Hailee and Hannah's 2nd Birthday!

Hailee and Hannah's 2nd birthday is today!  I cannot even believe our little babies are now two years old!  It is so crazy to think about the past two years.  These babes have been such a joy in our lives.  They have made everything a little more crazy for us and they definitely keep me on my toes!  But I would not change anything one bit.  I am so in love with our big, crazy, happy family.

If you remember last year, we had a 1st birthday party planned for our sweet girls and they ended up in the hospital with RSV over the party date.  You can read about that experience here.  Hailee and Hannah having no party thrown for them as of yet was the perfect reason for us to go all out for their 2nd birthday party!  I have been planning their party for weeks.  I had one goal in mind for the party:  I wanted them to have FUN!  I really wanted the spotlight to be on them for the day.  I wanted to have their favorite food, their favorite friends, their favorite everything.  I prayed and prayed all week that no one would be sick.  With all of the flu and illness going around, I was terrified someone would wake up with a fever or something.

The day was really perfect!  Everyone was happy, well, and excited for the party!  Ella was SO excited too!  She helped me with preparing some things which was cute.  The weather was fine, as I always get worried about some unknown snow storm.  My family came down and helped us to get ready and get everything to the venue where the party was.  We had the party at Firefly Play Cafe.  Hailee and Hannah LOVE going to Firefly.  They always have so much fun.  I think it is perfect for two year olds.  The theme of the party was Sesame Street.  They both love Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie, Abby, etc.  Everything turned out so cute!

I wanted tons of photos of the party!  If I wasn't taking pictures, I had delegated someone else to take them.  Enjoy!

I made this sign for the outer door of the venue.  Yes, this photo was taken on my fridge, but I forgot to snap a photo of it yesterday and wanted to include it!

I love the fun details!

These fruit kabobs added a measurable amount of stress to my morning, but turned out super cute.

H, 2, and Elmo cookies.  No, I did not bake them ;)

Abby Cadabby cake!

Waiting for the party to start..

and for friends to arrive!

Ella!

Hailee and her cheese face.

I wanted everyone to know who was who.  I'd say 85% of the friends we and the girls play and hang out with cannot tell them apart.  So, they wore shirts with their names on them.

Love this photo!  All ready in their party outfits!

Giving my Hailee some love.

I think this photo is so funny.  It's like she's saying "My mom hasn't gotten me food yet, and I'm the birthday girl, so can I have some of yours?"

Needless to say, I hurried up and fixed each of them a plate!

Mmmm, chicken, cheese, and fruit!

"Look at me, mom!"

The best we could do for a photo of me and both girls..

Sweet girls

Hannah LOVES going down the slide on her belly!

They were both hilarious at cake time.  While everyone sang, they just sat there, with no expression at all. 

Wondering what the heck was going on and why everyone was singing..

also unsure.

Family photo!

Our kiddos with their cake!

Nom, nom, nom.

Mmmmmm

The kids love the bounce house!

Cheese!

Lots of friends to help celebrate!

What a fun day!  We carried Hailee and Hannah out, kicking and screaming when the party was over.  Even after two hours of fun and excitement, they still wanted to play!  I know they had a great time!  Happy birthday sweet girls!  You are so loved!

Party planning

I LOVE party planning!  I really love birthday party planning, for kids.  And I especially love birthday party planning for my own kids :) 

Little Miss Ella has the big 3 birthday coming up soon, in about a month and a half.  Of course, I started thinking about her party a while ago.  The plan was to have something more low key, at our house.  We have some fun things in the backyard for kids and weren't looking to spend the $250 something that a big place would take to rent out.  Plus, Hannah and Hailee will get the big party this year (well, technically early next year).  I still feel guilty about having to cancel their party for them being in the hospital.  Obviously there was nothing we could do about it, but it still makes me sad that they don't have the photos of the big 1st birthday bash like Ella did.  Ella has now had 2 big, fun birthday parties so I think it is definitely the babies' turn next!

The other day I went to Graeter's Ice Cream with a friend and all of our kids (there are 6 between the two of us:).  We went to the Bethel Road one, in Columbus.  It has a nice size play area and of course, lots of good ice cream.  I noticed that they do birthday parties there so I decided to inquire about it.  They have a small to medium size room that you can rent out and all you pay for is ice cream sundaes for each kid!  They can make their own, with toppings of their choosing, which I'm sure would be really fun!  I knew the date and time of the party already, so I asked if they had availability and it was surprisingly available for the exact day and time we wanted!  I was so excited!  We can decorate how we want, bring in pizza and other food, and let the kids play and have a great time!  The space isn't for a huge amount of people, but will be perfect for our guest list. 

The party theme for our house would've been Hello Kitty.  I was so excited about this theme, but having the party at an ice cream parlor I started looking up ice cream party ideas on Etsy and Pinterest.  What do you know, they had super cute ideas!  So, Hello Kitty will be on hold until the 4th birthday party (which I kindof think it fits a 4 versus 3 year old better anyways) and we will stick with the ice cream theme! 

I asked Ella all the way home if she wanted the party at the ice cream shop or at home and she was so excited, screaming "ice cream shop, ice cream shop!"  I had her call her daddy to get the seal of approval once we got home and it was a done deal. 

We are so excited!  Below are some ideas I have found that I can't wait to try out!