Amaya's Birthday Celebration Part II- Our House and Build-A-Bear!

To wrap up the big celebration of Amaya's 2nd year of life, we hosted a party for her at our home, followed by a fun bear-making session at Build-A-Bear Workshop in Towson. We started the day by picking up her beautiful Disney princess themed cake from Yia Yia's Bakery in Rosedale. Once we returned home, Abe headed back out to pick up some delicious pizza from Ledo's and balloons from Party City,while the kids and I decorated and hung out until our first guests arrived at around 11:30. When Alex answered the door and saw that our first guests were his good friend Gaby and her Mom, he was super excited. In fact, he asked Gaby if she would like to play guns with him! LOL Gaby is a girly girl though, and opted to play with Amaya's mini princess figurines instead! Once everyone arrived we ate pizza, pansit, pasta salad, and some other yummy snacks. Then, we sang to our little princess, cut the cake, and enjoyed eating it. After cake, we opened presents and Amaya was so excited to get a princess lap top, a bath baby doll, some princess figurines, and lots of cute clothes! Around 1:45, we all headed out the door to the Towson Town Center to make our bears! All of the kids seem to have a wonderful time picking their bear, naming it, stuffing it, bathing it, choosing an outfit for it, dressing it, and of course singing lots of silly songs and doing lots of silly dances during the process! Alex picked a cute bear with a camo style fur, named him Michael Steve (LOL--though he has since changed it to just "Teddy") and dressed him in Cars 2 pajamas complete with slippers! Amaya picked a cute, girly bear with a heart print on her fur, named her "Princess Tangled" and dressed her in what else but a Rapunzel princess dress! At the end of the party, the kids marched around the store and posed for a group pic! It was such a wonderful day for such a special celebration, and we want to thank all of our family and friends for attending and joining in the fun! Now we get a 4 month break until Alex's birthday in March...phew!Amaya's beautiful princess cake from Yia Yia's!

The 3 princesses about to eat cake!Yummy! Too bad she dropped her cake on herself and needed a wardrobe change shortly after this pic.All of the kids doing a silly dance for their bears!Amaya stuffing her bear :)Julai with her Cinderella bear, Amaya with her Tangled bear, and Dylan with his Star Wars bear!

The whole party! Julia, Gaby, Amaya, Alex, and Nolan (In front) Matthew, Dylan and Daniel (In back)

Alex and Amaya's finished products! Michael Steve a.ka. Teddy and Princess Tangled! LOL

Happy 2nd Birthday to Our Sweet Little Amaya!

Today is our beautiful little girl's 2nd birthday! Amaya Soleil entered this world very quickly after only 3.5 hours of labor at 9:48 PM on a Saturday night. She was 3 weeks early, and a petitie 5lbs. 3 oz., but what she lacks in size, she definitely makes up for in personality. She has become so very independant without losing her sweetness. She knows what she wants, and will go after it when she wants to. She is pretty fearless, pretty outgoing, and of course very bright. She loves to sit patiently and build a tower out of blocks, but at the same time knows a thing or two about climbing, running, and dancing around the house. She is just so tiny, and it adds to her charm. Tiny or not--the girl knows how to work a room already, so lord help us when she grows up! I can't believe our little girl is 2 already, but I am so excited to watch her grow up and only want her to find happiness in whatever she chooses to do. To celebrate 2 years of her being a part of our family, we had cupcakes and sang to her after dinner, and let her open her gifts from Mommy, Daddy,and Alex after a much needed bath (The cupcakes weren't the cleanest treat!). She got lots of princess supplies of course since that is her whole world right now. She got a soft, plush Rapunzel doll, a Cinderella castle with a mini-Cinderella figurine, a Princess Encyclopedia, and a Mulan baby doll from Mommy and Daddy. And from Alex, she got a Rapunzel barbie with changable hair color. Of course, she seemed to like Alex's present the best,though she is cuddled up with her soft Rapunzel as we speak. All in all, today was not the best day at work, a stressful and busy Monday, but coming home and watching Amaya delight in her presents, be so excited over her cupcake and glow as we sang to her at our kitchen table turned the day around completely and coming home to our wonderful children always remind us of the important things in life. We are just so blessed and happy to have Amaya in our lives, and we know every year on her birthday, we celebrate a miracle--her being our healthy, happy and beautiful daughter. Happy Birthday sweet little Amaya!
A birthday kiss from her big brother Alex :)

Posing with Daddy

Well hi there birthday girl!
Opening some presents with help from Daddy and Alex

She hasn't put the Rapunzel doll down since she pulled it our of the wrapping paper :)Posing with all of her presents!

The best big brother in the world playing Princess with his sister--he was a superstar today. We didn;t hear one complaint about not having the attention on him and him not getting presents. He was justa helpful big brother from start to finish and so sweet to his baby sister singing to her and giving her hugs and kisses.

Amaya's Birthday Celebration Part I--Nana and Pappy's

This past weekend, we travelled to Allegany County to celebrate Amaya's big #2 with my parents, grandparents, brother and Aunt Nancy. We had a wonderful time eating a delicious home-cooked meal courtesy of Nana, digging into a tasty ice cream birthday cake,and watching our little princess open her first birthday presents in celebration of her 2nd birthday. She got a baby doll with clothes and bottles, stroller, lots of adorable clothes for herself, books, and cool Princess Ariel bathtub toy from her Western MD family. She also has a great time playing in Nana and Pappy's sand box. This has become her favorite thing to do when we visit there and she did not let the cold temps keep her from donning her warmest winter jacket and digging into the sand! What a fun weekend and great way to kick off the birthday celebration for our little birthday princess! A huge thank you to my family, especially my mom for taking care of all of the cooking and hosting the little party for Amaya and making it so special.

Playing with Grandma and some of her new toys

Playing in the sand :)

Loves her Great-Grandma!

Mom..look at me! Take my pic too!