{birthday girl!}

We had a great time celebrating Emma's second birthday this weekend. My lovely sister was kind enough to take some photos for me. Enjoy!

 I made the bunting for her cake using this tutorial. I love how it turned out!

Emma blew the candle out all by herself!

 The bottom two layers are actually red and then orange, but you can't tell in the photo. I was really pleased with how vibrant the colors turned out.

Emma loves to draw with crayons, so I covered the coffee table with a white paper table cloth and put a big box of crayons on it. It was fun seeing what everyone had drawn once the party was over.

Not a party decoration, but I had to include this photo of my sweet Jack. He's getting so big!

Emma loves balloons, and this kit from Target made it easy to add some. We tied some with the typical balloon ribbon, but used twine on others. I love how it looked!

Since the party was at 2pm, I didn't go crazy with food. My mom made some great white pizza dip, my cousin assembled all the rainbow fruit kabobs, and my sister and mom did the animal shape sandwiches for me. It was great having so much help!

It's easy to get lost in the fun of making decorations and cakes, but I worked hard to make sure Emma knew that everything was for her, not for me. I think it was a success :)

{popping in}

So it's February 13th already, and I said I'd be back in the beginning of February, not the middle! I feel like I blinked and January was over, then I blinked again and it was the middle of February. I suppose that's how it is when you've got two little ones and a busy husband! Our year has had a wonderful start, and the blessings abound as we celebrate Emmaline's 2nd birthday.

I can't believe my baby is 2 today... it went by so fast! Her birthday party was Saturday and she loved it. We were going for a Noah's Ark theme, with the whole 2 by 2 thing, but I decided I'd rather focus on the rainbow than the animals. I used lots of ideas I found on pinterest (who doesn't love pinterest?) to make her decorations and was so pleased with how everything turned out. I even made a rainbow cake that tasted as good as it looked (I thought all the food coloring might make it taste like plastic, but it was good!).

My sister took a bunch of pictures but still has them on her camera, so once I get them I'll share them with you!

As far as the blog goes, I'm going to slowly start posting again and see how it goes. I've enjoyed my hiatus, but miss blogging and am excited to share lots of photos I've been taking with my new camera.