Lily's Dora Luau Birthday Party

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I can hardly believe that our little girl is two years old. It is very shocking to think we will soon have a newborn and a two year old. Oh how time does fly! Lily had a great birthday week. Jeff had to work and then attend a scuba dive (he's getting certified) on her actual birthday so we celebrated as a family a day early, April 18th.

On April 18th, Jeff arrived home from work and we ate Lily's favorite dinner, macaroni and cheese and hot dogs. After dinner we sang happy birthday to her and enjoyed some strawberry cupcakes I made for Kindermusik the next morning. She LOVES cupcakes and was so excited to sing the birthday song. After dinner we let her open all her presents from family. She loved ripping into each package and saying "open it, open it!" She received lots of fun things, clothes, books, an aqua doodle, MP3 player (fisher price model for toddlers), blocks, lots of stuff for her kitchen, spud buds and coloring books. She was so excited to play with all her new toys.

On April 19th we woke up and headed out for Kindermusik class. As it was her actual birthday, I baked cupcakes for the class. She enjoyed singing and dancing with all her friends as usual and then at the end of class they all sang Happy Birthday to her. She loved singing the birthday song again (and had been singing it all week). After Kindermusik we drove over to Jeff's work and met him for lunch. We enjoyed some cupcakes with Daddy and Jeff was so happy to see his little girl on her birthday. That evening Lily and I relaxed at home and she went to bed pretty easily. She was wiped from two days of celebrating.

Sunday, April 22nd was the big party. We hosted a Dora the Explorer Luau Party and it was a big success. We had 23 adults, 12 children and 4 babies. It was a little crazy to say the least. Jeff and I worked really hard on the food and decorations. We ordered some fun items from Birthday in a Box and Oriental Trading Company. We had leis for everyone, tiki lamps, Hibiscus garland and Jimmy Buffet Music. For food we did lots of salads (fruit, potato and vegetable pasta), a pineapple and strawberry arrangement, a sandwich bar, cheese and crackers, chicken nuggets, goldfish and pretzels and of course cake and ice cream. I also did a big bowl of strawberry lemon punch and we had a bunch of cold beverages. The kids had a ball playing and running around the house and the food and cake were a big hit. It was a little crowded, but we still had a great time. We opened presents after eating and Lily was blessed with so many wonderful gifts. She was in heaven opening everything. Our good friends Kim and Larry bought her a Dora bike and she was so happy. After presents we sang Happy Birthday once again. She was so excited to eat her cake (it was chocolate, her favorite) she couldn't muster up enough energy to blow out her candle. It was so cute... all the other Mom's had to hold their little ones back, as they all wanted to blow Lily's candle out. It was so funny! Overall the party was a blast. Lily and her friends had a great time and we felt lucky to be sharing our little girl's second birthday with so many wonderful friends.