Not so perfectly Perfect

One of the great things about toddlers is they don't demand a whole lot in the way of birthday parties.  In fact, I'm not sure Allie really knew what was going on at all.  And unfortunately her birthday had to be celebrated 3 days late since that was the first chance we had to be together that whole week. 

Here she is unwrapping her presents in the morning.  She loves to unwrap and stack her presents in a pile.



Sidenote: Why didn't I do her hair cuter?  I knew there would be pictures taken . . .

 




I will definitely be using these pictures of the boys for blackmail one day.  They were enjoying the new tea set and little table more than they would ever admit.

 

It took Allie a while to decide to actually sit at her new table.  But once she warmed up to it, she loved it.

Our little family party was interrupted by an indoor soccer game, errands and her nap.  The "party" then re-convened in the late afternoon at Build-A-Bear, with high hopes that she would love a new little teddy bear in a cute princess outfit she had chosen.  Well, that didn't happen because there was about a 2 hour wait just to get your bear stuffed.  Some genius at Build-A-Bear HQ decided to only have 2 employees and 1 stuffing machine working on one of the biggest shopping Saturdays of the year.  After seeing our line not progress for 45 minutes we gave up.

Not deterred by the heartbreak at Build-A-Bear, we moved on to the next phase of our plan.

We spent some time at the Gateway mall looking at the lights and watching the fountain show.  Of course Allie did not want to have her picture taken and this is the best we could come up with. 

And now I'm embarrassed to say that she didn't even get to eat her birthday cupcakes until the next morning right before church.  I'm pretty sure we managed to sing "Happy Birthday" at some point but now I'm realizing I forgot to have her blow out any candles! 

I obviously did not outdo myself with these cupcakes.  But Allie didn't seem to mind. She just wants a very high frosting to cupcake ratio.

 

Um, I think I know what I'm getting Kyle for Christmas this year. 

So considering our tardiness, our choppy schedule, our botched plans and forgetting the candles, we still had a great time celebrating Allie's birthday.  We spent the entire day (2 days actually) together as a family catering to Allie's every whim.  She was thrilled with all of her presents and loved being the center of attention.  I actually enjoyed the whole process very much because I knew I had no choice but to roll with the flow on this one.  Not much planning, very little stress.  Such a change around here!

None of it was perfect, but it was perfect for us.  And Allie, of course, is perfect.  And now I have a 2 year old.  Sniff, sniff.