This year I made her a felt birthday crown (inspired by Frontier Dreams). The back of the crown has leftover cupcake fabric that I used to make her a birthday banner last year and her "1" shirt. I'm so glad I thought of using scraps on the crown, which will last her a few years, because I would've run out quickly doing numbered shirts!
Before the hubs and I went to sleep on her birthday eve, we filled a bunch of helium balloons (tank and balloons purchased at Target for only $20!) and snuck them into her room. We had tied them to her blocks and when she woke up and found them it seemed she was more concerned about her blocks but we still heard lots of, "Look at the balloon!" This was a really fun tradition that I hope to continue every year.
When she came into our room in the morning we had gifts for her to open, and another balloon. I had my camera and video camera on my bedside table so I didn't even have to get out of bed! (Actually I'd already gotten out of bed several times because I heard her stirring and wanted to catch her reaction to the balloons on camera... I was a little excited.)
The gifts we gave her were; A sweater knit by me (hoping to make a birthday sweater - or at least some hand knit - a yearly tradition.), a couple new shirts, and The Jesus Storybook Bible. (This last one was really from Daddy, he picked it up for her while at a leadership conference the weekend before and we just love it. This children's Bible is so accurate, with great pictures and it even holds my attention! We highly recommend it.)
After waffles made by the hubs and a walk to Nana's to open and read a Little House picture book about Laura's birthday, we finally had decided how to spend our day. We ate lunch at home (not our original plan) because it's somewhat difficult to bring a toddler who is allergic to dairy into a restaurant, and spend money on something she's probably not going to eat.
After lunch she typically naps, but we stuck her in the car instead (where she still napped) and drove to a playground to play. We had it all to ourselves so that was fun! I always feel like I still need to chase her up the playground equipment at this age so if there's a ton of kids and moms there I feel weird...
After playing for a bit we decided to get into the car and head over to the mall to Build-a-Bear (she still had a gift card she'd gotten for Christmas '10). I thought she may or may not be interested in building a bear... she was mostly interested in running around the store touching everything (which was fine, we pretty much had the store to ourselves too) and so the hubs and I picked out a bunny and built it. She hates it. We try to get her to give it a hug or something and she's like, "NoooooOOOooo!" Yesterday I had sat it on the couch and she said, "Hey! My bunny!" Then ran over and threw it on the floor. So yeah, maybe some day she'll like it. It's really cute and soft.
After build-a-bunny we went over to Whole Foods. This is our closest WF which is an hour away, so we try to stock up on things we can't really get around here. Which in our case was mainly dairy-free cheeses for the little one. (And dairy free ice cream!) They even have string cheese! I can't even tell you the number of times I'm cooking dinner, open the fridge and Z comes running over asking for a "piece-a cheese?" All we usually had were Daiya shreds, so it's nice to have some of the sliced and string variety. Oh yes, and also a trip to WF usually means the hubs gets a bacon chocolate bar. Sounds gross, right? But it's actually quite delicious, and should be at 8.99 for 3 oz. It's probably a good thing WF is an hour away, huh?
This concluded Z's birthday adventure and we headed home to snuggle and read books.
Her birthday party was the following Sunday and we had a nice, small party with great grandparents, grandparents and a couple aunts and uncles. =]
Ps - as I'm typing this, Maine is getting it's first big snowstorm (we had a smaller storm Halloween weekend) just in time for Thanksgiving travels... but all the schools are cancelled so kids are rejoicing for a 5 day weekend. =]
pps - On Z's birthday eve, I fell asleep on the couch and the hubs decided to surprise me by typing up her birth story. I'd been meaning to do this for uhhh 2 years, but I hadn't, somewhere between wanting to include every detail and not being able to remember every detail somehow I just didn't do it at all. I always thought I'd want to post my birth story for all to read, and maybe I still will someday, but after reading it from the hub's point of view it just felt like a gift to me that I'm not ready to share yet. He wrote it almost like a letter to me and I cried at the end. <3 He is so wonderfully thoughtful.
