Joli's 2nd Birthday!

There is something to be said about a "Birthday Suit", and Joli has no problem showing hers off!

I got her dressed for her fairy birthday party and she was thrilled. I finally allowed her to have a popcorn ball.

Popcorn balls are always better when shared with a friend. Here's Joli with Autumn who just shared her birthday with us not too long ago.
The main organized activity that I had planned was for all the kids to make their own wings to wear. Joli thought this was an amazing idea and was always one of the two kids at the wing decorating table.

Here she is after she finished her first set. I think in the end she made three sets, which was fine as we had plenty and they made her happy.

Molly is one of our friends from swim class and she was the show stopper. She loved Joli's little microphone and was all about singing the ABC's for whoever would listen. A few times everyone would be quiet so Molly could belt it out for us. I did happen to catch Joli quietly singing along with her as she made her wings.

Here's Joli with our friend Joyce and Joli's great aunt Lisa. Aunt Lisa is Joe's aunt who happened to be in town from Ohio! We were so excited to have her here that Joe's mom jumped in the car yesterday morning and decided at the very last minute that she wanted to be here too!

Here is the birthday girl as she realized that she was finally going to get the cupcake she had been asking for all morning.

There she goes blowing out the candles! I was a little concerned as the other kids were keeping their eyes on her little cupcake very closely. Lucky for them I had made almost forty cupcakes and I'm pretty sure we'll be eating them forever! (Maybe we'll send Joe one, he he!)

Finally! My cupcake! I had to start calling them toadstools so she wouldn't start freaking out everytime I mentioned them. My friend Tina mentioned what Jessica and I had talked about last night that they gave us a Super Mario Bros. feeling!

Once Joli took a bite she realized that the white parts were actually little pieces of marshmallow and began to eat them off one by one.

But it didn't take too long to get past the marshmallows and on to the good stuff!
There was so much chaos that we didn't get a chance to open presents until after everyone left, but we had a great time. Joli got a little dress-up set that was so cute! There was a little dress and wig with earrings, but I decided to save the rings and earrings until she's a little bit older.

I think the present she loves the most is the Little Mermaid baby that Auntie Jess bought. Jess' mom bought her a Little Mermaid brush and she's spent most of the evening brushing Little Mermaid's hair.

After we recovered a little from the party we took Aunt Lisa down to Old Town San Diego to eat at our favorite little mexican place. Joli had to dress up in her new tutu that she got from Nikki. She just looked so stinkin' cute I loved it!

After we ate we walked around the shops and found these cute and fairly inexpensive guitars. They're actually not guitars but they're just the right size to be a guitar for Joli so Grammi bought her one. By the time we made it back to the car Joli had finally figured out how to hold it and make some sounds, which she shared with everyone by shouting "I did it!"

It was a very long and exhausting day. Jess and I stayed up half the night getting everything ready and then didn't sleep too long this morning to try and get the rest done before everyone got here. To top it off all my family was sick and couldn't come so I lost more than half my help. But I enlisted the help of a few of my guests and we got everything done in no time! Now I'm going to crash and sleep until I feel like getting up tomorrow! Happy Birthday Joli!!