Rosemary turns Two!!!!

On December 11, my little baby turned two years old! For the past year she has been in love with Little Mermaid so I felt I had no other choice but to throw her a Little Mermaid birthday bash! We invited all her friends to Glencliff Park for the celebration. It was a bit windy, but the turnout was great. My parents came down, our good friend Nikki came and spent the day with us, Joe's work crew even came out to join in the celebration, and of course all of Rosemary's friends from our playgroup that we've been going to since she was 2 months old! It made it really special that everybody took time out from their busy schedules to come on down and help us celebrate. Here are a few pictures from the party and opening presents at home.

My friend Kara made this gorgeous cake for Rosemary! The shells are from our wedding which was a beach theme. I thought it was pretty neat that we finally found a way to reuse them. It was also ridiculously sweet of Kara to do this. She is expecting number 2 and feels the same way I felt when I was pregnant with Rosemary- like there may be no end to the nausea and vomiting! So thanks Kara for being such a good friend!

We also decorated part of the pavilion with the iridescent blue fabric that was used on our cake table. The wind was blowing so hard that we couldn't put up all the decorations, but here's a glimpse at what we were able to do. Not exactly as planned, but it served it's purpose! It took about an hour and a half to get those silly tablecloths down! We were fighting the wind, and the wind won!

Here's a picture of our family before cutting the cake:
We had planned to dress Rosemary up as Ariel for the party, but it was just too cold at the playground so we waited until we got home. The flower barrettes were given out as party favors. So far ours are holding up really well! I hope everyone else is able to use theirs!


My parents were by far the star of the show this year! Check out the kitchen they got Rosemary! It's been weeks and she is still loving it! It's by the far the best gift she's ever gotten!

They also got her this cute set with potholders, an apron, and this chef hat. I was lucky enough to snap this picture before she took it off- and she hasn't let me put it back on her since!

These are just a few of the pictures taken of her birthday. Joe has more on his flickr- including a couple priceless pictures of Rosemary and "Uncle" Jesse eating birthday cake, kissing her boyfriend of the day, Gavin, and enjoying the sandbox Joe and I got her! http://www.flickr.com/photos/joerbailey
They're in the "Family Fun" folder under "Rosemary's Second Birthday."

The big 3-0

I did it! I made it to 30! I wanted to spend the day doing my two favorite things: spend time with my family and travel the world. We saved on airfare and lodging by making the hour and a half drive to Orlando to spend the day at EPCOT. The first (and luckily only) mishap that occured as soon as we walked through the gates was my camera unfortunately broke. Yes, the second camera I bought in the past couple weeks. So I wasn't able to get too many pictures. Joe got more than I did but he's back to work so it might take a while before they're downloaded and I can steal them to post all the funny pictures of me in crazy hats and standing in every country we visited.

Let me backup. We started the day with an uber-healthy breakfast of red velvet birthday cake made my amazing friend and cake-maker extroidinaire, Kara (thank you again!).
When we finally made it to Epcot we started at the new Nemo exhibit for Rosemary's sake. Joe and I ended up loving it! After a boat ride trying to "Find Nemo", we checked out Disney's awesome aquarium that includes a dolphin and a manatee rescue tank. By then we were all ready for lunch so we started to begin "traveling the world" as we told Rosemary who repeated it every time we left from one country to another! We made our way to Paris to eat lunch in the Boulangerie Patisserie. I had a ham tartine (fancy word for pizza), Joe had some quiche, and we all shared a creme brulee. We then spent the day wandering the shops in Japan, scouring Italy for Pocket Coffee (a tasty treat we picked up when we were actually in Italy that we have been unable to find anywhere in the States, and unfortuntaly had no luck at Epcot, either), taking a river boat cruise through Old Mexico, and awed by the amazing Relfections of China panorama film. I was able to replace my Notre Dame keychain that I bought in the real Paris 4 years ago and that has since broken with an Eiffel Tower keychain (that broke today at the bank ;(). I don't have much luck with cameras or keychains. I also bought myself a Murano glass necklace. I always regretted not getting on when we were in Venice and I think I paid twice as much getting it at Epcot, but at least I now have it! It was a wonderful day. We stayed until after the fireworks show, which as a perfect ending to our perfect day. It did whet my appetite for a real European trip, but I think it was an adequate substitute. Rosemary did a great job in the car and I can't guarantee that she would do as well in a trans-Atlantic flight. Oh, and that whole cost of a plane ticket thing is a bit of a deterent as well ;). I wish I had more pictures, but I'll update when Joe gets his uploaded. For now here's one of France I was able to get out of my malfunctioning camera:
I was really tired when I wrote this last night and I forgot about the most fun part! We ate dinner at the Biergarten Restaurant in Germany. All the reviews I found said they had nothing for kids, but Rosemary proved them wrong!!!! It was a gastronomic joyfest for her! She ate a roasted chicken leg, pickled herring, sauerkraut, sausage, dumplings, pot roast, salmon with a dill sauce, and various other German delicacies. I don't know any other almost-2-year-old who will eat all of that! The only thing she wouldn't eat was lettuce from the salad! They also had live music and she loved dancing to it. Our waiter brought me a birthday card and a gingerbread man cookie. It was family style and we were seated with a family from Alabama. It made for a fun and interesting meal that we will most definitely do again!