Two Years Old!!!!

It's official, the little one is now two! She will happily tell you that too, since two has now become one of her favorite numbers!

To celebrate the big event we had a park party. One of the little one's favorite things is the park.  If we would let her, she would stay on the swings day and night! 

7 of her playmates attended and I think everyone had a good time. The park was the easiest thing that I could think of. I just am not one of those parents who will spend a small  fortune on a toddler's birthday.  We did a picnic lunch and had balloons for party favors.

The little one has a huge passion for balloons! What 2 year old doesn't?

The park has a lot of old school play equipment, which she is finally big enough to get on and off of by herself!

Here is Auntie Karen testing out the motorcycle! I don't ride on them that much since the day I had a little boy tell me he thought I was way to big to ride, and I didn't want to break it, did I?

Two of the little ones on the merry- go - round, wheee!

This is the little one's birthday twin.(He was doing some very serious driving)  It is so fun to see him with my little one since they are literally the exact same age.

Happy Baby!

The twins having fun on the slide!

Climbing high!

It was nice to have all of the grandparents attend, 

that way every little one had a hand to help push the swings!

As part of the picnic lunch I made personalized cut out cookies for all the kids. I didn't feel like fighting the mess of small children with cupcakes. So these were a nice alternative. I don't think the kids minded at all because to a kid sugar is sugar!

There were ducks and dinosaur cookies for the kids goodie bags and then flowers and butterflies for the adults to munch on! Many thanks to my sister for staying up late helping to decorate them!

And because no birthday would be complete without cake I did make a devils food pound cake for the little one's birthday dinner!

She was so pleased that we were all singing to her!

She was fascinated by the lit candle, she did attempt to blow it out...

But then seemed truly bothered and bewildered when it did go out!

The lack of flame from the candle did not deter her from shoveling in some cake.

She licked her plate clean!!!

Now that this birthday has come and gone, I guess I better get to planning next year's!

Bee City...

One of the other fun adventures we had while the family was in town was a trip to Bee City. We had never been there before so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to check it out. I knew nothing about it except what was on their website and the fact that I had passed the signs to it on drives out in the country.

We were all pleasantly surprised at how entertaining it was for all ages. Although I will say a very hot day could make this not nearly as pleasant. There is a lot of animal poop to be had, if you know what I mean!

This guy needs some serious braces!

Do you have any snacks for me?

The lemurs were so cool!

You can purchase food to feed almost all of the animals. For the lemurs and monkeys it's cheerios. Yum!

It was really fun to fed them. They would just reach through the cage and get it out of your hand.

The little one was really impressed by the bunnies. I think she would have stayed all day petting them!

We all loved watching this sweet little momma wallaby and her little teeny baby.

The little one was in awe of all the animals antics!

The monkey's were trained to retrieve a snack using a pulley. Very funny to watch!

Yummy!

A quick family photo!

I think by the end the boys were getting a little overwhelmed by all of the excitement (or maybe the smell from the animals) so I really don't know what to say about this photo other than it made me laugh out loud!

:)

Cypress Gardens...

For the little one's birthday one of my sisters and her husband came to visit for a few days. We had a lot of fun adventuring and also preparing for the little one's big day! One of our adventures took us to the Cypress Gardens in nearby Moncks Corner.

This is a beautiful place to visit if you have a chance. Especially this time of year, before it gets to hot and while all of the flowers are in full bloom.

Sister and Brother-in-Law make quite the beautiful butterfly and handsome caterpillar don't you think?

Me and the little one (LOL!)

The garden has a wonderful butterfly house that also contains a koi pond. We had a lot of fun watching them all flutter by.

The little one got and extra long visit in the butterfly house, which she loved, with her Uncle because she refused to get in the rowboat.

Maybe she knew we would encounter gators like this one...

Just kidding! Daddy wasn't really eaten by a gator!

We did see several alligators in the water while we hiked and then also when we took a quick paddle in the swamp, but none of them tried to take off our heads!!!

In addition to the gardens there is also small aquarium with lots of neat turtles, some talking birds on display and lots of great nature trails. It is a really cool place to visit if you get a chance.

Really?A Penis Tree?...

I have been way behind on my blogging lately in part due to pure laziness but also we have been slowly preparing for the little one's upcoming 2nd birthday this week. The playhouse is coming along wonderfully. I have not fully finished decorating it so I have not taken updated pictures yet. However, the little one has been having lots of fun playing in it un decorated. I think she really doesn't care if its decorated or not, she knows its her house though and will gladly point  it out as well as pointing out mommy's house (our house) and daddy's house ( the storage building, LOL!).  

Now, because I'm sure you are all wondering what the title of this post is all about I will get to it! First, here is a cute picture of the little one playing at the park.

A few days ago the little one and I journeyed to one of our neighborhood parks to feed the turtles and ducks at the pond. I was saddened to be told by a fellow mommy upon pulling into the parking lot that someone had  spray painted the playground equipment and that if my child was old enough to read we may want to not play.

Fortunately, the little one is not up on how to spell the latest and greatest in dirty words...

The penis picture on the merry go round was the only thing mild enough to post. The other half of it was covered in words and pictures that even offened me!

It was hard to watch the little one going down the slide with this under her bottom!

The worst to me was the penis tree. Who puts graffiti on trees? So wrong!

Needless to say I called the local police, (who made remarkably fast time, if it were an actual emergency I wouldn't hold my breath!) The nice officer assured me the city would be contacted and it would be cleaned up. Sure enough a few days later, hubby went back to the park and it was all gone. I'm still wondering how they managed to get it off the tree and still leave the bark intact but they did! I'm also still wondering why anyone thought vandalizing a toddler park was a good idea? Losers!

To make this post end on a lighter note, here is a picture of the little one in her new fairy princess dress! This adorable outfit is a birthday gift from one of her aunties! It has been a real hit!

The little one shocked me yesterday by putting it on all by herself!

This picture doesn't do the dress justice because you can't see the little fairy wings on the back, and if only I could get her to smile and not make the monkey face! Now all she needs is a magic fairy wand! I could use one too, one that with the snap of the wrist makes my house clean itself! :)

A Secret Project...

It has been a tough last few days around here. Since Thursday, last week the little one has been under the weather. I finally broke down and called the pediatrician's office yesterday after another random episode of vomit. The good news is that they confirmed what I had already suspected that it is a virus going around. The bad news is that it generally last a full seven days. Yuck! By my count we still have about another 36 hours to go! 

I hope the little one gets better soon! 2 am surprise vomit is never a fun time!

In other news , while hubby was working out of town last week he mentioned that he was working on a secret project.  For 5 days I tried to pry out of him what it was... it didn't work. I honestly hate surprises and really dislike secrets (unless it's a secret i'm keeping!). But this secret project is super cool!

Even though it did involve tearing out the garden bed we labored to install last year. Can you guess the secret project?

 

It's a modular playhouse! Since our house is for sale hubby built a special custom playhouse for the little one. He built it is sections so it can be taken apart to be moved! He arrived home with the four walls already built, they just had to be screwed together!

He worked hard all weekend putting it together!

Even though the little one is sick we still let her go check it out!

It is big enough inside to fit the whole family, dog included!

Yesterday, since the little one was seemingly better, I caught her dancing inside!

She was kind enough to pose for the camera.

Unfortunatly, it was only 20 minutes later that she threw up all over my couch so needless to say we were inside much of the rest of the day! :(

Hubby's secret project was a pleasant surprise, but now the question remains as to how to decorate it!
I am debating back and forth between white with pink trim or pink with white trim. We will also have to incorperate flowers and butterflies since those are a few of her favorite things!

Hopefully the lttle one will be back to her normal self before to long so we can hit up the paint store!

:)

Fancy New Things...

In the last few days the little one has really racked up on some super cute clothes! Bappy came for a visit and brought 2 super cute dresses and an awesome sock monkey pair of pants and shirt.

Today was also the semi annual rosalina sale, I was proud of myself for only buying three outfits!

Here is the little one modeling one of the outfits and holding up one of the new dresses.

]

The great thing about the outfit she is wearing is that it is totaly reversible!

It is a pretty pink on the inside, and I love the Carolina Girl embroidery. Too cute! There is nothing better than 2 outfits in one!

The blue and white polka dot outfit is her birthday outfit. My neighbor had a trunk show for Shrimp and Grits kids clothing and I ordered it from her. I am going to have her initials embroidered on the front at some point before the big day.

Last but not least here she is wearing her normal clothes, Walmart's finest!

I actually went back to Walmart and bought another dress that is the same style in a different color after I saw how cute it was on. 

For $6 it is a great little play outfit.

Especially when most of the time it will be covered with a layer of dog fur!

Weekend Happenings...

This weekend we marked the beginning of spring with our first trip to the beach. It was great to feel the sand between our toes!

The little one insisted on wearing her shoes though! She didn't think much of the damp sand!

Showing off our shovels full of sand!

Daddy pointing out boats in the distance.

Filling her bucket! It was great to get out and enjoy such a warm day. We are lucky to have the beach so close by. :)

In other news Grandpa and Bappy (grandma) came for a quick visit. So I used it as a good excuse to try out a new dessert Lucious Cream Puffs. The actual recipe is here.

Start with puff pastry sheet baked into round shapes. I used a 2 inch drinking glass as my cutter. The recipe said to use a 3 inch, oops!

When pastry is cooled split in half and top with Jello pudding and Cool Whip combined.

Top with remaining half of pastry. Drizzle with melted chocolate and enjoy! Because I used a smaller diameter of circle cooking time on the pastry was a little shorter and we were all able to enjoy 2 puffs! Yummy!

Since the grandparents were in town Hubby and I decided to take advantage and went to see a movie.

We went to see Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland in 3-D! It was awesome! We have not been to see a movie in almost 2 years so that in itself was pretty remarkable, but the movie was really cool! All of characters really come to life in 3-D, my favorite character had to be the Chesire Cat.

Who doesn't love a magical kitty?! I wish my cats could disapper and reappear. If only they could clean the litterbox by themselves! That would really be magical...

Hope ya'll had a great weekend!

Chocolate Dipped Macaroons...

Over the weekend I decided to try a new recipe. I have had a bag of coconut in the pantry for a while so I figured the time was right to use it. I used this recipe which I found using google. Apparently a lot of recipes call for sweetened condensed milk but since I didn't have any this recipe was totally meant for me.

Mix 1 1/3 cup coconut, 2 tablespoons flour, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/3 cup sugar in medium bowl.

Add to dry ingredients 2 egg whites (whipped until form stiff peaks) with a little vanilla and almond extract.

Form into rounded teaspoons and bake for 16-18 minutes.

This recipe only makes approximately 18 cookies.

After they cooled on a wire rack I used two unsweetened chocolate bakers squares to dip them in. Yummy! I think I ate the majority of these. Oops!

In other news the little one's hair is finally long enough for actual pigtails so here is a cute pic showing off her new hairdo!

The disgruntled look is disappointment because Elmo was ending!