Roo's 2nd birthday party

oh the birthday party... Ruby has been talking about her "happy birthday party" since january. it's been very cute, but also who can live up to all that hype?! by the time her party came along i'm sure she was expecting a trampoline park/petting zoo full of unicorns... with Elmo as the mc! thankfully my sister was a voluntary member of the party planning committee so i had reinforcements. thank you, Dawnica!

i loved this idea of paper dots garlands, and thought it would work really well for the giant, blank wall in our living room (i still haven't decorated the majority of our house because we might move again in 2 months...yes, i know). having a helper came in very handy for this part because it's pretty time-consuming to twist all that paper.

Ruby's monthly photos made this wall way cuter than it's ever been. i'm tempted to leave them up forever.

we kept the food really simple with fruit, veggies, and pasta salad. all Ruby wants to eat these days is fruit and veggies anyway so she was happy with that. can we just talk about this magical drink for a second? i told my sister i wanted a clear drink (hello stains!) this time around and she told me about something called "surprise water" that her mother in law makes. it is seriously the easiest and tastiest drink ever (email me if you want the recipe). i froze some fruit ice cubes to add color and keep it cold, and tadaa! pretty and no stains! thank you Michelle for the recipe!

when i was deciding on activities for the littles, all i could think of was how much Roo loves coloring and anything arts and crafts-y. i ended up making play dough and coloring pages, and i set out crayons and stickers on a little art table for the kids to play with. apparently i really like the idea of a craft table.

at one point Roo stuck a crayon in her lump of play dough and pretended it was a birthday candle. the other kids joined suit and suddenly we were all blowing out pretend candles on play dough cupcakes. she's such a funny little thing.

she was actually interested in opening presents this time around which was nice. she kept gasping after opening every gift and getting so excited. i loved seeing her be so sweet and say thank you to each of her friends.

Roo's sweet buddy, Maddi gave her a baby stroller. it was a big hit, as you can see. Ruby is still completely obsessed with her babies.

Ruby was all about the cake and the candles. the look on her face when we lit the candles and started singing was absolutely priceless. she was in heaven.

she's started doing this thing with me and Tyler where she wants group kisses. as soon as we get close enough, she wraps her arms around both our necks and pulls us in for kisses with a big "MMMMMMUAH!" we absolutely love it.

as favors i just put together a few of Roo's favorite things for all the kids and sent everyone home with a cup of play dough. easy!

i couldn't find any unicorns, but i think she had fun nonetheless. now only 12 more months until the next one!

p.s. check out Roo's first birthday party here

p.p.s. i owe a huge thank you to my friend, Whitney for helping me take some of these photos of the party. It's so nice to be in some of the pictures for a change! She also took that group shot of the kids and let me tell ya, it takes some serious skill to get that many littles in a photo together!  if you're looking for a photographer, you can find more of her info here!