Sophia's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Sophia's 2nd birthday a few days early on Saturday with family and friends at our house.  It was a sock monkey theme (I like to have "themes" to all of my parties) and it was completely appropriate because Steve is constantly saying to the girls "Monkey see, monkey do."  Sophia is always copying Sam's every move ...

Before the party, I was able to capture some pictures of the birthday girl and her big sister. 

And of course, there was the obligatory picture of me and my girls.  I just love them!



And how sweet is this?

Sophia was the most excited about her cake -- and that makes my momma heart swell.  I worked really hard the night before to decorate her cake and I am tickled pink that she was thrilled with it!

She was a big fan of the sour cherry balls too.  Eventually, I had to start rationing them with both Sam and Sophia.

Over the course of the last week, Samantha helped me with several of the decorations.  We did quite a few "projects" together, and I was so happy to see what a big interest she was taking in all of it. 

Some of the decorations:

A close-up of the cake:

At the party, we served spaghetti and meatballs, salad, bread rolls and fruit.  Everyone seemed to really enjoy the food (and spaghetti is one of Sophia and my favorite meals of all time!).

After we ate dinner, we migrated into the living room to open gifts.  Sophia was practically an expert ... Sam was willing to help her open every single gift, but Sophia preferred to do it herself.

After almost every single gift, Sophia would reply, "Wow ...!"  It was so cute!

After opening all of her gifts (and we were encouraging her the whole time to be sure to say, "thank you"), we moved back into the dining room for cake and ice cream.  This was one of the highlights for Sophia.  For weeks, we have talking about her birthday and she would always tell us that she was going to have cake at her party.

Posing with her cake:

This picture cracks me up.  Note the pouting face on Sam as we are telling her to let Sophia blow out the candles first and then she can join in.

And then she joined in!



With her birthday hat:

********************

Over all, this party was a success and a wonderful way to celebrate our two years of having this little girl in our family.  She brings us such joy and laughter every day and I can't wait to see what the next year brings.  She will be a big sister in less than three months (this pregnancy has just flown by for me) and I know that she will be just as natural in that role as Samantha was ...

Happy Birthday, Sophia Marie!