her birthday. the finale. finally.

With all that has been going on in the past few months....we opted to not have a birthday gathering for Parker's second birthday. In July, I was fine with the idea.

Then August rolls around and I start thinking, "She has to have a birthday party. It's for her."

Then one thing after another...just pure busy-ness..and we finally decided no.

I was a little unsure of our decision until her birthday evening rolled around and we ended up having a really good time. I think we succeeded in making the day special for her and that's all that matters!

And it was virtually stress free. Which was nice.

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I had to go to school until 3:00 that day, so she had spent the day with Geoff. On my way home, I stopped by Party City to bring her home some birthday balloons. I ended up picking up a few little odds and ends/trinkets as well. I couldn't resist.

And that's where we'll begin...

I gave her a "surprise"...a little tin purse-thing with a notebook, brush, bracelets, and necklace inside. She seemed to really enjoy it...

Daddy's such a good sport. Here, she is showing him everything...


But now she wants him to wear it...


Now she has to sit in the bumbo (that we have out for when Payton visits) to go through her tin purse...





This is what happened when I asked her if I could take a picture of her shirt. She raised her shirt! Haha!


Granny and Payton. (And I am kicking myself now because I realize that I failed to get a picture of Parker with Granny!!)

Parker with her birthday balloons!

The birthday cake.

"So...umm...what's this??"

Attempting to blow out the candles.

She didn't quite understand what was going on. So I ended up helping her out.

She really only cared about those M&Ms anyway. I wish we would have captured it in a picture...maybe we did on video....but she really wanted to pick up an M&M, but knew that she wasn't supposed to touch the cake. But after the candles were out, we told her she could get the M&Ms.....and her face was absolutely priceless. "You mean...I can actually touch the cake now??"

"I think I still want another one...."

Kristin, Phil, and Payton came by to bring Parker her gifts and ended up staying for dinner and cake. Then my mom and Terry showed up a bit later to drop off some birthday presents, as well. Let me tell you...I don't think this girl hurts for a thing! She got some really great things that she loves including (but not limited to): a baby high chair, car seat, stroller, and I think her favorite....shoes!!!



And that is just naming a few. She is also supposed to be getting a swing set sometime soon (given to her by my mom & Terry and my dad & Kay and us) when we set aside time to go look... and then have a clear day to have it installed! We are so very blessed to have such a great family and friends!

her birthday cake.

I had the best of intentions of posting more on Parker's birthday over the weekend. But then reality sat in....and a 10 page paper, 6 case studies, 1 clinical learning journal, and 4 nursing journal articles got in my way...to say the very least.

So...tonight I was planning on posting this mega-gigantor-momma post of "all things Parker's 2nd birthday," but due to the volume of pictures I have ;) .....I am doing the cake part tonight and the rest....later. :)

I got the idea to make this rainbow cake from here. She gives an example of how to make this cake Weight Watchers friendly....but I made this one with 2 boxes of white cake mix and just followed the nice, fattening, delicious directions on the box! (NOTE: I did add 10 minutes to the cook time since I was cooking 2 boxes instead of 1)

For the coloring I used this stuff....


It's a concentrated gel (rather than regular food coloring that is runny) so that it does not mess up the consistency of the cake (and/or icing). I love this stuff.

And a little goes a long way!

And it stains. ;)


So then you divide the cake mix into 6 bowls and color as you choose....

Then start making your layers....


And "Tah-dah!!" ...as Parker would say!


Even though this blog showed her before and after pictures...mine turned out different. And I like how this one turned out...I'm sure it was an accident, though. As I am sure I could never get it to do this again. Haha!


So then I iced the cake. For some reason I couldn't buy the store bought kind (nothing wrong with it...it probably would have been better if I had of....but I didn't want to for some reason). So I made this buttercream icing with butter, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. It was good....but it really just comes back to the whole..."I'm not really that big on cake" thing. BUT....give me a Snicker's, oreo, cheesecake, it could even be an oreo-cheesecake, strawberry shortcake, drumstick, brownies...and I'm there! (and maybe it would have tasted a little better if I had not forgotten to get ice cream!!!)

So here's the final product...

And now for some close-ups...






Of course...Parker's favorite part of the cake were these M&Ms....which is what I thought would happen and why I added them to the cake in the first place. I knew she wouldn't be enticed by the rainbow cake that I spent quite a bit of time making the day before.

No....she would have been happy with just a bag of M&Ms!