The day started with skype sessions with Poppy, CC, Laura and Lee, and then The Williams crew too!
And chocolate chip pancakes, I borrowed Julie's idea and tried to make a '2', it did not quite turn out, oops. AND Bella did not like that it had chocolate chips inside, but she loves chocolate chips, and pancakes...go figure, she is very finicky with certain foods, and seems to be very texture oriented as well. Picky.
The decor, The girls helped me make the lady bugs and I even let them stand up on a chair and put it on the wall.
These twirling ladybugs I used a ladder to hang, but the girls did help me color in the dots if you could see them up close you would see the scribble.
Sophia did a great job of pulling apart the tissue paper for these flowers, their stems are chopsticks and they are stuck in rice, I used what I had handy!
Originally we were going to wait until Saturday to celebrate Bella's birthday but our old helper said she could come visit, so we changed it at the last minute. That meant that I started her cake the night before at 9 p.m. when we got Abby's phone call.
Bella did not really remember her, but was wooed by her gift of an umbrella.
Sophia was at school when Abby arrived but they had so much fun when she got home, this was a big surprise for Sophia.
While I was icing the cupcakes in the morning Bella pointed to them and said: 'I don't like it' I knew that meant that she really would not even try it... oh well.
Here is the cake, it kind of looks like a lady bug, the cupcakes were definitely a stretch. If you look at them from above they looked like faces with two white teeth. I did end up taking away the parchment paper with the intention of adding accents, but I ran out of time. Oh well. I cooked this cake in two different sized glass bowls, the head is oreo crumbs, the eyes are opened up mini oreos, The big dots are Oreos, of course. This was the only thing around here I could find to do the trick.
singing to Bella...
she actually blew a candle out on her own. The ladybug looks pretty rough from this angle, but it tasted really good!
plates we brought from the States. And as predicted Bella did not even try her own cake, I am sure she would have liked it if she were willing to forgo her aversion to its outer appearance, but alas, she was not having it....so I let her have more of Sophia's gift to her (all candy).
The unveiling of 'the' gift:
She was surprised....
her very own car, and bright green at that!!!
Excited!!!
Sophia's gift to Bella was a bunch of goodies to eat, skittles (Bella's favorite), chocolate, etc.
Tobin is fighting sleep in this picture, but I love his overalls, he looks like such a little man!!!
We went outside after naps to enjoy the new toy. It kept raining on and off so we would stop and wait under the stairs and then start up again. For dinner we had planned to go out to a restaurant with a play place, but David and I battled serious stomach issues all day (I honestly don't know how we actually made it through the festivities of the day---God's strength). So....we did the only sane thing: we gave the girls leftover pancakes for dinner (not sane: crazy). We ate our saltines and called it a day.
We love you Bella, you are precious precious!!! Happy second birthday!
