A Day for Annie

My crazy Annie girl turned 2 on Thursday! The fact that she is already two years old is almost as amazing as the fact that she has made it to her second birthday without stitches or a broken limb.

All who know Annie know that she is fun, wild, charming, and a teeny bit bipolar.

We started off her second birthday by waking the girls up throwing/kicking balloons into their room. Lucy loved it and jumped right up, but Annie was a bit cranky...

She perked right up when we told her we were having pancakes for breakfast. Fortunately Mark didn't have to be at work until 8 that day so we woke the girls up early so he could have a quick breakfast with the birthday girl.

My 4 (almost 5!) years of mommy wisdom has taught me that birthday parties are a few things: stressful, expensive, and almost never worth it. Especially when they are young enough to not care or understand. So I decided to forgo the party for Annie this year. She's 2, she doesn't care, and I'm sure we will get the chance to throw her plenty of birthday parties in the future. 

In lieu of a party, I decided to just make the whole day about Annie. Do whatever she wanted to do.....so we ate pancakes for breakfast, and spent the rest of the day doing fun Annie things.

We played with Play Doh, and I didn't freak out once when they mixed the colors all up...

I made her a special birthday lunch including her favorite fruit smoothie

I let her help me make cupcakes and I didn't freak out when she made a mess (noticing a theme here?)

We had her favorite for dinner. She would seriously eat Chick fil A chicken nuggets for every meal every day if I would let her. In fact, Lucy would too. I'm thinking they put drugs in their food...

She put her own sprinkles on her cupcake (and I didn't freak out!) and we sang Happy Birthday to her.

It's funny because although I'm pretty sure she had no clue it was her birthday, she definitely understood that the day was all about her. I could tell that she loved the special attention and she was all smiles and grins the whole day.

My mom and Michael (Grandpa) came over for dinner and cupcakes because Michael knew he wasn't going to be able to see her on Sunday, which is when we all went out to eat and had cookie cake. (Ever since we told Annie her birthday was coming up, she says "Burpday, cookie cake!!" over and over and over)

She opened a few presents

And she ended the day by doing her absolute favorite thing: jumping on/from/into furniture

To try and explain with words how much I love this little girl would be an extreme injustice.

She brings life and laughter into every moment. She has brought me hope, joy, and fear. She is a constant reminder of God's grace and favor to our family. She is my crazy girl whom I love with all my heart!

Happy Birthday Annie Faith! You are more of a blessing than you will ever know!