Darn Happy: Two turning Two

We had a party today for the girls - the theme was "Two!"

We had pairs of balloons, a Tat-Two (tattoo) station, horns to Two-t (toot) and various two-sounding refreshments (H20, two-berry lemonade, two-na (tuna) and red pepper crostini, two-layer greek dip, two-ti (tutti) frutti salad, etc).

We also had a huge number 2 balloon - and the girls spontaneously did this hilarious pose with it! (Can you tell who is who behind there?)

It was so much fun to celebrate - the girls slept till right before the party, and we were lucky to have so many friends to help us get the girls in a party mood (that's Charlie below, "Char-Char" to the girls):

The tattoo station was a big hit - all the kids had tattoos all over, and most of the adults sported a few, too. Here Elena shows her tiger, and Clara shows the placement of the flower she wishes to have on, but won't let Christina put on her:

Karen to the rescue! Clara happily allows her to put the flower tattoo on:

Elena illustrates the tooting horns:

But where are the cupcakes? The girls went into the garage and dragged out the box for the cupcake stand, and pointed helpfully to illustrate what they were waiting for. Christina was trying to have the girls wait for cupcakes until everyone arrived:

But an unexpected tragedy changed our plans. In the blink of an eye, the weights holding down the mammoth 2 balloon slipped off of the balloon, and suddenly:

Yep - away went the balloon. You can see it below right in the middle of the frame. This caused Clara some curiosity and caused Elena acute distress - she started sobbing. Straight up until bedtime they told us the story. "Two! Up! Reach! All gone! Sad."

They (especially Elena) were so upset that distraction was needed. Out came the cupcakes!

Cupcakes help everything:

Clara was especially enamored - these were double-chocolate cupcakes with a vanilla-bean buttercream frosting:

Last year for her birthday, Elena cried when she saw her cupcake and would only eat the lollipop that decorated the top. We're pleased to say she was much happier this year:

Cupcakes for everyone:

Clara illustrates that while these cupcakes were tasty, they were certainly messy!

Other favorite activities during the party were climbing the tree:

Hanging on the steps:

Pouring from the lemonade (all the kids were enchanted with this dispenser - it was so funny! One kid put his head right underneath and just let the lemonade fall a short distance from the spout straight to his mouth. The adults were a bit LESS enchanted than he with that one!)

Clara entertains the crowd with a trick - removing her skirt and then showing that she can "be snappy!" with the snaps on her onesie. She really did have some good dexterity - some said she should consider yoga!

Elena helped our friend Maeve draw one of the leaves they found on the ground:

And then our friend Kate introduces a new fun game - girls in the hula hoop turning in a circle. here are Elena and Clara with their dear friend Annie: