Happy Birthday Harper!!

Today is our sweet Harper's 2nd birthday! Where has the time gone?? First of all I can't believe it's finally May- the month I have been waiting for 9 months now but I also can't believe Harper is 2! Harper is such a joy and makes us laugh at her funny expressions, "rude" faces and fun-loving personality. We love you so much Harper!!

Friday we had Harper's party and I had not planned on doing anything big but a couple of weeks ago a friend mentioned that "Dora the Explorer" would be at a local attraction and it happened to be the weekend of Harper's birthday so I thought how perfect, some friends can meet there, have fun at the factory and see Dora-Harper's favorite! Now, let me just say, I never thought I would be doing a "themed" party for my kids, at this age anyway- I remember when Ainsley was under a year old and how I thought it was silly that parents did these Dora or Blue's Clues or Diego themed parties for their 2 year olds because I thought that the kids didn't really even know what it was all about at that age- what did I know? I still had a 8 month old at the time. Well, now I know why because they most certainly do know what it's all about and Dora simply makes Harper happy- she's obsessed with saying "oh maannn" or "swiper no swiping" and she's mesmerized when it comes on tv. So needless to say even though her party wasn't big, it was all about Dora.

Harper is, however, terrified of big cartoon characters in real life so I have been worried this week as to how she would react to seeing Dora and if we would have to remove her from the situation. Never even thinking Ainsley would have this issue, I spent all my time being concerned about Harper when it turns out Ainsley was the one I should have focused on. She started saying on Wednesday how she didn't really want to see Dora but I just blew it off and thought she'd be fine once we got there. Well, I was wrong. Ainsley started from the get go, "Is Dora here, I don't want to see her!" I practically had to drag her through the line just so I could at least get a picture of Harper with Dora, who by the way did surprisingly good. Ainsley on the other hand, was a mess. There are no pictures of her with Dora because she ran past her and into the arms of my friend Renee. Needless to say, a trip to Disney this year could never happen for our family- we wouldn't be able to leave our hotel room with the these two!

Both girls did love all the crafts, coloring, cutting and gluing that we did. And I must say I was very impressed with Mike's crafty side, he would make a great stay-at-home daddy! Here's Harper coloring on a huge wall with marker- oh, I hope she doesn't remember doing that and get any ideas!

Here's one of Mike's crafts, poor guy, just got back from Atlanta late the night before, crazy day at work and then as soon as he walks in the door we're off to see Dora and make crafts-but he'll do anything for his girls.

Here's Harper with Dora and Daddy, she didn't like her too much and cried some but she managed to give her a high five!

Here's another shot of her leaning as far away as possible. Mike's totally trying to act like he's having fun holding a screaming 2 year old while standing next to a huge Dora.Coloring...

Rolling playdoh...

More coloring...

And coloring with chalk... Here's the whole gang- we thought this was a cute one of all the girls- everyone did wonderfully (except for the 20 minutes Ainsley cried about seeing Dora) and seemed to have a great time!

After seeing Dora and making a million crafts we came back to our house and enjoyed this yummy cake! A friend made it, along with gorgeous cupcakes and I think she did an awesome job!

Here's Harper while we sang "Happy Birthday", she knew just what to do with her candles and really handled herself quite well. She really "hammed" it up after this- saying "Harper's Birthday!" with her arms up in the air, but it really sounds like "Hahpahs bahthday"

Presents were opened with the help of all the girls (Ainsley led this) and both girls crashed as soon as their heads hit the pillow. So it was a success and my last "hoorah" before Bennett arrives. Now I'll have two birthdays in May to celebrate-do I combine them or do them separately?? Anyways, thanks so much to our friends and Grammy and Granddaddy that helped us celebrate our little girl's birthday!

Saturday we went to Barnes & Noble where they were having a "Fancy Nancy" book reading and you could dress up in your "fancy"dress up clothes so the girls loved that. Harper was thrilled to wear her princess shoes, tutu and crown! Ainsley wore her Sleeping Beauty costume, of course-no tomboys here, at least not now anyway! Reading with Grammy (my mom)

She may be only be 2 but she is already a little diva!