Birthdays!!

Danica climbed a big hurdle--she is no longer mommy's baby. She is mommy's big 2 year old.

It is hard to believe that it has only been two years. Until you see how much she has truly grown.

We had a party at the Park for Danica--since that is her favorite place to go. The defining element of the party was the cake. Once Danica saw the toys on the top of the cake--nothing could distract her. Not little things like opening presents or eating cupcakes.
Of course it was too windy again this year to actually blow out the candles, but Danica was more interested in the eating the frosting to wait. Of course that was until she actually got the Elmo and Big Bird cars. Then she didn't even care about the frosting.

Overall the party was a lot of fun. The other children had a great time opening Danica's presents while Danica was playing with Big Bird and Elmo. Of course she got a lot of Elmo. Danica has a mild (major) obsession with all things Elmo and Sesame Street. (Note the shirt--she loves to name all of the characters on her shirt. All you have to do is ask).

But I did say BirthdayS in my title. This weekend we went to the Birthday party for Aunt Phyllis. After cake, ice cream and m&m Danica was focused on playing. And this is my favorite one to watch her play with.

Ghosts and Goblins and...Little Red Riding Hood

Memories--Here are a picture of Danica at Halloween last year. She was a ballerina and so super cute.

And here are some pictures and a video of Danica at Halloween this year. She was Little Red Riding Hood. She is so tall that the costume (I got the one for 2 year olds) was almost too small.

We went to a neighborhood Halloween party. She loved the cupcake walk, the candy the people. But what she loved more than anything else was the bean bag toss game. She kept running back to it. She became almost a permanent fixture at the table.

No one minded because really she didn't care about the candy. She didn't care if they gave her any or not. All she wanted to do was toss the bean bags through the holes.

umm I think it has been a while...

My Aunt Shirley subtlely reminded me that I was slacking a little on my blog updates--okay maybe she blantantly called me out and maybe I have been slacking a lot on my blog updates but you get the picture...

Anyway, Danica and I have been doing well--just nothing exciting enough to warrant pictures and a blog update. But you ask so I deliver.

Every weekend morning (or better yet every morning I am off work), Danica and I have been going to the park. Danica knows the route so well she gets excited the moment she first sees the playground equipment in the distance. The screaming exuberance is contagious.

Her favorite part is the slide--she would spend all day going up the stairs and down the slide if I would let her. And she gets even more excited if she can drag me up to the top so I have to go down the slide with her--fortunately for me I am also the photographer so you don't get to see those pictures. :)

I had noticed that she also seemed to love playing with the sand--so I invested 99 cents into a sand toy kit that became an instant hit. So now I am the look out for more sand toys. Her other newly discovered--or at least new to the blogging community--passion is all things Sesame Street with Elmo and Rubber Duckie as the strong leaders of the group. So she could not contain her excitment when we showed up at the park the first time and Duckie was there to play with.

This morning Danica was obsessed with the sand as well as the duck, so this Duckie got a nice sand scrub. Oh the pampered life of the playground pets. :)

The Vacation Continues

After the whirlwind of the first week of our vacation, Danica and I have slowed down a little for our second week of our vacation. We have spent more time at home playing, coloring (lots of coloring), watching Sesame Street and Yo Gabba Gabba (Danica's two personal favorites), and reading. I found that Barnes and Nobel had a big sale on their clearance books and got Danica three kids books. She loved them and has had Grandpa and I read them to her repeatedly.

I took this picture with my phone. Danica stole the bandana I had on my head for my yoga class (thats the best way to keep my short hair out of my face). And she had such a great smile on her face I had to share it with all of you. Hopefully I get the same laugh that I did.

Vacation!!

I had to take a vacation since Danica's sitter "Nana" took a vacation. And Danica and I have been super busy on this vacation.

Friday we went to a party for a friend's kid's birthday. Danica went into the bounce house--and loved it. Which is why this picture is not so good--she was moving way too much for the camera on my phone to be effective. :)

As we were trying to leave she saw a cupcake. I am thoroughly convince that she is addicted to cupcakes--she doesn't even care what the flavor is. But we couldn't leave until she got her cupcake.

We went bowling on Saturday with friends--well I bowled and Danica played with the younger kids and teens watching them in the arcade. Apparently Danica's favorite game is Skiball. The teen would hand her the ball and she would run it up to the end of the alley and then try to get it into a hole.

Monday, my dad smoked a corned beef (yummy homemade pastrami) and a pork butt. We have had the best sandwiches ever. And Danica steals pieces every chance she gets. I made myself a salad with pastrami on top--I only got about half of the pastrami. :)

Tuesday we ran errands.

Wednesday, I took Danica to a splish splash pad. And she made a lot of friends. Although she wasn't as sure about the water coming from over her head. She liked to splash more than she liked to be splashed. :)

More updates to come. We have a full schedule for the rest of our vacation. :)

When A Pictures Worth a Thousand Words

Yep she has discovered pudding!!

Before and After

We went to a cousin's wedding reception last weekend. And Danica had a ton of fun. But I had to share the before and after pictures.

Before--she had a cute little hair decoration that matched her dress. Her dress was pristine. Everything was perfect--and I managed to get her cute little smile on camera. Perfection:

After chasing her around the cultural hall and church for an hour and having her steal the strawberries off of our plates so she could eat them stem side first (no amount of coaxing would convince her she would be happier starting at the other end), we headed home. The hair decoration had come off by her own hand, and she seemed more impressed with the crazy hair style that the removal created. You can't see it in picture, but the dress is now covered in food (as was the table cloth--sorry Miriam). But what can I say, I still got her cute little smile in the picture, and I still happen to think she is perfection: