Happy 2nd Birthday, Olivia!!!

Wow - another year has passed and Olivia Rose is 2 years old! She didn't just celebrate on Sunday, September 16th, she had the whole weekend. On Friday, my parents arrived around 1pm and we drove to daycare to pick Liv up for the day. She was excited to see them and showed her grandparents around her school room. We played outside until Duane got home and then we went out for dinner. Once we returned home, Olivia went to bed and then Duane started a bonfire for us in the backyard. My mom and I also decorated the dining room for Liv - Elmo theme!

Saturday morning Olivia opened up some of her gifts. Our plan was to keep her from being too overwhelmed on her actual birthday with too many gifts. Let me tell you - this girl is spoiled! Her pile of gifts was huge!

the 1st round of gifts

new snow boots from Grandma Kathy

a new doll from Grandma Kathy

Baby Sally having a bottle

the birthday girl in her hat

After the 1st round of gifts, we hit the playground while Duane set up his new smoker. Olivia made sure Papa and Grandma were keeping up with her.

waiting for Papa to come down the slide...

....and there he comes! She thought it was hilarious!

We all had lunch and then Liv went down for her afternoon nap. The original plan was to head to the MN Zoo after the nap and spend the rest of the day there. Well, I wasn't very prepared with my planning because I noticed too late in the game that the zoo closes at 6pm after Labor Day. So....instead of the zoo that evening, we headed to Stillwater. We walked along the river, went to the Teddy Bear park, had dinner at Nacho Mama's and topped it off with a malt! It was a great night!

Since we didn't go to the zoo on Saturday, we headed there first thing in the morning on Sunday. Duane had to stay back at the house because he was smoking a butt for our dinner so it was Papa, Grandma, me and Liv. We walked in about 2 minutes after they opened and must have gotten someone who was in a good mood when he checked my pass - he let my parents in for free! We couldn't believe it! Our first stop was the penguins and then it was on to the rest of the zoo. As we were leaving, we were about 3 miles into our drive and Liv was fast alseep!

big big bears

instead of looking for the Bengal tiger, she was looking for leaves

that white goat freaked her out...for the rest of the afternoon, she was saying, "go away."

Papa and Grandma needed a nap, too, after the zoo

Liv woke up on the wrong side of the bed after her nap so we tried a bike ride to get her mind off being grumpy, especially since she still had more gifts to open!

her new kitchen from Papa and Grandma Potter & the 2nd pile of presents

I should add here that shortly after seeing her kitchen, what did she do? She walked into her playroom and grabbed some paper and a crayon and started to color. Umm....hello?! Obviously she was overwhelmed with it all and needed a quick break. No worries - she LOVES the kitchen and has spent most of her time playing with it!

pots and pans from Papa and Grandma Potter

packages of food from Grandma Kathy

one of the books from Alex and GG

a card and money from Great-Grandpa Kraus

the complete kitchen with food, utensils, pots, cups, plates, apron, etc!

Ready or not - time for dinner and cake! Duane made a feast of pulled pork, coleslaw and baked beans - everything was homemade by him and was delicious! I decided to do cupcakes for Liv as that is about as far as my baking capabilities go. (Mara - please don't laugh at my attempt to "decorate" - I'm embarrassed for you to see these photos....)

she ate the icing off the cupcake and then shoved the cake part away and asked for more....then she licked the icing off another one and shoved the cake part away...you get the picture!

After some Skyping with family, Liv had a bath and some books and then she was put into bed. She must have had too much sugar because she laid in her bed and talked to herself until almost 9pm! She just had too much fun! Thank you again to those of you who gave Liv gifts and sent cards! I've said it before and I'll always say it but she is such a lucky girl!

As each day goes by, she gets funnier and funnier! She said her first sentence this past weekend; she asked Duane, "Where Papa go?" after he left the room. Now it's become a favorite thing to say. She loves to point out colors and can count to 2. The other day when I was stopped at a light, she pointed to each side of the car and said, "one, two trucks." She was right and I couldn't help but laugh and then tell her she was a genius child. Oh and anytime we said, "Happy Birthday!" this weekend, she would quickly say, "2."

She is getting an attitude, though, but we do our best to manage her expectations before a tantrum might begin. We've found that if we explain something as best as possible, she'll go into the situation calmer. Or, maybe I should say, if Duane explains it. We all know she's a Daddy's girl and that will never change. She loves to tell me at night, "Daddy read, Mommy work." Ouch. We typically switch who reads to her before bed and that's when I'm told I need to work. 

I know I'm leaving out so many things to tell you about Liv but I don't have all night. It's been such an amazing 2 years and I know it only gets better - wait - is that possible?!