Andrej, Jessica, Kaiya and Tobi

And just like that, Kaiya turned 2!

I still find it hard to believe that the little newborn we brought home from the hospital, with her rosy skin and deep blue eyes and little round head with nothing more than peach fuzz on top is now two years old. The baby girl who just a day before her birthday last year started walking and began to communicate with actual words, now runs, jumps, climbs, dances and speaks in colorful sentences. The baby girl who wouldn't wear a birthday hat last year or even taste her birthday cake, picked out her party hats this year and knew exactly what kind of birthday cake she wanted. I blinked and my sweet baby girl turned two!

In the weeks leading up to her birthday we talked a lot about turning two and celebrating the occasion in hopes that she would grasp the concept by the time the actual day rolled around. She somewhat understood that birthdays involve cake and balloons because we celebrated my birthday at the beginning of June. Those two things, both of which she loves immensely, stuck in her mind and any talk of her birthday involved a pink cake and balloons. We worked on important two-year-old birthday stuff, like blowing out candles and holding up two fingers, neither of which she was able to master, but she sure gave them both a good try. Although she could clearly tell you that she was turning two, Kaiya much more preferred to answer the question of how old she was going to be on her birthday with the matter-of-fact response of "Pink!" I guess turning pink would be a lot more exciting than turning two to an almost two-year old.

When July 26, arrived, Kaiya was for the most part primed and ready to celebrate. We started the day by me singing the "bisday" song when I went in to get her up that morning. She smiled so big and asked first thing if Papa and Babka were here. She knew they were coming for her birthday and she couldn't be more excited.

Papa and Babka did come, only about five hours later than planned due to thunderstorms and flight delays. However, they were just in time for us all to head out for celebratory birthday dinner. We decided to go to the Old Country Buffet (Allison if you are reading this, you should find our restaurant choice to be hilarious) not because the food is very good, but because Thursday night is family night and they have a bumblebee mascot called "O. C. Bee" that Kaiya adores. Plus we were all starving since it was later than our normal dinnertime, and buffet means you can eat right away so off we went.

The O. C. Bee did not disappoint and Kaiya wanted him to be within sight at all times. If the Bee was somewhere else in the room Kaiya would begin asking to see the him. Once when he was clearly taking a break because we hadn't seen him in a while, Kaiya informed us that the bee was "on the potty seat on the potty". I guess the Bee is potty training as well.

Soon after that, the Bee returned along with several other waitresses, one of which was dressed as a witch (possibly something to do with Harry Potter, but I'm still not sure) carrying balloons. They walked up to Kaiya and handed her the balloons and started singing happy birthday. The look of complete joy in her eyes as she realized they were singing to her brought tears to mine. I even thought in the moment how silly I would look if I started crying because there was a giant bee, a witch, and a few other waitresses singing to a two-year-old who was holding balloons with the biggest grin on her face. I should have been laughing at the scenario instead of crying, but I couldn't help but be so proud of my little girl.

The moment would be recreated at her birthday party that following Saturday, minus the bee, witch and waitresses of course. However, this time we caught the smile on camera. Kaiya loves to be sung to and how special it was to have her family and friends circled around her singing the "bisday" song.

Kaiya's party was a lot of fun. We threw it together rather last minute since up until the week before we still hadn't decided if we would be in Michigan or South Carolina. There was no time for invitations this year, but that didn't stop Kaiya's friends from attending. We had the party in our back yard, where we had hot dogs, pasta salad, fruit salad, chips, drinks and of course ice cream and cake. The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cool. We filled up our kiddie pools, added new sand to the sandbox and brought out every outside toy we own. I think the kids had fun, especially Kaiya as she LOVES playing in the backyard.

When I brought out the pink bunny cake that my friend Brenda helped me make, Kaiya's eyes lit up. Everyone sang and once again I had to fight back tears. Since her candle blowing skills are still in need of some practice, I helped her blow out her two little pink candles.

After everyone had their fill of cake and ice cream, my mom rolled out all the presents in Kaiya's new wagon (a gift from Papa and Babka). Kaiya jumped right in and excitedly opened all her gifts. It was such a great party and a lot of fun to celebrate our sweet Kaiya. We are so thankful for our friends and family for making the day extra special.

That night, after the guests were gone and Kaiya and Tobi were in bed and we were cleaning up, I couldn’t help but feel like the luckiest mom in the world. Kaiya is one incredible little girl and we are so lucky that she is ours!

To see all the pictures from Kaiya's second birthday party, click here.