Matani Turns Two!!

I can't believe it, but my baby is now two years old! Sigh...time really does go too fast. We had a family party last weekend and had a great time. Here's a summary:

Nana & the birthday girl...waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. Oh, and wearing the darling new outfit from Mrs. Burnham (Miss Becky's mother)!

Miss Becky brought mommy coffee...we love Miss Becky! And yes, my girl is a true Ethiopian. She already loves coffee, even if there's not a drop of sweetener in it. 

 Yay! The cousins are here. Layla & Mati were princesses for the day. Micah had a cowboy hat, but he wasn't crazy about wearing it.

Turns out one of the most fun things to do with a bunch of balloons is to chase the uncles around with them.

It seems Uncle Joe bore the brunt of the attack...

 

The cake...it's a zebra, in case you're wondering. :)

You can't really tell in the picture, but my hand is blocking the stream of drool that was included in Mati's "blowing" her candles out.

The kids got to sit at their own little table. This doesn't happen very often (mostly because Mati is continually running back and forth from the kids table to the adult table, dropping pieces of food along the way), so it was pretty special.

Yummmmmmm!!

Opening presents: pretend fruits and veggies that you can "peel" and "cut" from Mommy: 

Veggie Tales "Hosanna" CD from Uncle Joe & Aunt Evie...between this one and the Veggie Tales 80's Music from G.G., you have no idea how many times throughout each day we have nasally, slightly off-key veggie voices floating through our house.

From Uncle Ben, Aunt Louisa, Layla, Micah, & Claire...what could it be?

A "Little People" minivan! It even comes with a mommy and baby. So cute!

Mati loves to "help" Nana when she cleans the house, so Nana got her a Mati sized cleaning set, complete with broom, dustpan, and vacuum (that actually does suck slightly!).

   

Beautiful, sparkly, high-heeled dress-up shoes from Uncle Paul & Miss Becky. Yes, Mati instantly fell in love with them and put them on. Too big? Doesn't matter a bit. High heels? No problem, she careens around the house in them as if she were wearing tennis shoes.

Sigh...my little Cinderella:

 Next order of business: Bubbles!

Uncle Ben won the prize for the best bubble-blower.

Micah won the prize for the best bubble popper. Can't you just sense the impending doom for this bubble?

On to the trampoline for a bit. Mati wasn't too sure about this game of Uncle Ben bouncing everyone else.

I think she was wise to be afraid...

This was the position she assumed the entire time Ben was bouncing.

Layla & Micah then tried their hand at bouncing their Daddy. Though they tried hard, the results weren't quite as dramatic.

We had to make everyone sit down and take a break so Mati could bounce her little heart out for a few minutes. She's definitely a solo-bouncer. Smart girl!

Happy birthday, little darling! Mommy loves you!