Thursday, August 14, 2008

Rachel is two!

We celebrated Rachel's 2nd birthday while on our trip! In fact, we celebrated twice! The first time at Aunt Carrie's house and then in Kansas City with all my family at my Aunt Joanie's house. We are so thankful for sweet Rachel! And, you can see that she had a great time!

My theme was rainbows - it all stemmed from seeing the cover of this book. All it takes is one idea to get a whole theme rolling!

Rachel's rainbow cake, singing Happy Birthday and blowing out two candles!

I found these matching rainbow shirts for Emily and Rachel at Penney's and used a $10 off coupon to get them nearly free. Then, at Carter's found this onesie on clearance for Nathan - all together less than $5 for each of them to have a rainbow birthday shirt!

I bought twelve helium balloons, two of each color of the rainbow, and had the party store tie them all onto one string. When we got home, tying one end to each of two chairs made a fun rainbow of balloons to play with and open gifts under.

My aunt recently went to Guatemala and brought back these neat balls for our party favors! She didn't even know about our theme!

A favorite memory of this day is that the first gift Rachel opened was a Mrs. Potatohead. She was so excited to play with it, that she did not want to open any more gifts for quite a while. I am so thankful that she would have been content with just that one gift if that was what she was given! Eventually, she did open her other gifts and in addition to the Potatohead, the lamb and stroller were two more favorites. She's also been enjoying her new "Pooh and Piglet" dress, princess bath toys and animals for her ark.

It was a special day celebrated with lots of special family in honor of our sweet Rachel!

21 comments:

Katy said...

Awww!!! that is fantastic!!! So glad she got to have such a fun birthday!!! :) The pics are great! I love the theme! :)

Wendi said...

Cute theme. I love the polka dot plates... but I do have a thing for polka dots! Glad that your little sweetie had a great time. ~Wendi

Anonymous said...

Darling photos of our darling Rachel's 2nd birthday! The rainbows so reminded me of her Mama's love of rainbows as a little girl! :) Love you, Mom

The Stepford Stepmom said...

Beautiful cake!

Happy birthday kiddo!

Suzanne said...

Hello I have just blog hopped here. Love the birthday theme of rainbows and a Happy Birthday to your little Rachel, she is so cute.
Hope you dont mind me leaving a comment.

Anonymous said...

So sweet!!! Happy Birthday Rachel!
Looks like a great time together.tammyp--love the idea about the balloons!

Paige said...

I wonder if those balls from guatemala are actually hackey sacks? Are they sort of like little beans bags?
I just remember the guys in highschool kicking around balls that looked like those, and they were hackey sacks.http://www.globalmarketstore.com/morehackysacks.html
P~

Darcy said...

I love the cake and the balloon idea is so cute!

Amy said...

What a great birthday theme. The balloons & the rainbow cake were too cute!! You are so creative!

Dawn said...

What a wonderful theme with lots of great ideas. I am going to have to check out that book. I have recently posted some cakes that I have made on my blog, but I have never had the pleasure of doing a rainbow. That would be fun! Thanks for sharing. :-)

letterstoelijah said...

That cake is amazing! Wonderful!!

Monica Wilkinson said...

Paige - yes, I think they technically are hackey sacks - they do feel like little bean bags. Weren't they just perfect for our theme?!

joysmallpack said...

Monica, I am glad you had a great trip! Rachel's party pics are so fun to see. Your cake is darling and Matthew Mead's book looks like one I might have to add to my cake collection. :) I LOVED your balloon rainbow! Great idea!! We used those polka dot plates a few months ago for my daughter's snowman party when I used your snowman ideas. :) (I loved the orange circles and ice blue on it.) :) Happy two year old year Rachel!

jenny said...

What a sweet party for a sweet little dumpling! You're so creative.

Elise said...

What sweet pictures!! Happy Birthday to Rachel!!
Elise

Sarah said...

What beautiful pictures. I love the rainbow theme that is such a great idea. ANd the cake looks great.

Anonymous said...

What a great idea for her party! I love your ideas! She looks like she enjoyed her day.

Rebecca

www.homeschoolblogger.com/luvbnamom

Kelly @ The Barefoot Mama said...

Happy birtday to your big girl, Monica!

Anonymous said...

I Love how everything turned out!! Great job Monica!

mama k said...

I love it! My lil one just turned 2 too.
I linked you here:
http://mamaknj.blogspot.com/2008/08/linky-love.html

Happy Birthday Rachel!!

Lacy said...

You are amazing!!!! I love every touch you put into things. Great birthday and I love the new baby pictures.