Layla Turns 2!!!!

This year Layla's birthday was the same day as Easter.  Initially I had thought we would just do a family birthday, but as it got closer to her birthday I started to feel like we should do a little something more for her.  My cousin and her family were going to be out of town and with Mike in school right now we weren't able to travel to be with family.  Mike and I have never spent Easter without visiting family or having extended family around.  So I was starting to feel the blues about not having a bigger Easter celebration and especially the fact it was Layla's birthday too!

So a few weeks before Easter I got in touch with two of our wonderful friends from the neighborhood and was beyond thrilled to learn they would be around on Easter and were willing to come over for a small birthday celebration and cookout.  Of course I immediately started preparing some fun party ideas.....and scouring Pinterest for help in gathering ideas!

Before her party, we started our day going to Easter mass and had brunch at the Cheesecake factory, since we were having a cookout later.  While we were there, they brought Layla a little dessert and sang Happy Birthday to her!  

(You can mute the music on the player at the lower right to hear the video)

Then we went home, she took a good nap, and we were ready for her little birthday celebration!

The weather was forecasted to thunderstorm most of the morning and evening so I decided to keep most of the party indoors and hope to catch a break in the rain to have a quick egg hunt outside.  So I transformed our dining room into a pint sized party!  (I'm sure my husband loves my knack for transforming rooms in our house for the girl's parties and having to move furniture into hiding in other rooms!  Thank you hubby!)

On a side note, I had put the table decorations together about a week before the party so I was sure I had everything together.  Layla enjoyed playing with the decorations and has quite the imagination just like her big sis!

For the table I put our three small children's tables together then covered the table and chairs with plastic table cloths.  I also decided we needed to have some sunshine on this rainy day, so I got some poster board and made some fake windows with the Easter bunny peeking in and some sunshine.

The place settings I pretty much copied from an idea I saw on Pinterest, and have to say I just loved all the fun spring colors together!  I bought a green rug and cut it into six pieces for the "grass placemats."  Then added some carrot bubbles and cute plastic polka dot plates I found at Hobby Lobby.....(all at 40% off since it was close to Easter...woo hoo!).  Found the cute bunny ears in the dollar section at Target and added the little chick baskets (I think from Michael's).  I made the little bunny noses and added a few other Easter decorations I already had at the house!

And I loved the idea of adding little cotton bunny tails to the back of the chairs!

Hanging with my peeps:)  The best way to spend a birthday!  (I just painted a cheap wooden craft frame, then found some cute peep clipart via a google search, added the saying and printed it for the frame)

For the egg hunt I put together these baskets for each of the girls.  I found the basket at Michael's when all the baskets were 40% off, added some ribbon I had at the house and created a personalized name tag for each of them.

 Cupcakes!  You may remember a few weeks ago I took the girls to a place called Farmhouse in the City and they painted cupcake pictures.  It turned out the colors Evie had chosen to paint hers blended perfectly with our party decor :)  And the cupcake stand was one I had from Layla's birthday last year!

I found a decorating kit with the sprinkles and candies at Target to make these adorable chick cupcakes.   So I made a yummy homemade vanilla cupcake with some whipped cream frosting.

The weather held out and it ended up only raining in the morning and stayed clear the rest of the day!  Once the friends arrived we went outside for our egg hunt.  Each girl had a specific color of egg to look for outside....I just made sure I had four different color eggs for the older girls and stuffed them with the same items....then they would all get the same number of eggs and items (mostly princess rings, bracelets, princess chapstick, bouncy balls, yogurt raisins, animal crackers, etc.).  I also had two other color eggs for the smaller ones to collect that was filled with more age appropriate items (such as yogurt melts, puffs, hair barrettes, etc.)

Layla ready to find her pink eggs!

Evie was pretty much on the run finding her green eggs! (I promise they randomly picked the color of eggs by choosing a marker of the same color...I didn't coordinate my girls with their outfits as I just noticed while posting these photos!)

....and didn't waste any time opening her eggs to see what was inside them!

After the egg hunt we headed back inside for some snacks and cupcakes!  the girls all found the bunny ears at the table and looked so cute wearing them!

 ....and we sang happy birthday to Layla!

she was a pro after her birthday song at Cheesecake Factory and immediately blew out the candles after the song!

I love her face as she is trying to figure out how to eat the cupcake...

......well I guess that works!

Since the weather was wonderful the dads took them outside to play while the mommies got everything together for dinner!  I love how Layla wore her bunny ears almost the entire time she was playing outside!

Sweet sisters!!!!!

Our wonderful little family!

Once Layla's little friends left, I decided to quickly move the small tables out of the way so our friend, "Uncle Kurt" could help Mike move the dining room table before he left.  Poor Layla walked into the room and saw the little table was gone and immediately put her head down and said, "Oh no....what happened.  My party's all gone!"  She had the sweetest little sad face and Mike and I couldn't help but laugh.  We tried to get her to retell us about it so we could get it on video, but of course it's never as good as the initial "in-the-moment" response!

I think it is safe to say she had a wonderful 2nd birthday and really enjoyed her day!