Juliana

Our little girl is 2!  And she's growing!  At her last couple checkups, she's gained a pound at each (about 1 pound every 2 months--which for her is fantastic!).  She's so active and has loved the warm sunny weather we've been having--a little too much as the clothes and diaper come off at every opportunity.  She's very loving, loves to give kisses and tell people "lu-lue" (love you), and will show off for anyone (even strangers!) who give her the slightest amount of attention.  She starting to learn some colors (can usually get green and blue correct--everything else is black) and numbers (she only counts two and three) and can match some shapes, and when asked how old she is the response is always "nine".  She loves to talk about/list body parts, steal and eat people's noses and eyes, and dance.  Lately I've been letting her paint with watercolors, homemade finger paints, and Color Wonder paints (looks like clear gel and only paints on the special paper) and every few days we go to the school library to check out more books for her and look at the turtles.  Her favorite books are ones with animals (she knows MANY animal names and noises), Dr Seusse, and anything with Dora, Elmo, and Curious George.  She has a list of people who's names she knows (pretty much all people she sees all the time).  She likes to "call" those people on the phone and has conversations, and goes through her entire list several times a day (listing every single person).  Sometimes its asking to play with them or if we will see them, other times its asking if they have a bum-bum :)  Overall, she's a pretty good, little cutie.

For her birthday party I originally intended to only invite a few of her favorite people from church and school.  But once I started making the list it got very large.  It still ended up being pretty big (I think we had 35 people in our house) even after I cut the list down A LOT.  She just has too many friends :)  Overall it was a great day.  We had lunch (all of Juliana's favorite foods--nuggets, mac & cheese, apples, beans and chips, etc), scavenger hunt, lots of prizes, a pinata, and let Juliana open her gifts.  It was so fun to see her with each of her gifts because she actually played with them and liked them so much she didn't want to go on to the next!  So much more fun than a first birthday party.

I decided to experiment with marshmallow fondant and do a cake with pastel bugs (she LOVES bugs).  It took many hours but was a fun experience.  I'd definitely use marshmallow fondant again.

I wanted to give her a play kitchen for her birthday.  Buying one in Honduras was just too expensive, shipping one would've taken too long.  We tried to have one made but discovered it would cost more than buying one.  So the week before her birthday Kyle and I stayed up late at night building her a kitchen out of cardboard.  Kyle then planned a scavenger hunt for the big kids to help her find her present. 

Most of the kids and teens at her party

I got her a Uniqua (from the Backyardigans cartoon) pinata.  She actually hit it!  She never knew what to do with a pinata at the other parties she's attended.