Birthday Girl pics

Miss Anna thankfully picked up mommy's camera and got some great shots of the Birthday Girl. Thank you so much for doing that! We appreciated it!

The Party

The party weather was about 80 degrees and not a cloud in sight! It was so nice. Thankfully! There were over 40 people celebrating Lauren's 2nd Birthday. It was so nice to have such a great turnout. We were able to see friends we don't get to see as often now that we are in Washington. Thank you all for coming!

Here is Lauren with Papa and Cousin Sam. She was trying to figure out her Fred Flinstone car. It had buttons on the steering wheel but none of them made it go!

Finally figuring out that it takes "feet" power.

Being a very cautious driver....

Cheese Ball.

We took the tent and tunnel outside, which was a huge hit!

Some of the party guests....Lauren looks and smiles here....


Everyone else looks and smiles as Lauren looks away....

The Birthday girl's "cake". We had another pan of Wow Wow Wubbzy cupcakes for the kids.

Lauren during "Happy Birthday to you."

She took her cupcake and made haste for her car. Guess she likes to eat and drive!

I made her a Wow Wow Wubbzy apron for the party....she at least wore it for the cake part!

It was a great day. Thanks again for everyone taking time out of their schedule to come celebrate our little girl turning 2! She got a ton of toys and has made the living room a disaster! We are so appreciative of our very generous and caring friends and family.

Cousins

Here are a few pictures of the Cousins for the Birthday Party. They brought their Pillow Pets so they could all have their Pillow Pets in the picture!

This is probably the best picture out of the group even though Miss Lauren is looking somewhere else! Does anyone have any hints on getting 3 kids to look in only YOUR direction and SMILE.....ALL AT THE SAME TIME???

Looking at the other family!

Sam has just about had enough pictures.......

And he's officially done!

I love this one....not a single one of them is looking at the camera!

Presents!

Last weekend we celebrated Lauren's birthday a tad early. Everyone met for the party at Grandma and Grandpa's. It was really good to get everyone together. We had great weather! And Lauren was spoiled!

We did a few presents before the party with just the family. Here she is digging into the box from Auntie Bethany, Cousin Sydney and Cousing Samuel. She was very excited!

She really liked the bee Pillow Pet. She likes Buzz Buzz off Mickey Mouse Clubhouse....so this is her very own Buzz Buzz!


She wasn't sure of the curly ribbon bow Auntie Emmy put on her package!

She started to get a handle on the ripping and tearing finally!

She had to stop to look make sure Cousin Sydney was still there and watching!

There was a Wow Wow Wubbzy Movie inside with a train puzzle. She is really into Wubbzy and that was a small theme of her birthday. Daddy and Mommy got her the dancing Wow Wow you can see in the background.

Lauren's First Mariners Game

On Saturday, Daddy, Mommy, Grandma and Grandpa took Lauren to Seattle for a Mariners game vs. the Texas Rangers.

Here's the city....a horrible picture I know, but we were moving and it was raining, so it's taken through the window as well. You can see the stadium behind the big poll to the left of the center of the photo.

Here Lauren is....a little overwhelmed with the size of the stadium. She was the only one of us wearing Mariners gear!


All of the seat ushers thought Lauren was pretty cool. They give old baseball cards to the little kids. Lauren got a couple and a certificate to fill out for her "first Mariners game".

Here she is with her Mariner Moose. Mommy and Daddy got a 5-week subscription to the Seattle Times and they gave Lauren the moose. There wasn't any way around it! She was getting a moose, subscription or not! Once the game started the big Moose was on the Rangers' dugout and Lauren spotted him, even from our seats!!! She'd hold up her little guy as if to say "Hey Buddy, I got you!"

Lauren loved the music and clapping between at bats and innings. She also liked the little boy in front of us who shared his Red Vines with her. She has a bright red mark on her nose from taking a header off Rody into her wood play cube (just in time for her birthday party) that morning. The little boy in front of us had a black eye....so they were quite the pair!

Styling! You can see all the stains from the good ballpark food she was trying. She liked the Garlic Fries, soft serve ice cream and Auntie Anne's Pretzel. A very nutritious dinner!

Getting a little tired....winding down.

The view from our seats....

We were leaving the stadium when the Mariners finally hit a home run. They still lost 6-1, so we didn't miss much. It was a nice family outing. Lauren slept on the way home, which daddy made it in 1 hour and 9 minutes (a personal best I didn't know we were trying to accomplish). But then Lauren decided she wasn't tired and was up until 12:20 a.m. Finally mommy turned off Saturday Night Live and read a book to put her to sleep!

Leavenworth

Here are the pics from Leavenworth I promised. Thank you Mindy for taking all of these! It's so nice to actually have some mother-daughter shots!

Such a cute little town and all of its Bavarian touches! Every building is designed this way from their Safeway to their NAPA to their little shops and everything in between....you name it!

Lauren on arrival to Leavenworth....rested and full of herself!

Here we are in front of the beer barrel wagon....if only we didn't have Lauren!

The view from Gustav's.

Lauren, cracking up as usual!

Miss Mindy with the super cute draft horse that was taking people on carriage rides. Lauren even calls Mindy by her name....must be because it's so close to her favorite characters names: Manny, Minnie and Ming Ming.

Lauren was way into him as soon as she saw him from her stroller. She wasn't intimidated of his size.

She kept saying "eye" and I had to stop her from poking him.

Givin' the pony some lovin' the only way she knew how....kisses!

Mike and Mindy were so welcoming. It was so nice to get away. Lauren was into everything, but thankfully everything she did was "ok". Not sure if it was them just being nice or it was really ok!! We loved hanging out with them and Lauren loves their dogs Lacey and Pickle. She woke up each morning "puppies?" After I told her they were sleeping she'd cry! Biscuit is just as loving as Lauren would like her to be dang it! Thanks Hollidays! It was great and we can't wait until we do it again....hopefully the passes won't be too inundated with snow!

Sunday night visitors

On Sunday night we had surprise company. Noni and her mommy couldn't quite make the last 2 hour drive to see Noni's daddy. So they crashed at our place. Lauren was excited to see Baby Noni. (Even though they are only 9 months apart, Noni is still a "baby"!)

Here the girls are after their bath....zoning out. Both were exhausted from event-filled weekends. But it didn't stop them staying up until almost 10 p.m. playing.

Hugs....

I think by this point the hug turned into a choke hold!


Lauren enjoyed having Noni here even if it was for a short while. She wasn't sure about the sharing part. Lauren liked to help feed Noni, but sharing the toys....not so much! But it was vice versa as well, so it must be the age! Lauren cried when Noni left and cried when she woke up from her nap and Noni was still gone.