All Partied Out!

Well, the big event took place this morning. Clara had a wonderful second birthday with her friends. Unfortunately, when you combine being as absent minded as I am with playing hostess, you don't get the best pictures. I'm going to have to get pics from those of you that were on the ball.

Here's the birthday girl before her doggie party. We took some pics outside since it was a balmy 75 degress here in the middle of December. (As a side note, Clara was born on the coldest day of the year in Huntsville.) This year we could've had a pool party if we'd have known.

The dress was given to her by Grandma and Grandpa especially for her birthday. A special thank you to Brandon and Erin for coming a few minutes early to help out in the kitchen and take some pictures. (And for saving us by bringing some cheese, because someone forgot the cheese. That would be me.)

I made all of the kids dog ears. Clara was a corgi of course. I didn't get a good one of all of the kids in their ears; this is the best one I got. We're missing three dogs in this picture. Leah got her ears just like Clara's and then her nose painted and then wanted to know where her doggie dress was. I wish I was Martha Stewart enough to whip up a bunch of hand-smocked clothing for all of our guests.

I made a dog house out of cardboard and we did agility dog racing in the living room. There were dog bone shaped sugar cookies and goldfish in dog bowls. We had hotdogs, fruit salad and veggies and dip and I made chili for the hotdogs and for frito pie.

Here's the dog bone birthday cake I made. You don't want to look at it too close up. The powdered sugar did something funky, because the top had white spots all over it. We might need Grandma to give us a photoshop fixer upper on the picture. We just about had a frosting fiasco last night when I tried icing the sides of this bad boy. It started crumbling and getting all gunked up and then my hero stepped up and Chris was able to finally get it to stick. All in all it didn't look too bad and tasted pretty good.

One of the things Erin helped me do the other day was put Clara's name on a double dog dish that she was supposed to use for her cake and ice cream. I totally forgot to get it out. (See first paragraph.) I was so bummed when I remembered. I'll have to take a pic of her eating leftover cake out of it.

Daddy helped Clara open her presents. Here she is with gifts from her family that couldn't be here to share her special day. We missed y'all! And thank you for your thougtfulness. The bistro table and chairs in the picture above was a gift from Bia and Pawpaw. She received lots of great gifts. The hat was from Brandon and Erin and she decided to keep it on throughout the gift opening ceremony.



And the biggie! Is this not the most awesome tricycle you've ever seen? Chris keeps making fun of me for my choice of tricycle, but come on, this is a thing of beauty.

So here's to another year and to the terrible two's! Thank you to all of our friends who helped make Clara's birthday a special day!