Second Birthday!

That's right, Emma is 2...and two and half months.  Needless to say, I'm a little behind on my blogging. So lets get caught up, shall we?

Emma turned 2 on June 20th -- we had a special dinner of homemade pizza and some cupcakes to finish the night.  Emma opened a few presents from us and enjoyed her special day.  Throughout the evening, she would randomly break out in song, "Happy birthday to Emma."

The happy birthday girl!

Monkey birthday balloons. 

Emma is picking just the right one...so many choices!

She got it!

Emma is modeling a number of birthday gifts.  Thank you to Uncle Jon and Aunt Amy for the awesome mower.  Thank you to Jessica for the sweet Baltimore Orioles can cozies / wrist bands (which Emma confiscated from Momma and Daddy's portion of the gift).  Emma is also sporting her new pink Crocs which she got from us.  These quickly became her footwear of choice and Emma wouldn't leave home without her "cawawks."

Curious George was the special guest at Emma's big birthday bash which took place the following weekend.  Melissa outdid herself and flashed her cake baking skills with a killer Curious George cake!  Not only did it look amazing but it was also delicious!  Probably the best chocolate buttercream frosting that I've ever eaten...yum!

Besides the cake, we had all of Emma's favorite foods including bananas, animal crackers, banana bread, "dippy dippy" for the fruit, sugar cookies, and of course cupcakes (with aforementioned top notch frosting).

A few of Emma's favorite friends were able to make the party.  From left to right: John, Kya, and Colin.  They were loving the sand and water table.  I think at one point we had to refill the water portion because John had drank most of it.

Every now and then Emma made her way over to see how her friends were doing, but most of the afternoon she spent on her brand new tricked-out tricycle.  Partly because she liked riding it, but mostly to make sure that none of her toddler friends got their hands on it.

She even helped me wrench on it a little bit to fix the alignment.

Among the many other birthday gifts that she got, Emma really loved her bubbles and new reading chair!

Also in attendance: the parents of toddler friends, Auntie Megan, Grandma and Grandpa B, GG, Grandma and Grandpa Stull, and Uncle Larry and Aunt Julie.

Emma had a great birthday and really enjoyed her friends, family and delicious goodies at her party.  We also had a great time reflecting on the past year and the first 2 years of Emma's life.  I can't imagine what the past 2 years would have been like without Emma but I can tell you that it wouldn't have been nearly as wonderful.  She adds immeasurable joy to our lives every day and I'm looking forward to what the next year brings. :)

With love, and happy birthday wishes, from Minneapolis,
Jason, Melissa, and Emma