Dixie's Birthday

My baby girl turned TWO yesterday! I can't believe how fast time has passed. It seems like just yesterday we were learning and planning for the arrival of our first baby. Now, she's two! I just can't believe it. We tried to make it a special weekend for her in so many ways. An overview... Friday night: We went to my BFF's house to bake. See a few years ago I helped her create a catepillar cake for her Callie-pillar's first birthday. It took us FOREVER. So, she agreed to help me create my horse filled pasture this year. We went over, ate dinner, and then went to cooking. It was so cute though because my little girls LOVES to cook. If I'm in the kitchen SO IS SHE. She want so thelp cook it all. So, Callie joined in the fun too and we had a girls evening baking. The girls were too cute just cooking and wanting to put the mix in the cupcake cups. Just a BLAST! We didn't get much accomplished, but we did get the "field" made. Saturday: We took Dixie to the zoo. All week long we had been building up to taking her to the zoo to ride the horses. Dixie is TOTALLY into horses these days and has ridden ponies a few times. So, she was psyched about going to "ride the horses". We met up with my parents at the zoo and ended up spending 3.5 hours there! It was one of the best trips EVER! We did the new explorer package that includes unlimited rides and activities within the zoo without having to pay for them. I HIGHLY recommend this idea to anyone with children. It really made a difference in her zoo experience. My parents added up what we would have spent if we had paid for all the things we did and it was $27. The difference in the membership was $40 difference at the individual level and $50 at the family level. So, we're half way to making it worth the money. One more trip and we'll have it covered. We may try to go during the week one day so the line for the pony rides isn't so long. Dixie was able to feed the birds, feed the giraffes, ride the horses/ponies, ride the carousel (twice), and really enjoy all the animals. Because the weather was warm, but had a nice breeze the animals were all active! It was so neat to see all the animals doing stuff and running around. The monkeys were going crazy too. There are two islands and a family group on each island. The males were yelling at each other, and if you've never seen this, you have to! It is unbelievable how loud their voices/yells are at each other. We sat at that exhibit for at least 30 minutes listening and watching. So cool! Sunday (the party): Sunday was Dixie's party. Her Grammy and aunt Stinky made it in on Saturday night to be there for the party on Sunday, and it was so special for them to be there. We went out to my parents house and decorated. Then, people started to arrive. We have bubbles out and the kids LOVED them. They were making bubbles and then running around in circles trying to pop them. All the kids, ages 2-9 were doing this! It was so much fun to watch. Then, we had a blow up jumping cage (thanks to Tonya Allen for this). The kids were jumping jelly beans all over the place in it. We even put Jadyn in it later after the older ones were done, and she loved crawling around in it! From there it was presents, and Dixie had so much fun with all the other stuff to do at her party that she didn't even open all her gifts! She did a few, including the most special gift from her Pappaw Doyle....a recorded book with him reading to her. I almost cried. From here, we went to the pinata....which was also a hit. Of course, until Dixie didn't want to share her bat and the other kids hit it with a stick. Ah-the joys of needing to teach "sharing". After that was cake and back to the jumping cage. When it was all said and done I thought for sure Dixie would crash....Jadyn did! However, she went inside and kept playing in her kitchen at mom's house. she did finally pass out on the drive home. Only made it 5 minutes in the car before passing out in the carseat. And this was at 7:15pm!!!!!