Best Darned Birthday

I really thought about calling this the "Best Darned Two-tin Birthday" but it was a little bit too much.

Elizabeth turned two (!) on April 15. TWO. Judging from her behaviour and mannerisms, she's been two for about 6 months now, but according to the calendar, it only just happened. I think the same thing will happen when she turns fourteen, but has been "fourteen" for 2 and a half years.

We started the day off right: regular old cereal and bananas while opening all her birthday cards. Seriously, the best part about living away from all your family is all the MAIL!! I had to go to the post office depot twice to pick up packages - and one was kind of hard to pick up, because it was mailed to Elizabeth Hawkeye, and my ID clearly says Georgina. Luckily, Elizabeth was crashing around the depot as I explained this to the Postie, and there was a huge lineup, so he let me take it. Sometimes toddlers are helpful like that. Then I wrote a love letter to my postman - yes, he's a postman, not a postwoman.

And thank goodness I did, because the package he left that day was this one:

 Oh yes, six bags of Goldfish crackers from Amazon.co.uk. The internet is amazing.

Back to the birthday: cereal, bananas, cards. Then presents from Mum and Dad: a Charlie & Lola stick-on-felt set, a yellow race car toy, a Tiger Who Came To Tea tea set, and a set of talking Buzz Lightyear and Woody toys. The Buzz and Woody were purchased with assistance from multiple people - we can't take all the credit - and were an instant hit.

We had a birthday party for Elizabeth at her favourite playground, with her favourite pals, and her favourite foods (grapes, strawberries, Goldfishes, Muller yogurts, and chocolate cupcakes). The presents were opened 'organically' - as in, whenever I noticed her playing with the child who brought the gift, I brought the gift to be opened. It worked out pretty well, compared to her 1st birthday party, when she was Queen Overwhelma and ended up being Little Miss Puke-A-Lot.

Elizabeth's bestie Cal gave her a hat. Correction: Cal's Mum Kate knitted a hat for Elizabeth. The hat was worn by several toddling partygoers for the remainder of the party. But mostly by Elizabeth, the little accessorizer that she is.

 There was an awful lot of playing:

 And, of course, a lot of running-jumping-chasing-playing with Cal. I felt they needed their own collage, because they are just super cute together. And also: a little boy in a dress shirt and waistcoat requires multiple shots. Side note: my Mum sent this dress for Elizabeth, and the morning it arrived, I tried it on her immediately. She said, "ooooh Mummy, Issabet Cinderella." And then cried when she couldn't wear it that day because I wanted to save it for her party. Side note part II: chocolate cupcakes + white party dress = facepalm.

  Matthew and I made about a billion (well, 30) chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing, and a pink "2" on each one. M's engineering/tetris skills were put to the test to get them to the park balanced on the stroller basket without any of them getting chuddy. "Happy Birthday" was sung twice - I'm surprised it was only twice - so she could blow out the candles again. The cupcakes were a hit with every child - thank you for your secret recipe, Betty Crocker.
All in all, it was a total success, as far as second birthday parties go. There were two moments of parenting awesomeness that require noting. And luckily, because we are awesome at getting bad pictures, both were well photographed.

Here is Elizabeth going across a raised separated-platform-bridge-thing:

 And here she is falling off:

 And here she is crying afterwards, my poor girl!

Towards the end of the party (ie 12:30 pm - getting pretty close to lunch-and-nap time) Elizabeth and Cal were playing Monkey on the rope bridge:

 And this is her right before she fell off, and hit her head on the platform beside her, signalling the end of the party.

Everyone's been to a party where it all ended because a girl started crying. I guess Eliz is just starting young.

I feel like I need a concluding sentence here ... In conclusion, best birthday party ever.