Happy birthday to Bear!

We've taken SO many photos over the past few days that I thought I would just link to our album here so you can see all of them.

We kicked off her birthday festivities on Tuesday when we brought cupcakes to her class. Her teachers made her a special birthday hat and led her classmates in a rousing rendition of 'Happy Birthday.' It was so cute!

Her actual birthday was yesterday and I took the day off to spend with her (Dada was home with her Wednesday because school was closed). We went to the aquarium with pals Megan and Anna and had a great time! That afternoon we shared a smoothie and Natalie enjoyed playing with her new water table and, of course, bubbles. This girl CANNOT get enough bubbles and always asks for them. Turns out Murphy likes them too! He tries to eat them. Funny.

Today we hit Busch Gardens and the Safari of Fun for Breakfast with Elmo, which I was VERY excited about. Visions of a happy Natalie dancing around and being thrilled to see the characters were playing in my head. However, Miss Natalie had other plans. She was very cranky in the car and therefore overtired by the time we got to breakfast. She proceeded to cling very tightly to me and Dada, cry, and look generally miserable for the first 10-15 minutes we were there. When the characters came out and started singing and dancing, she was moderately happier, though I don't think I saw one smile the entire time. We were able to get some cute photos, though, and I don't think you can tell that she was too unhappy.

But once breakfast was over and she saw the splash area outside the restaurant, Natalie did a complete 180 and was a happy girl the rest of the time we were there. After playing in the water for probably 40 minutes, we went on some rides, climbed around in the Treehouse of Fun and jumped around (well, flopped around and fell a bunch of times) in the largest bounce house thingy I've ever seen. We finished out our day with a stop at the gift shop where Natalie selected a stuffed Zoe doll to be her new friend. She zonked out in the car within five minutes and slept the whole way home. We expected her to sleep for several hours, but as soon as we brought her in and laid her down, she was up again and is now off playing with Dada.

All in all, I think her second birthday has been a lot of fun, even though we didn't do a party this year. It's still hard to believe that two years have gone by!