Birthday Party #1

We're just a little excited about Abby's 2nd birthday around here. Our little girl had not one party this weekend, but two! Yesterday we had a party at the park with Abby's friends Maya and Layla from our playgroup. The girls all have October birthdays so we decided to throw a joint celebration.

I did some serious baking and whipped up batches of Soft Batch Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, Pumpkin Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Pumpkin Snickerdoodles.

The verdict? Meh. I usually love all things pumpkin but I'm starting to think pumpkin puree in baked goods is overrated. I wasn't crazy about the texture of any of these cookies. I plan on sticking with my mom's tried and true Snickerdoodle recipe next time.

Robert's mom, Betty, flew in on Tuesday night. We are so excited to see her and we're thrilled to have Grandma here for Abby's birthday. This is the first year we've had any family in town to celebrate Abby's big day. I'm grateful for all of her help, too -- she went to the park early with me to string together balloons and set everything up. 

Abby was very excited about the balloons.

Here's Abby playing with birthday girl Maya at the water table.

And here's my dear friend Helenka (Maya's mom) with her family. Helenka's son Eli is the cutest baby boy I've ever seen. Seriously, I think I could sit and stare at him all day and it would never get old.

Here are friends Gabi and Alberto. Busy, busy!

And here's birthday girl #3, Layla. 

Helenka made some yummy pumpkin cupcakes.

A little girl with her sprinkle cupcake. There's nothing better.

Ha!

We wrapped craft paper around one of the picnic benches and the kids enjoyed drawing. Robert has been sick and was fighting an incredibly sore throat all week, but he rallied for the party.

Here are friends Ana and Connor.

Helenka is quite crafty and she constructed an adorable party pinata. It opens with a trap door on the bottom that is attached to strings to pull. The pinata was ignored by the kids for a good hour and a half and then Abby walked under it and became curious. 

She realized how it worked and got very excited.

This might have been my favorite part of the entire day.

We decided to put the goodies back inside and let all the birthday girls play.

Then it was time to sing Happy Birthday. Abby has become a big fan of cake and blowing out candles.

I want to make sure I include pictures of all of Abby's friends. Here's Axel playing in the "snow" we made by combining together baking soda and water. Who knew? You can see the dyed spaghetti play table behind him. 

And here's Kiara. The kids are all getting so big!

When it was finally time to clean up, Abby and Layla had tons of fun playing with all of the balloons.

Abby ended up chasing after balloons all around the park.

Happy birthday(s), sweet Maya, Layla and our dear little Abigail!