Happy 2nd Birthday Lydia!

Today our gorgeous Pickle turns 2! Can you believe it? We're off to the foreshore reserve for hopefully a not too ridiculously hot party with three of her friends, and some family.
I promise to post some pics when we get back... ooh now where have you heard that before? But right now I'm enjoying the last few moments of peace before the rest of the house wakes up (yep, nearly 8am and miraculously they're all still sleeping).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay; here they are, as promised. Lydia actually work moments after I finished typing, so we got everyone else up for some serious present opening. And I mean serious. She took her task VERY seriously, and though she was clearly excited about the gifts she was getting, ooohing and aahing and wowing over each thing very nicely, she hardly smiled the whole time. She was very cute though, tearing each piece off and handing it to Andrew or myself before starting on the next piece.

Our lunch on the foreshore was ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL! What a great spot! We set up our little marquee thing under the shade of a lovely tree, and with the breeze coming off the bay it was soo lovely and cool. Certainly no comparison to the 39+ degree days we've been having. The kids played nicely, there were no fights, they all enjoyed the fruit and healthy alternatives to party food that I put out. We've reduced Lydia's sugar intake to try to help her calm down a little (and it's really working nicely) so we wanted to keep the sugar to a minimum. The kids enjoyed choclate cake (shaped like Dorothy the Dinosaurs hat) but they were quite happy with the sandwiches and fruit and veg platter that we put out. It's important I think to remember that the party needn't be about the food, but just about the kids having fun together. And the grownups enjoying a chat in the shade is always great too! Okay; so pic share!

The first is of my Mum and Lydia. Lydia spent ages telling Mum some big old story; pointing out all these things and grunting. Mum spent ages being 'interested' lol. The second is Lydia and I. Thanks Rach for taking this great pic - I actually like this one. :) The third is the too cute Cake. I love easy cakes; and this was too easy; but looked super cute. And finally; I didn't give out gift bags this year. Instead I went down to Kmart and bought pencils for 99c a packet, then I created new liners for the packets to make them into little thank yous. Very happy with the final result.