2nd Birthday Extravaganza!

My Dear Charlotte,

You have taken “Birthday Week” to a completely different level – celebrating for almost two weeks and having birthday cake in four states (MD, NC, NJ, NY).  We started your 2nd Birthday Tour in Maryland to visit with your aunts and cousins.  Despite the rain we had an arts and crafts day at Aunt Patty’s with pumpkin painting, mask decorating and tree decorating.  Needless to say we all had fun and it was messy!  That evening we had a pizza party, followed by Minnie Mouse cake and gifts 🙂 You had a such a fun day celebrating with your cousins Brycen and Izzi!

Our next stop on your Birthday Tour was to Raleigh to visit Aunt P and Nana.  We had a great week exploring Wake County – we went to a farm where we picked pumpkins and played in the “corn kernel box”.  Let’s just say we were finding corn all over the place for the next few days 🙂  We went to the North Carolina State Fair which you absolutely loved…most especially the rides! You went on your first “roller coaster” and went on the musical cars – I couldn’t get you out of the ride area, you could have stayed all night.  One day we went to visit the Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh which was AWESOME!   You loved playing with all the exhibits, including the grocery store, playing veterinarian, tending to the farm, and driving the bus!  I promise we will go back because it was really a fun day 🙂 And of course our trip wouldn’t be complete without MORE cake and MORE gifts from Aunt P and Nana!

And last but not least we celebrated your ACTUAL 2nd birthday on October 20th and it was another special day!  Mommy surprised with you with funfetti “birthday cake” pancakes for breakfast, and you blew out the candle all by yourself.  We opened some gifts before heading to gymnastics class in the morning.  For lunch we went to the Woodbury Common to hit up Shake Shack for burgers and milkshakes…and some shopping where you suckered me into a pair of unicorn shoes 🙂  They are really cute!  In the evening we went to The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze to see the amazing display of pumpkins and lights.  Each year they have thousands of hand carved pumpkins on display and lit up to view – some of the displays included a grave yard, dinosaurs, spiders nest, dragon, and train.  It was really a cool event and you loved all the lights, hopefully we can do it again.  And to finish off the night, we met Daddy for dinner at Cosimo’s, our favorite place for pizza and pasta.  unfortunately Daddy was unable to spend the day with us because he had a funeral to attend in Baltimore, but he made sure to get home to have dinner with you and wish you a Happy Birthday before you went to sleep 🙂

I don’t know about you peanut but I am TIRED after celebrating your birthday extravaganza…but it was worth it and there isn’t anyone else in the world I would do it for again.  You have grown up so much this past year – walking, talking, and very independent.  Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you and love you so much, here’s to another great year ahead of us xoxoxoxoxoxoxo