girl friends, neighbor Makenna, friends Vera and Madilyn, church buddy Clare, and bestie Charlotte. 

Olivia loves bouncy castles, so we rented one for the day. 

She was so excited - her face just lit up when they delivered it and blew it up!  It was hard to tear her away from the bounce house to open presents!

I had a lot of fun with the Japanese Cherry Blossom theme.  I made her invitations with my cricut machine and used it to cut the cherry blossom branches on it.  As you can see in the pictures, I made yakisoba noodles, which the kids loved, blossom-shaped sammies, edamame, fun candy "sushi," cherry blossom cheesecakes, etc. to go with the theme. 

I made the Happy Birthday Livy banner and decorated with the paper lanterns and faux-cherry blossom flowers (you can't see them here).  I am mad that I forgot to take a picture of the party favors, because they were my favorite: cherry blossom tins with pink-flowered coin purses and Japanese cherry blossom mini hand sanitizers from Bath and Body works (thanks Jen Farrell, you're the best!!).

The cake was the best! My talented friend Jenny made Olivia's birthday cake - a 3-layer strawberry-chocolate cake with beautiful cherry blossoms on the fondant.  I LOVED IT! She did such a great job!!  Here is a little video of us singing Happy Birthday.  It took her a minute to figure out the "blowing out the candles" part!



Birthday girl opening her presents... she loved them all. Special thanks to the grandmas for mailing her presents!  Olivia had so much fun - she was exhausted!  She took a 2-hour nap after the party, and slept past 8 a.m. for the first time EVER the next morning!  Then she took another 2-hour nap a few hours later!  I am now considering purchasing a bouncy house. :)