Leah's 2nd Birthday

Happy Birthday Goofball... I mean SWEETHEART!! Yesterday was Leah's 2nd birthday and we had quite the party. It has taken quite a few days for the planning committee (me and my friend Margie) to accomplish this great party! The day started off good and I was getting things done but mid morning my mom called and asked if I would come play the piano for thier primary activity where they were practicing their program for Sunday. Their regular player couldn't make it so I was their last resort. I accepted though it put me a little behind schedule. Luckily I have an awesome friend, Margie Walker who was willing to help out a ton. Thanks to her the fondue was a hit! So earlier yesterday I put up the outside decorations. Here are a few pics.

I had been working on the inside decorations all week. It has been so fun coming up with Halloween and fall decorations. I tried to make most myself or find them cheap at Michael's. Here is a wreath that took no time at all thanks to the packaged pumpkins, leaves, pine cones and a wonderful thing called a hot glue gun!

Then these are my favorite. They are just tissue pom poms in the colors of candy corn. They are super easy. In case you want to make your own here is a quick tutorial.

Then I hung a few over the buffet table. They turned out really fun and perfect for a party.

More decorations.

And more.

Close up on party favors. They are brooms with candy inside!

More pom poms. I also made the little garland above the pom poms out of felt. They were really fun to do and turned out really cute. If you want to see them better just click on the picture.

Lily had a good time at the party too! She loved getting all of the attention from her grandparents.

Just a little side note. She has started sitting up. She topples over every once in a while but is doing really good. I can't believe she is getting so big!

Here is a really old decoration. My mom gave me these spiders but she has had them as long as I can remember. They are a favorite of mine so I knew just where to hang them once she gave them to me.

The Witches Brew (homemade Root Beer) provided by Andrew.

And all of Leah's loot. She made off well this year. Thanks everyone for the gifts they are so fun and soo cute. I'm excited to dress her up in all of the cute clothes and shoes. I will have to get pictures of her in each little outfit. We'll do a little fashion show!

Here is all of the wonderful food. Fondue was on the menu. We had cheese fondue, and an assorment of dips, BBQ, honey mustard, and Teryiaki. To dip we had bread, beef and turkey meatballs and roasted veggies. OH and you can't forget the wonderful Knorr spinach dip! For dessert we had caramel and chocolate fondue and to dip, strawberries, bananas, apples and marshmallows. It was soo good!!!

The party room!

And then all of the guests arrived, we had both sets of graneparents, aunts and one uncle. We even had a Leah's Great-Grandma and Grandpa Hawkes show up. It was really good to have them over. And I can't forget my good friend Margie!

Leah loved the balloon the Schauerhamers brought. She has been playing with it a lot today!

And don't forget the birthday cake! This one was a scary but very cute spider! It only had one minor slip up. Let's just say my mom had to clean up purple frosting from the inside of her fridge.

Lily was a little freaked out by the spider. Or maybe she just wanted some of that cake ASAP!

The presents.

Leah got so excited over the shoes that Aunt Sara gave her she toppled over and landed on little sister.

Lily recovering from being sat on.

Grandpa Baum had to make sure that Leah didn't forget him while he's gone to Ethiopia so he got her this lovely rig.

Thanks everyone for coming and for the gifts! The party was a success I'm just glad it's over for another year! JK it was a lot of fun and I hope she had a great day!