It's Party Time!

This past weekend we celebrated Lia's 2nd birthday with a little happy hour party with family and friends.  We started the morning by going to the Austin Zoo which is a fun rescue zoo just outside of town and it is great because it is really small and you get to see the animals really close up.  Lia loves going to the zoo and liked it this time just as much.  We were able to hear one of the lions roar really loudly several times and every time it happened Lia would stop walking and say "loud noise lion ROAR!"  She's been talking about it ever since.

Matt and Mady checking out the tigers

Lia and Mady both enjoyed checking out the zoo from a higher vantage point!  Glad we had some extra shoulders around for her to ride on!

This is the first major place we have gone with all three kids and Erin and Halle did really well.  We opted not to bring the stroller and just had both of them in carriers (Todd with the bjorn and me with the sling).  It was so much nicer not to have to lug around a huge stroller and I think the little girls liked being carried!

We got home just in time for a quick lunch for Lia and she went down for a nap which gave us some time to get food prepared for the party.  This year we opted not to do a big hoopla and just enjoyed time with close friends and family.

Mr. Bear made another appearance for this 2 year old picture - but you'll have to wait for the full size until her actual birthday!  We did a fun Nemo theme much to Lia's great pleasure and she actually helped me make her cake (and had a wonderful time licking the bowl!).  The cake was a little bit of a story on its own because it faced a near death several times... from being almost smushed in the refrigerator to Todd accidentally turning on the burner while the cake was sitting on the stove...  We had some melted icing and some other damage, but in the end it still looked cute and I'm pretty sure it was still delicious.  :)

Lia's favorite part for sure was hearing people sing Happy Birthday and then getting to blow out the candle.  She did really well and asked for "more" about 5 times (which we happily obliged).

Grandpas and granddaughters!

This semi-decent picture took FOREVER to get because Lia was being a typical two year toot!

Testing out Mr. John's awesome hat!

The party was great fun and a huge success!  Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate our little baby girl!