Carnival of crazy.

One reason I had a child was so I could go to birthday parties with her and eat cake.  When we get party invitations in the mail, I jump up and down a little and instantly start salivating at the thought of birthday cake – especially if it has butter cream icing and is flavored with almond extract. 

Plus, it's an excellent photo opportunity for me. I often forget to bring my camera when we go places, so I more than make up for it at birthday parties.  I’m that mom – the one who takes photos of every.single.move my child makes at the party.  Aww, she’s scratching her face – CLICK.  Aww, she’s gagging on cake – CLICK.  Bad mom, bad mom. 

So, this past weekend I went to my cousin’s son’s 2nd birthday party.  So, it was my second cousin’s party – Anna’s third cousin.  Right?  After first cousin, I’m pretty much lost.  So, let’s just pretend that I’m right here.  Anyway, it was such a cute party theme.  Aidan’s (my second cousin, Anna’s third cousin) mom had a carnival setup complete with a cotton candy machine, a jumpy thingamajig, a little outside bowling lane and all sorts of other cute stuff for the kiddos to be entertained with. 

In true Anna form, she played the shy card for the first 30 minutes or so until she was able to better scope out the place.  Then all hell broke loose.  I don’t think my child sat down for more than 1 second the entire day.  She was everywhere and into everything, and I got some great photos.  Unfortunately, she’s too busy playing that she forgot to look at the camera, so they’re all candid.  Those are more fun anyway, right?

Here she is attempting to bowl a strike.  Or a spare.  Or if she takes after me, just hoping to knock down one pin (or Coke bottle in this case).  By the way, the pictures I posted in yesterday’s post (Letter to Anna: 17 months) are from the same day.  She doesn’t wear this dress everyday, I promise.

 

Here you can see her cheeks are starting to get red.  That’s b/c I forgot to put sunscreen on her that morning.  Sun – 1: Mom – 0.

Anna tries to conquer the bike. And gives up quickly. Anna finds a bike that is more her size.  And wastes no time trying it out. Now she wants to go fishing. And eat the plastic fish. She also likes to steal prizes from the prize box. She wasn’t quite feeling the jumpy thingamajig, but she certainly looked cute in it! Cute dimple shot! Should I go down the slide? Nah, I’ll just kick back and chill for a while. And crawl around for a bit.  I see London.  Yay!  Slide, slide, slippidy slide.  My beautiful mother and my beautiful daughter who refuses to look @ the camera.  Yay, mimi, flip me over! I think I’m going to barf.  Oh boy, I’m exhausted mom.  I see London.  (<—Ok, I really need to teach my child to be more lady-like.)

Happy Birthday, Aidan!