Well, my sweet girl, you turned two today... mommy and daddy can't quite believe it. It seems like not very long ago that you arrived in our lives - 9 days early and 9 lbs, 12 ounces of loveliness - and now you have magically
transformed from our little baby to a little girl. This happened quite stealthily, I have to say. Today I'll write down everything I can remember from this special day, so you'll be able to look back and remember the day you turned TWO! A while back, I decided you might like a bunny cake for your birthday, since your stuffed bunnies ("hop-bums," as you like to say) are some of your favorite toys. More recently, I asked you if a bunny cake sounded good, and you said "Ya!" Ever since then, whenever we said anything about your approaching birthday, you would shout "hop-bum!!" enthusiastically. When we
practiced the "happy birthday" song together, you would wait till it was over and clap your hands and say, "yay!!!!!" Yesterday, it was time to embark on the cake... a big project! I used the
same recipe as for
Ollie's cake, doubling it to fill a big cake pan, and let it cool overnight... Today began with a private rendition of "Happy Birthday To You!" sung to you by mommy and daddy in bed, which received the customary rousing applause. Then you came downstairs to discover a big new playhouse waiting for you, complete with a doorbell, toy phone, and working
shutters! A great find by mommy on Craigslist; your dad and Granddaddy put it together the night before, which was very lucky as Daddy gets stabbing chest pains when he does that sort of thing on his own. We all had a delicious birthday breakfast with Grandma and Granddaddy, Ian and Suz, featuring scrambled eggs and Taylor Ham, which you gobbled up like there was no tomorrow. After breakfast we got right to work on the cake again. I had drawn out the shapes of the bunny, ears, and tail on paper, then cut them out so I could put them on the cake and know where to cut. Then we assebled and started frosting it, using a star-tip to make the bunny look a bit furry (?) - I ended up needing a quadruple batch of buttercream frosti
ng! It came out great, and you loved it to bits.
The best thing about your birthday this year is that so many family members were able to come -- Grandma and Granddaddy from Maine, Ian and Suz, Ronnie and Diana, Rachel and Beth and Saul, and Milt and Rae, who pretty much count as family. It was a big celebration day for Suzanne, too, since you share the same birthday! Your party was a 2pm, and a few of your best buddies came with their moms and dads (yes, all the dads came!) - Addie & Ryan, Brooke & Mady, Claire, Carys & Lowri. Toby came from CT, as well as Steve and Maureen from next door, and everyone stayed for hours. You were a bit clingy during the party, but I wasn't surprised, with so many people h
ere and so much activity! We were lucky it was a lovely day, so you and your friends could spend a lot of time playing on the deck, dashing around on the riding toys, squeezing all together into the playhouse, etc. Around 3ish we all gathered in the dining room to sing you "Happy Birthday," which you responded to with clapping hands and a big shout of "Yay!" forcing us with your utterly relentless cuteness to sing it a second time. A good 3/4 of the cake was consumed at the party... and it was a big cake!
By the end of the day, you were prett
y well spent. We had a booked a big table down the road at Blossom, a great "Asian Bistro," to complete the day with a bit more grown up celebrating for Suzanne, but by the time you got there you were pretty much just screaming, probably trying in your two-year-old way to say, "Are you kidding? Can I PLEASE just go to bed? Or at least have some peace and quiet?!" Your nice daddy obliged, foregoing his yummy dinner in order to take you home, give you a snack, and tuck you into bed.
You, my lovely Madeline, are becoming in your advancing ye
ars both dazzlingly beautiful and fabulously silly. You add new words almost every day to your creative vocabulary, including some of our recent favorites - "ba-del" (bagel) and "tow-ee-o" (cheerio). You are blessed to have such a fantastic big brother; he keeps an eye on you, laughs with me at your crazy antics, and is your general partner in crime, especially when the crime is being illegally cute. We love you so very much, Maddie-boo - Happy Birthday to our baby girl.
- what better ocassion to have a party??! I decided a few weeks back that it would be fun to get together with friends to ooh and ahh at everything together, drink tea and nibble scones... I just prayed for good weather so the kids could play outside and leave the moms to wedding-watching! Of course, the kids mostly wanted to be exactly where we all were, so that didn't work too well... but they 
were fine. Andy had decided (on his own!) to throw a little celebration for his employees that day as well, so he set off in the morning with a fully stocked tea and scone tray and a big Union Jack to hang up. The night before, we made raisin scones together (his mom's recipe), and I made two other kinds as well - cranberry almond and blueberry. Yum! I put up a few festive photos and a flag, and we all had sooo much fun watching the day unfold. I had recorded the wedding from 3am onwards, so we mostly watched the actual wedding itself, and a bit of the events afterwards.
thing a bit more modern and dramatic. Anyway, the wedding was glorious, and it didn't even rain - amazing! What stole the show were the HATS! Beautiful, crazy, amazing English hats... the English just know how to do "fancy," don't they? I think my very favorite part of the wedding was the moment when they were pronounced husband and wife - the cameras were in quite close on them, but they also picked up clearlly the crashing swell of cheers and shouts from the crowd of thousands just outside the church and across the city... and Will and Kate clearly heard it too, and smiled. I loved that. It was a great day, and I was "feelin' the love," for my favorite city in the world, for England, and for the "commoner" I love sooooo much.
