Lucy is 2

Our littlest girlie is now 2 years old! When I think of how she was as a baby I never thought she'd be like how she is now. Sure, she loves being held, loves snuggling, and is still a bit needy, but for the most part she loves playing independently and is sleeping so good (Larry wants to take away her binky, which makes me a bit nervous for how her sleep will change).

Unfortunately, her party did not turn out as great as I had hoped and expected. My plan was to do a princess party in the park with some face painting. It sounded like SO much fun! Unfortunately, trying to book a princess party was really difficult. We booked a pavilion at the South Jordan City Park (figuring that was good middle ground for everyone) and that was fine, but since it was booked for every Saturday in June we had to do the party on a Sunday and the princess party places seemed to not work that day (even though it was never mentioned on their page...boo!). Really there were only 2 good options for us, one didn't work on the Sunday and the other didn't respond to our request (or didn't contact me back).  I tried looking at other entertainment options (including trying to find a bubble artist), but nothing worked out. We realized we weren't going to have that many kids come to the party so we decided to just make it a family day in the park and whoever showed up, showed up. We brought a bubble machine with bubbles and silly string to kind of make it more fun...hopefully.

We also ordered a cake and a sandwich platter from the grocery store, but when I went to go pick them up, they only had the cake. The deli couldn't find our order or any platters were made yet and just mentioned his manager was somewhere around. He said he could try and make another one if I wanted to wait, but I was running late and didn't feel like waiting longer. I just grabbed some meat and cheese from the counter, a thing of hawaiian rolls. We already had some chips and drinks that we picked up earlier that were sitting in a cooler in our car.

We got to the park almost an hour late (queue my blood pressure going SO up because I HATE being late!) and almost everyone was already there. The day ended up being SO windy we couldn't set up the bubbles or have the kids play with silly string. We let the kids play while we visited a bit. Then we hurried and ate (unfortunately, I didn't grab enough rolls...I feel so bad), sang happy birthday and ate some cake, then opened presents. After that we visited some more and let the kids play around for a while. 

A couple adorable things to note were that Lucy loved playing with Nana (my mom) and I know that makes her heart just melt that she's no longer too shy around her. Also, Gwen started picking up trash and I just swell with pride when I see my girls clean things and knowing that's the right thing to do. Cara was so excited to play with Lilly until the dolls came out and then she wanted to play with all those haha. Pierce wouldn't nap for anything. He just seemed so over stimulated with the wind and all the people wanting to look at him. Also, we probably could've avoided paying for that pavilion, no one else was there and it was so empty. Plus our name wasn't even on it to say it was booked for the day, but oh well.

After a couple hours, we all started heading home. We ended up having more people show up than I expected, she got lots of good presents, and she loved the cake and the toys on the cake so it was a win for her. I feel bad it wasn't as good as the other parties have been, but I remembered Cara's 3rd birthday was right as the pandemic started so we didn't even go anywhere for her birthday so I guess each kid has to have one birthday that just isn't the greatest. Luckily, Lucy won't remember this one and she was all smiles so to her it was a good birthday and party. 

Happy Birthday to our Lucy Lou! She's got such a silly smile and loves being a little mama (which is such a surprise to me). She loves cuddling, being held, and playing with babies or stuffed animals. I love how she loves to hold our hands when we are out and about. I love her strawberry blond hair. I love her scrunched nose when she laughs. I love her crooked teeth, they are so cute! I love how she's our tiny little one and how she runs (always moving her left arm like crazy, but her right arm she'll keep still haha). I love watching her play on her own and she's VERY opinionated when others play with her (she'll screech so loudly if someone is in her space and she doesn't want them there). I love how she says her words when Larry does flash cards with her (it always surprises me how many she knows already!). I absolutely love that she knows her ABCs already and she's SO much smarter than I realize most of the time. And I love that she will call out when she farts and then when we ask her what she should say she has the cutest little "'scuse me" voice. I also love how she says "pease" when saying please haha. I also love that she loves to wear sunglasses. She's seriously at the cutest stage ever now and I'm excited to see how her personality develops even more as she gets older.