Happy Birthday, Lily!

The calendar finally caught up to the girl! It's official, she's 2; although she's already been practing hard, very hard, at living up to the number these last few weeks. Lily was excited as could be today. She had all of her favorite things: A big bunch of balloons (or buh-doos, if you please) and her favorite people gathered round her. Add to that a whole lot of pretty paper to shred, some delicious cake, and some fine new toys, and girl was in her two-year-old glory.

Lily learned to say a very exciting new phrase last night, and when she woke up this morning, it wasn't long before she was squealing out choruses of "Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday!" She was even more excited to see a happy birthday present waiting in her room for her when she woke up.



Later in the day, the whole family descended on Lily's house and ate cake, drank, and made merry. Here she is with Weezie, Grandma, and Mom--four generations--and her brand new Raggedy Ann.












After everyone went home, Lily insisted on trying on some of her new clothes and playing with her new toys. She was having so much fun, she would have stayed up all night if we had let her.







Happy Birthday, Princess! We love you so much.


Edited to add:

Mom and Lily made these beautiful and delicious snowflake cookies as a birthday treat for Lily's class at school. Lily was a very enthusiastic cookie-baking helper who quickly discovered that cookie dough tastes pretty darn good!




Also, we had Lily's two-year checkup this week, and to our astonishment the girl grew nearly 4 inches in 6 months! She has zoomed upward from the 50th percentile for height at her last doctor's visit to the 70th percentile this visit. No wonder her pants all seemed to shrink so quickly this Fall.