Alida is 2!

Exactly 2 years ago I was experiencing a lot of relief - Alida was about 8 minutes old and I was happy to have her journey to the outside world complete!  Here are a few pictures of how she spent her second birthday:

On the eve of Alida's birthday Jason loaded up the incubator - chicks in 3 weeks!

We started the day by decorating the front room with balloons and streamers - Kali got her stickers out and wrote "Happy Birthday" on a balloon for Alida's high chair.

It seemed fitting that our walking iris flower had two blooms on it today!

Alida's birthday brunch was enjoyed by all: broccoli quiche, chicken sausage, maple yogurt with apples, cranberry lemon muffins, and chocolate persimmon muffins - as you can see we are clearly "suffering" from having given up grocery shopping for Lent!

Kali had the idea of taking a picture of Alida and making a puzzle out of it, which she did. Adorable and a big hit!

Time for a birthday nappy walk!

Enjoying a birthday snooze - she's so big!!

Kali, Alida and I played scrabble at Kali's request.  I felt like I was competing against myself as Alida almost beat me!

As always the creamy pesto pasta was a big hit - she ignored the chicken tenders once the noodles appeared on the scene and had no interest in the beets...

Opening a present from Mommy and Daddy - but worth noting was her birthday outfit which she selected for after her birthday bath!

Not 1 but 3 sing along CD's...

Girls trying out the dancing floor with one of the CD's.

Now the day is winding down.  Alida is cuddled up with me nursing (hope she isn't ready to grow up completely yet!) as I type.  We may try to squeeze in a game together before calling it a day.  And there is some leftover birthday cake that we might put a dollop of sour cherry pie filling on for the sentimentality of it (Mom and I were canning cherries until hours before Alida's birth and we still have some!).  The other activity of the evening still underway is getting peppers, tomatoes, basil, eggplant and some other seeds started (because the snow will go away sometime...).