Juliet's 2nd Birthday Celebrations

For Juliet's second birthday, we decided to celebrate at The Most Magical Place on Earth - Walt Disney World! This was fitting for a couple of reasons, 1) obviously... we all love Disney! 2) Our family already had an early October trip planned 3) we also celebrated Olivia's second birthday at Disney World and I just love the symmetry of both girls celebrating their second birthdays at the same place!

We stayed at the Cabins at Fort Wilderness, along with my parents and my sister and her family. The first night of our stay, we invited everyone over to our cabin to enjoy a little party in Juliet's honor.

My sweet friend, Emily, made an adorable Mickey Mouse birthday banner. We brought cake and cupcakes with us from a local Savannah baker and continued the Mickey Mouse theme there. 

Cousins

We brought in dinner from P&J's Southern Takeout (at Fort Wilderness), sand and ate cake, and then opened some presents. 

Juliet enjoyed her gifts and being with her favorite people. It was a low-key evening and I'm so glad we were able to celebrate with family.

Even though we celebrated early, I couldn't let Juliet's actual birthday day go by without any celebration! I asked a couple of friends to meet us at the neighborhood playground for some lunch and cake on Juliet's birthday. However, it downpoured day of, so we quickly switched plans to meet at the local toddler-play business, Giggles. 

Juliet was obsessed with Moana around this time, so we had a Moana-themed birthday cake... which for some reason Publix wouldn't put the actual decorations ON the cake. But that's neither here nor there. Juliet was thrilled. 

 

Juliet just wasn't up for taking photos at the end of the party... Crashing HARD.

 

Our good friends Maddie, Penny, AND Emilia were all sick on Juliet's birthday, and they were very missed!

Later in the day, once Miguel was home from work, we opened one more present from Mommy and Daddy. JuJu decided it was a great idea to wear her bike helmet to open her present.

We gave her a Pottery Barn Kids doll bunkbed with bedding I attempted to sew. 

I think Juliet really enjoyed her second birthday celebrations! So grateful for our sweet two year old and all those who helped us love on her and celebrate her birthday!

Olivia's 2nd Birthday Celebrations!

Olivia turned two on December 22nd. First, let me say, I cannot believe my baby is TWO. Time really does go by so quickly. Since Olivia's birthday is so close to Christmas and we would be visiting family during that time and also since two isn't a terribly "big" birthday (not to mention we have a newborn), we decided to keep things pretty low-key as far as celebrations went. 

Since we had a family trip to Disney World planned at the beginning of December, we thought we would celebrate Olivia's birthday at a character breakfast there. Olivia LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and all the Mickey characters. We had a wonderful time celebrating with Mickey and family at Chef Mickeys. Olivia got to meet and hug Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, and Goofy (who she adorably used to call "hat"). Olivia also got to enjoy a cute Mickey cake and open presents. 

Like I previously said, we were in Atlanta for the holidays on Olivia's actual birthday. I wanted to do something on her birthday to make it seem like a special day even if we weren't going to throw her a party. I had tossed around the idea of maybe taking her to the Atlanta Zoo or the Georgia Aquarium, but after being reminded that school would be out and there would likely be crowds at both places, we nixed those ideas pretty quickly. Next, we thought about taking her to the Pink Pig at Lenox and then grabbing a foodcourt lunch and having cake. The week of her birthday, however, the weather was looking rainy, cold, and miserable and the idea of tracking all the way down to the Pink Pig (which is only in a tent outside) sounded like not much fun. My mom then came up with the great idea of taking the kids to an indoor children's amusement center, Catch Air. I had never been before but it sounded like fun. This ended up being absolutely perfect and Olivia had SO much fun!

Catch Air was great and reminded me of an updated version of Discovery Zone where I used to love playing as a kid. There were slides, moving rides, ball cannons, interactive dance floors, toddler soft play areas, and more. 

We invited immediate family to come play and I know Olivia absolutely loved having her people there to celebrate and play with her! Our families live in the Atlanta area but not close to each other so I really appreciate the effort made by everyone to celebrate Olivia, especially on a work day too! 

Uncle Juan got right in there to play! 

Olivia and Papa

Juliet had a blast at her first birthday party! Thanks, G-Daddy for hanging out with the littlest grand

The way Olivia looks up to Karis and the way that Karis mothers Olivia is about the sweetest thing ever!

Trying SO hard to keep up!

Dance Party!

Spoiled little girl with her Uncle Juan

(this slide was way steep, steeper than the video makes it appear. Not sure this was the best parenting decision, but Olivia hung on the whole way up! Uncles and Daddies are the best!)

After an exciting few hours at Catch Air we went down the street to have lunch at Chick-fil-a. We took over basically the front section of the restaurant and enjoyed our nuggets and fries. A fast food restaurant is the perfect place for a bunch of tired, messy toddlers to eat btw. I for once didn't feel bad about the mess and noise and chaos that accompanies toddlers! 

We also had cake and sang to the birthday girl. I ordered the cake from a cute bakery near my parents house called 2B Whole. It's great because they could accommodate the allergies of some of my family members who cannot consume dairy or gluten. 

After cake Olivia opened some presents. December is definitely going to be Olivia's favorite month of the year! Between birthday celebrations and Christmas, she is a PRO at gift opening now!

G-Daddy picked this card out and Olivia loved it so much that we had to take it away from her so she could get back to opening gifts! 

This ended up being the perfect way to celebrate our two year old and I know Olivia loved every moment of it! Thanks again to our families that helped make the day so special (especially Lolly who came up with the idea of Catch Air!!). Olivia, Miguel, Juliet, and I love you each and are so grateful to have you in our lives! Thanks for celebrating Olivia and loving our girl so well!