Autumn’s 2nd Birthday!

I’m not going to start this blog by saying my usual, “Where has all the time gone?” or “I can’t believe my baby Girl is already 2?”…. BUT ARE YOU KIDDING ME, seems more appropriate! Its hard to think that next year this sweet baby girl (and yes, I can still call her a baby, even at 2) can be entering her first year of pre-school?!?! She is growing up so fast. She talks in complete sentences now, has almost mastered her abc’s and is continuing to test our patience everyday with her ‘strong willed’ personality and explosive attitude problem. Honestly though, she is such an absolute joy and brings so much fun and love to our family! She is definitely claimed as our ‘wild child’ due to her super spunky personality and we would not have her any other way.

Ok, onto the fun stuff, her party. Since we just moved up to Colorado two weeks ago, we obviously haven’t made many friends yet so we weren’t planning on having a party for her. Also, I really had no clue what our house would look like at this point either so I was honestly planning on having a small family dinner and taking her somewhere special on her bday. That was until Brandon’s family brought up the idea of having a HUGE family Party to celebrate the July and August Birthdays in the family. What a perfect idea! Glad someone else thought of it because I wasn’t so clever. Any who, there are 5 Birthdays in the family that are in July & August; Aunt Rose, Uncle Dan, Autumn, Ellie and Olivia. This is the first time in about 5 years that Brandon’s Mom’s side of the family have ALL been together. How fun! My wonderful Sister-In-Law Megan offered to host the party at their ginormous house so I offered to do the cooking along with Grammy. Everyone pitched in by bringing one thing or another and the party came together flawlessly. Since all the other Birthday participants are at least 10 years older than Autumn, they decided to let me decorate the party in any theme of Autumn’s choice. Since she absolutely LOVES Hello Kitty, we chose that as the theme. Between Aunt Rose and I we were able to make it just right without going overboard. Megan also invited her BFF Val and her family to join in on all the fun since they don’t have any family here, Megan has adopted them into our family. It worked out nice since they have two kids so there were some more kids to play with my two! I know, I know, I am totally rambling like always and all you all really want are pictures. As always I took way way way too many pictures and we all know I am terrible at refraining from posting them all so watch out here we go…

Her Birthday fell on Sunday this year. So before we headed to the party, we started the day off by trying out a new church. We are on a massive Church hunt to find our new Church home. Number 1 on our to do list. So far we have tried 3 and of course the one we really like doesn’t have a service time that will work for us when B goes back to work. Anyway, here is Autumn in her special B-day dress that Auntie Kiki passed on to her! What a precious Birthday Girl! Happy 2nd Birthday Sweetie Pie!!!!!

After Church we headed to Megan and Dan’s house. We got there early so we could let the kids nap and help decorate and set up. Once Nap Time was over it was ‘Party Time’!!!!

I made the gift bags mainly because I felt bad that I spent months planning and hand making all of Owen’s Pirate Party Stuff and I didn’t want Autumn to feel cheated. I know she would never know, but all you Mom’s out there know when you have more than 1 kid, you try to make everything as fair as possible. Thanks again pinterest for the wonderful idea for the Favor Bags.

After Church, the Birthday Girl changed into something a little more ‘In theme’ for the party! She is so cute.

I'm telling you, this party was a giant group effort. Everyone pitched in, and I mean everyone!

I am CERTAIN that nothing was left out on the menu. We had TONS of delicious food. There was Red Chili Enchiladas, Green Chili Enchiladas, No Chili Enchiladas, Burritos (regular, gluten free and chili free), Spanish Rice, Pinto Beans, Stuffed Jalapenos, Fresh Veggies, Chips with 4 different dips-Guacamole, Pico De Gallo, Salsa or Cowboy Caviar. Seriously a TON of food and it was ALL AMAZING! Nothing like a family feast.

 

Papa Nick and Grammy/GG caught red handed sampling the margaritas and White Peach Sangria!

Bailey got tons of love and attention from all the family! Isn’t my niece absolutely gorgeous?!?!

And there was tons of awesome family fellowship!

And lots of playing for the kiddos. Here is Aiden & Autumn. Aiden is Val’s (Megan’s BFF) son. He is 3 and has a 10 month old baby sister Layla.

These pictures kind of make it look like Owen had no fun, but he honestly did!

Playing Shuffle Board in the Basement/Man Cave.

Uncle Dan attempted to teach the Birthday Girl how to play poker.

and then….

We brought out the jumper! It was her and Owen’s combined Bday present this year so it only felt appropriate to have it at her party!

It was totally worth it, the kids had a BLAST!!!!!!

Teenage cousins bounced…

Adult Uncle’s Bounced…

Even 6 month old babies bounced!

Happiness exuded, tantrums happened,

and most importantly there was Love and Laughter everywhere you looked!

Family Pictures,

 

Grandpa & Grandma with their kids

Left to Right: Aunt Rose, Becky (Brandon’s Mom), Uncle Nick, Grandpa, Grammy, Aunt Teri, and Aunt Bev

Grandpa & Grandma with their grandkids

Left to Right: Brandon, Megan (Brandon’s Sister), Casey, Grandpa, Grammy, Olivia & Ellie

And Grandma & Grandpa with the ‘Out-laws’ meaning the ones that were married into the family, lol!

Back Row: Uncle Don (Married to Aunt Bev), Dan (Megan’s Husband) Front Row: Me (Married to Brandon), Grandpa, Grammy and Uncle Brian (Married to Aunt Teri)

Our ridiculous many attempts at a decent family photo with all four of us looking. Lol.

If you don’t know, Aunt Bev is the ‘comedian’ of the family. She is always acting super silly and cracking jokes left and right. Here she is taking a ‘special’ picture with her mommy and daddy! Hahahaha

There was also a HUGE Family Photo taken, but Megan has it on her camera so I will post at a later time. It came out awesome!

And after a lot of partying, it was time to blow out the candles…

Aunt Rose and Dan didn’t want much attention on them so we just had 3 different bday cakes for Ellie, Olivia and Autumn. Ellie chose a Lemon Merengue Pie, Autumn chose a Chocolate Hello Kitty Cake (thanks Aunt Rose for ordering it) and Olivia chose a Heath Cake. All great choices ladies!

And what always comes after Birthday Cake?

Presents! Presents! And more Presents!

Since there were multiple Birthday’s, it looked like Christmas.

Her sweet little expressions were priceless.

This was pretty funny. Aunt Rose got this really cool Gift Wrapping Station Storage thing. Its funny because every one knows when they get a gift from Aunt Rose that it will be exquisitely wrapped. She is known for it!

Even Owen got gifts and it wasn’t even his birthday?!?!

This is the face Autumn gave when she realized she had opened all her presents. She was in shock. She was having a blast opening all her gifts. Lol. To be a kid again!

She got over it pretty quick and then moved onto playing with her new stuff.

 

A HUGE HUGE HUGE thanks to everyone who made Autumn’s Party possible. A special thanks to Megan & Dan for opening up their beautiful home to host this special family party and a Huge thanks to The Fink Family & Uncle Nick for traveling all the way from North Carolina & California to be with us to celebrate. It was wonderful having the whole family together again! And lastly a GIANT thanks to everyone for all the AMAZINGLY GENOROUS gifts you gave my sweet baby girl (even you out-of-staters who sent gifts)!!! My children are so fortunate to have you all in her life and to have all the wonderful love showered upon her. We love you all and most importantly…..

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY MY PRECIOUS ANGEL AUTUMN REBEKAH!!!!!!! Mommy & Daddy love you more than words can ever express and can’t wait to see the Lovely Women you become as you celebrate many more Birthdays to come.