Andrew and Kate Turn 2!

Somehow I blinked and it was time for Andrew and Kate's second birthday!  That first year was painfully slow and never ending but this second year has been one of the fastest of my life.  I'm working on another post all about these two and what they are up to these days but here are a few (actually a ton) of pictures of how we celebrated the big occasion!

The day before the big birthday our buddies came over to celebrate a little early. We were so sad that we couldn't have the whole NICU9 together like last year. :(  

Mr. and Mrs. potato head! A and K were so excited. They play with those a lot at speech therapy so they were thrilled to each have their own. 

We ordered pizza and Brittney brought some birthday cookies for dessert

We went outside to play after dinner and I just couldn't help but capture a photo of this gorgeous head of hair. I am slightly obsessed with these ringlets. 

I tried to get one last sweet picture of them as one year olds...

"Good luck with that mom!"

That night I gave Ryan the task of blowing up this random hopper toys

It was finally the big day and we started off with our special family birthday breakfast

Thank goodness for big brothers that demonstrate new toys

And that give assistance! Andrew wanted nothing to do with this, he just wanted breakfast. Kate was having a blast and I was priding myself on what a good choice this toy was when she fell off and hit her head on the corner of our cabinet giving her a nice goose egg for her birthday. 

I have always dreamed of having this in my kitchen 

New books from our current favorite author

My sweet friend Sara sent me this collage that morning of pictures she had recently taken. 

It was a slightly hectic morning because we had birthday breakfast and presents and then James's first soccer game at 8:30 AND we were leaving straight from there to go to Greenville overnight so everything had to be completely packed and ready.

Poor Andrew. He was just really out of sorts. 

The lady who made their cakes last year made these adorable cupcakes for us.  I debated on a theme for the party. Harrison suggested a prince and princess theme "because Kate is our little princess mommy" which I thought was precious but honestly the one thing they have in common that they love is Elmo.  

Davis was excited about his Elmo cupcake 

Andrew finally found his happy place: outside with Pappy away from the party, lol. 

I kept it easy- just our close family and simple food. 

Andrew is showing off his impressive back arch skills

Believe it or not this is the only picture I got of the two of them! 

Kate was in her element 

Due to the wind we tried and tried but these candles would not stay lit 

It was time to sing happy birthday and we tried to get Andrew to come but he was busy with the bean bag toss and couldn't be bothered lol. 

So Kate got to be the star of the show

She pretended to blow out her candles 

Soon we had some happy messy kids 

We ended up stripping them down to keep the mess to a minimum 

This was hilarious- I told Georgia to go give Andrew a hug and he took off running but she was determined to do it! 

Finally it was time for presents.  Kate who rarely gets juice was so obsessed with her juice box she could hardly pay attention. 

She was a little more compliant with Georgia's hug though 

When she saw this card she said "Oooooh!" 

Andrew finally got interested 

"Don't even think about touching my new Elmo doll"

"Yes I will hold all six sesame street figures at once while wearing my new converse tennis shoes" 

The pictures may not show it but Andrew really did end up having a fun time. I finally decided to just let go of expectations and let him do whatever. He was very content just playing out in the yard!

That Monday I took the rest of the cupcakes to Andrew and Kate's preschool class and mentioned to their teacher that I didn't get a decent picture.  Well a few hours later she sent me these:

Hooray for the wonderful teachers!  

Happy Birthday to my sweet two year olds!