Arden is officially a 2-year old!
Since her birthday was on a Saturday we celebrated the entire weekend, starting with breakfast in bed and yes, she had birthday cake for breakfast :)!
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| {Our sweet neighbor friends made her a mini-cake with this candle, so cute and a yummy cake!} |
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| {Arden: "Are you trying to light me on fire?!"} |
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| {Arden: "Mom, are you really letting me do this?"} |
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| {She went right for the candle and used it as her fork} |
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| {Later that day she got her Mr. Potato Head! We said we weren't going to do much this year and we actually followed through! And yes, the fire is going, wasn't completely necessary but fun :)} |
On Sunday we went to the Bronx Zoo. It was a beautiful fall day and a really cool zoo, even Kevin and I were impressed with the animals! And Arden ran around and would scream with excitement when she saw a different animal. It was so fun for us to see her that excited.
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| {We started the day with the giraffe's. She has a giraffe she sleeps with at night so she immediately knew what this was!} |
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| {A rare picture of the 3 of us but a nice stranger offered to take our picture! } |
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| {An even more rare pic of Arden and Mommy but of course she was too busy to stop and smile ;)} |
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| {Checking out the ducks, she kept shouting "C'meer dux!!" (in Arden language)} |
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| {She LOVED the peacock!} |
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| {The zoo is an old, historical place. Lots of pretty buildings and detailed architecture.} |
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| {The tiger was pretty cool!} |
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| {The polar bear was pacing, it was feeding time!} |
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| {The lions may have been my favorite but as Kevin said it didn't seem like there was much separating the lions from the people...yikes!!} |
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| {Just cute pictures of my two favorite people while we were watching the lions :)} |
It was a quiet, laid-back weekend but very special to Kevin and I that we were able to devote the entire weekend to her. We did have a birthday party for her earlier in October - it was a bowling party that she and a neighbor friend, Bridget, had together. Bridget's actual birthday is September 29th (Kevin's birthday!) and her mom was nice enough to include Arden in the birthday party she was planning for Bridget. It was perfect because Arden was turning 2 and Bridget was turning 3 so their party was fun for them and the adults ;). Even though Arden didn't really understand bowling, and she didn't even really care about rolling the ball, she had so much fun watching all of the big kids bowl. It was a special day and gave us a reason to start celebrating her birthday early!
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| {Bridget and Arden - the two birthday girls! Our sweet friend Carla gave them shirts with their name and birthday year on them :)} |
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| {Arden and her friend Danica} |
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| {Arden and Kayla - Kayla and Danica are sisters...pretty girls! Julia is on the right, she wasn't ready for the camera!} |
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| {Birthday girl Bridget} |
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| {She desperately wanted to carry a bowling ball!} |
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| {Yay!!} |
I wasn't really sure how I would feel about her turing 2...all of the cliches apply: "time flies," "they grow too fast," "they aren't babies long enough," - I agree with all of that but right now I am enjoying her so much I don't have time to be sad. She is a super-fun girl who makes me laugh everyday. I love how much she loves Kevin and I right now (someone remind me of this one day when she is a teenager!). I love how she is starting to say new things, use her imagination and show her independence (although I have to remind myself this is a good thing). All of this makes me so happy I don't have time to be sad and worry about where the time has gone, I am just soaking up every minute that I can!
A look back...
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| {10.22.09} |
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| {10.22.10} |
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| {10.23.11} |
Happy Birthday to my sweet girl and hugs to everyone!
Hillary
