Micah and Christine

We had to plan the party around Charlotte's naptime and travel time for out of town guests. Since Charlie normally naps 1-3, I thought that a start time of 4 would be safe. But the birthday girl didn't waken until I gently encouraged her to rise at about 4:30.

I have a problem with party food. I never know how much to plan. Just inviting family and two special (Boston) friends who happened to be in town, we were looking at a guest list of 20 adults and 9 kids. So, despite my best efforts to keep snacks fairly simple and order some pizza, I bought waaayyy too much food. As in, we consumed maybe 1/2 of what I bought. Oops.

We had some veggies, crackers and cheese, and Micah made a roasted red pepper chip dip. I have a thing for colored candy so we had some of that, and I set up a little place to decorate cookies. (Nilla wafers have gotten tiny! Has any one else noticed this???) I also made some limeade.

We ordered Maurizio's pizza, of course. What else would you order in Terre Haute?

I didn't really plan activities or spend a lot of time on decorations. I bought a pack of pink balloons and green balloons, and we just blew up most of them and put them around the house. We brought 6 to the bakery where they made Charlotte's cake, and they filled them up with helium for us.

I also put out the tablecloths and runners that my grandmother and I sewed for the wedding nearly four years ago. They added some fun pink to the party, and I was so glad that they were able to make another appearance.

My step-mother Maradie made one of her famous red velvet cakes for Charlotte. It was so pretty and yummy.

The party went amazingly smoothly. Thanks to my Dad and Maradie for hosting us, since our home is too many hundreds of miles away to host a family get-together.

Our one "activity" was a bunch of bubble stuff outside on the deck. Charlotte happily played with bubbles with her cousins for over an hour. We were very fortunate that the predicted thunderstorms let up and everything dried off for the few hours of her party.

Happy 2nd birthday, little girl!