We celebrated Della's birthday a couple weeks early so not to loose it in Christmas. We timed it such that we could prepare her party during her afternoon nap and our guests would arrive to find a rested and happy birthday girl ... as opposed to a grumpy, punch happy, tired girl. Our plan worked fairly well ...
This is Stark silently cursing me for buying tissue puffs.
Lesson ... never buy tissue puffs as they are a test of patience to puff up! But, they make fantastic pom-poms for 2 year olds!
Della has moved on from Winnie-the-Pooh and The Chica Show to Mickey Mouse ... so there was an abundance of mouse ears for this birthday. I'm not sure if it's just Della or all two yearolds, but she's really good at opening presents!
The mouse ears stayed on for ... well, they didn't stay on. This is her taking them off.
The cake ... banana cake with peanut butter frosting, a Porter family tradition. Made by our favorite vegan chef, it was very yummy.
This was Della's expression when everyone sang her Happy Birthday ... she didn't know quite what to make of it. But she quickly overcame her confusion when the candles were lit ...
Della really enjoyed the cake but her initial priority was the ice cream!
Stark had assembled Della's BIG birthday gift and we'd hidden it away in her playroom until the big reveal. She was initially distracted by the sudden reappearance of last years BIG gift, her ball tent but she soon recognized the trampoline for what it was and we've been watching her jump ever since.
Between jumping sessions Della rejoined the party in the front room dragging her ball tent behind her. As a parental side note, the ball tent will only be around for another week or so then it's going back into storage until next year ... we can take only so much ball picking up!
Static!
Della had the brilliant thought ... if I love balls and the trampoline maybe I can combine the two!
Have I mentioned that Della is a little monkey? She's since stopped climbing the walls but it was interesting there for a couple days.
Della's next brilliant thought ... if I like balls, jumping, and balloons ... maybe I can combine all three! She gathered up all the balloons from the front room and hauled them back to the play room where she did her best to stuff them in the trampoline.
A week later and we are still in a rotation of jumping with/without balls, balloons, and whatever else she can drag into the trampoline. Yet, the trampoline has proven to be an excellent purchase as jumping is a great energy burner on these drizzly winter days.
Happy 2nd Birthday Della. It may not have been the most glamorous birthday but you seemed to enjoy yourself. We LOVE you and can't wait to see what the next year brings.
***This post was put together very slowly over two weeks in 10 minute increments between the demands of a baby and a toddler***
