Pop on by, there is so much to do...Ava Marie Turned 2!

Well after many tears by her mother during the week, Ava Marie turned 2 on Friday, September 20th.  Everyone says that time flies but having a child and watching how fast they grow really makes this statement true.

For her 2nd Birthday, we continued the Pancake Pantry Birthday Breakfast tradition and went Friday morning before school.  Travis looked at the children's menu and saw polka a dot pancakes and thought that they had sprinkles in them so we ordered them for the Birthday Girl.  Ava was not wanting to sit still and continued to run around our table until she saw her breakfast come and then she got the biggest smile on her face and wanted to sit down.  We were wrong about the polka a dot pancakes and it turns out that they are M&M pancakes that are covered in  M&M's inside in out.  Well our chocolate loving daughter managed to pick out every M&M without eating any pancakes and so we set her to school with a sugar high. Of course I had a special outfit made for Ava to wear to school and we also picked up Christie Cookies for her and her classmates to celebrate her Birthday.

 That evening Mimi, Uncle Chace and Aunt Mandy arrived and the present opening commenced and lasted throughout the weekend. 

On Saturday morning we went and did a 5K in support of Mercy Ministries.  This proved to be a great idea because it wore Ava out so that she went down for her nap early and slept well before her big party!

After her nap, we headed to Monkey's Treehouse to celebrate Ava's Birthday with family and friends.  We had rented the place rented out and Ava loved seeing family and friends show up to her party.  As you can see Ava had an absolute BLAST and left with the biggest smile on her face.

For her party theme I wanted to keep it simple with a balloon theme and I chose the colors of pink, yellow, and turquoises as her party colors.  While I did not want to go overboard since the venue itself was a lot of entertainment for the children, I still tried to add personal touches to make her party feel special.

The balloon  started after I found these adorable invitations on Etsy.  I was going back and forth between a couple of themes but once I saw these I was sold. While I had these made, I had to punch holes, cut and add the twine to the invitations.  While this was slightly labor intensive, it was worth it for as cute as they turned out.

Next I asked my sweet friend, Kaitlin, to make some water bottle labels and punches for the goodie bags.  She is so talented and did an amazing job at matching Ava's invitation.

I then made balloon toppers for each of the cupcakes and also used the balloon punch in the place cards.

As a parent, I could not have been any happier to see how well everything came together and to see the joy that was on my daughter's face as she laughed and played with her friends.

After the party we headed to Nana and Papa's for a cookout.  Ava enjoyed opening her Birthday gifts and it was nice to unwind on Nana and Papa's back porch.  It was a very long day and we all slept well that evening but I could not have asked for a more blessed day for Ava's 2nd Birthday.