Opal's Birthday

 Opal's 2nd birthday was on Saturday, which made for a fun family day. Her vocabulary is exploding these days. Just yesterday she counted to three (instead of saying, "Nine, nine, nine" for everything she counts). She's also building quite a repertoire of silly faces and enjoys sitting on the potty, though it seems to be more of a hobby than a lifestyle at this point. She's very cuddly and is testing my vow not to spoil my children, esp when she tips her little face down and says, "Me honey, Mama" ("I'm hungry, Mama") in the most pitiful little voice you can imagine, usually when she smells the opportunity for a "nack." (Apparently "s" is a challenging sound for kids--mine, at least.)

After a breakfast strata, Opal was ready to open her first present--a homemade book of baby photos: cut, glued, captioned, and wrapped by her big brother Rolland.

 Here's the birthday girl with decorations and presents. 

We spent the morning at the Forest Hills Community Expo. No, we don't live in the Forrest Hills community, but it was a nice way to spend a morning, we got lots of free samples. Here are the kids having a quick lunch before nap time.

Opal wore this hairclip to the Expo and seemed thoroughly confused by the attention.

 

Grandpa and Grandma Sterken came over for a Rice/Chicken dish and Kale-Peanut Salad, followed by...

 

 Dirt Cake! I was really happy with Naturally Nora's yellow cake mix, and I used the mousse that you usually layer between the Oreo crumbs for the frosting. It was pretty amazing. Rolland decorated.

After we ate, Opal tore into the rest of her presents: dolls, Duplos, and a backpack full of treasures. She had the lip gloss half gone before the night was over.

And just for fun: Here's a shot from the first day of Spring yesterday. I couldn't really capture how hard it was snowing. Last year at this time it was 80 degrees.

 

My favorite photo from our Spring Photo Shoot.