Our baby girl is 2!!

It is hard to believe that this little girl has been in our family for 2 years now!!  She is definitely a toddler now and no longer a baby and her personality is definitely making itself known into our family.

For her birthday we spent the morning making breakfast cupcakes (muffins) and then went to the zoo. After naps we went to Pizza King for dinner (they absolutely love watching the train go past their booth) and then opened her presents at home, had cupcakes, and played outside in her new sand and water table.

Paul and I always make it a point to take the day off for the kids birthdays.  We love being at home and making them know it's their birthday all day long.  We only have a few years until they are in school and that isn't an option so we want to take the time off while they are young.  It is nice because for Ally's birthday it falls during the summer so I am already off work.

We were in a heat wave this year for Ally's birthday week.  We wanted to get to the zoo but knew we needed to get there early because it was suppose to be in the 100s with the heat index.  So we left around 9:30 am and there was hardly any at the zoo due to the time and the heat.  It actually worked out perfectly for us.

The one spot at the zoo we always have to hit is the train.  Hopefully the zoo never stops running their train because our kids would be so disappointed!!  We decided to hit the plains first before the temps got up to high because (as the plains would imply) there is very little shade and the most walking involved.  After the plains we would exit right by the train.

Sam wanted to race a cheetah.  I'm pretty sure the cheetah finished before he even left the starting line.  The animals were incredibly active all morning.  I am not sure if it was because of the time or the heat but all of them were up close to their fencing and moving around.  We even saw an elephant in the water playing, fully submerged and only coming up every few seconds.  We never see the elephants actually in the water!

The kids were so excited to ride and on the entire train there were literally only 2 other families.  You can see all the empty seats in the pictures below!!  Anytime we ask Sam what his favorite part of the zoo is he will answer the choo choo.  He likes the animals and all, but the train is the selling point!

 

After the train ride the kids were pretty much sweating, hot, and tired.  So we decided to do the forests and the oceans and call it a day.

 After the zoo we went home to eat lunch and put the kids down for naps.  They slept for several hours due to the heat from the zoo and all the exercise.  Once they woke up we met my mom at Pizza King for Ally's birthday dinner.  They absolutely love that place.  As much as it seems it would be the place to go for Sam's birthday (and believe me we always do) Ally really loves it as well.

They pretty much stayed this way for most of the meal.  Waiting for the train to come by and watching it deliver drinks to the other tables.  After dinner mom came back to our house to watch Ally open up her presents from us.  Paul and I got her (and Sam) and sand/water table that has an umbrella (our house has literally no shade for most of the day and it can be way to hot for them outside so the umbrella was a must!), a my little pony wedding castle (with ponies and accessories), a bride and groom big pony, and then some little party favors.  She absolutely loves these things that are sticky and in the shapes of salamanders.  We got her some more of those and some in the shape of frogs.  Then we got her a cupcake notebook with a giant pen.  All toys were a hit this year except maybe the larger sized my little ponies.  Just because she got so many other great toys those have been played with the least amount of time.

 Ally helping Paul put together her sand and water table.

Admiring her new toy before opening up the rest of her presents.

Having Ally open her presents from us on her birthday was a much needed activity.  He had a hard time realizing that all the presents were for Ally that day.  And while he could play with them and they would be at our house, she was the one who got to open everything and have first pick with what to play with.  It was a bit overwhelming for him at first (but that was partly because we didn't do presents until right before bedtime and he had already had an extremely busy day) but it really paid off on Saturday during her present because he just sat back and watched her open everything at her birthday party.

 After presents we sang happy birthday to Ally.  Again, because Ally had her birthday cupcakes and Sam realized he could help her blow out the candle but it wasn't his birthday, this round of singing to Ally went really smoothly.  He sat by and sang to her and then helped her blow out the candle after giving her an opportunity to do it herself first.

After eating the delicious cupcakes it was time to finally go outside and play in the new table.  Because it was already 8:00 (normal bedtime) we just filled it up with water and let them play for about 45 minutes.  They had a blast and were definitely not ready to go to bed.  Overall it was an awesome day spent as a family and celebrating the joy that little Allyson Elisabeth has brought into our lives.  I am always thankful for the blessings that God has brought to our family with our beautiful children!