Roo's Two!

You know I love a good book party.  Ruby's FAVORITE book? (At least when we started planning her second birthday party...) Eric Carle and Bill Martin's, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear".  That animal-themed, colorful, repetitious childhood classic - Ruby has heard it enough to "read" it to us.

Ruby turned TWO on Saturday!  We had a "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" party and celebrated with friends and family.  The Wilsons love a party...and considering we've been stuck inside for the past month...and Adam has been stressed to the MAX...we needed a good time. 

My biggest motivator in the party was: I WANT RUBY(!) AND CHARLOTTE AND ADAM to have a nice day.  So, that meant I couldn't get "crazy-stressed".  (1) I needed to let Adam work; (2) I needed to not complain about how long it was taking him to weed-eat, edge and mow (day-of-party) and just be thankful that he was doing it; (3) the girls had to think party planning was "fun" instead of "I'm-gonna-lock-you-in-this-room-so-I-can-clean-and-you-won't-get-it-dirty-immediately" kind of psychosis I tend to lean towards. I had to relax and roll with it and plan and breathe...not my natural tendency. Luckily, I've been in therapy... 

That darn pre-school bunny we've had for two weeks sure was messy, GEEZ!  You have to clean that cage everyday!  Which means, letting her out in an enclosed space, taking it outside, cleaning out the liter and spraying it down with Clorox, drying it, then lugging it back inside to catch the bunny.  And it's only that easy if (while I was outside cleaning), the girls didn't "accidentally" grab her and bring her into the playroom (where she can get behind the furniture) where Charlotte thinks Molly will enjoy the dollhouse.  She's gone now, but was here for the party.  Apparently, if you don't feed her anything other than her "diet" she isn't near as "messy".  I saw several goldfish crackers in the cage.  So, I'll back off Molly...

Ruby woke up Saturday morning and said, 'now it's my birthday?!  I'm three?! No, TWO.  PRESENTS!'  Charlotte woke up and checked the calender (as she had been doing all week).  Alright!  Finally!

I made all of the kids t-shirts with animals from the book on them.  Ruby's was really special, all the animals and her picture on it.  She took one look at it and hit it and said, 'no' and then, 'I want a dress!' 

All those years of looking at bow-heads in the hand-smocking, I never would have believed I'd have a daughter that preferred it that way...

It all kind of fell apart when Ruby only took a 30 minute nap pre-party.  See, Adam took Charlotte to get cake & balloons, and to run by the job, and I was suppose to (having finished cleaning) "set" the table and prepare the food.  Ruby got up too early.  She spotted the cake.  She climbed up on the table.  Opened the lid. 

Ruby Jane!  What are you doing?! 

(Big pouty face)  'MOM! I just want a TASTE!'

Everytime I came back into the room she was up on the table, tasting.  The cake was smudged.

All of the grandparents were coming from out-of-town and they all got there early.  Gigi was the first to arrive.  It seemed like it'd been forever since we'd seen each other, so we had a ton of gabbing and catching up to do.  And I got distracted.  Then somebody else came and somebody else.  And it wasn't done.  I mean, once mom & dad got there and I focused long enough to realize that there was still a ton of prep to do I set mom to work!  And all of grandmothers joined in to help her.  Yay Grandma's!

I was so excited, and laughing and chatting and being distracted that I never picked up the camera.  During the whole party, I didn't pick up the camera.  Now that I think about it...I'm not sure if Charlotte even brushed her hair on Saturday...

Somehow the cake ended up in the living room.  As excited as Ruby started off, she was feeling a little apprehensive in the beginning.  It really wasn't until we brought out the cake (and somehow the cake ended up in the living room) and kids started shouting for "presents!" and she warmed up and started to party. 

It all felt very intimate...I had a great time, we Wilsons had a blast.  You know our old house, big, boxy rooms, with pockets of cool air...people always seem to bunch up and float from room to room together - big party.  We never spread out.  Unless I give specific instructions to people: Group1 here, Group 2 there, Group 3, over there...we cluster.  But it was fun!  We had a great time. 

And then afterwards, some of us grown-ups brought our beer out back, set up giant, industrial size fans and let the girls run through Ruby's new sprinkler.  FOR AN HOUR, at least.  Charlotte was outside for an hour (imagine), Ruby had an outdoor playmate, her best friend. 

It was a super-Saturday and a fun birthday. 

We love you all that made it!  For all of you that weren't able to make it?  We missed you, and hope to see you soon.

As a special treat: