Joy Turns 2

 Hard to believe that two years have gone by since this girl miraculously popped into our lives.  

She loves:

singing (she calls "I am a Child of God" "Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find . . . a way")

shoes

books

bugs (both to admire and squish)

watching: Eebee and The Wheels on the Bus on Netlfix

eating: bananas, grapes, apples, cheese sticks, meat & cheese sandwiches, juice, "ice in the water", and chocolate

Since she loves her butterfly ("firefly") shirts and bugs so much, I decided to have a butterfly birthday for her.  This is apparently a common enough idea to warrant lots of stuff at the Dollar Store.  So $20 later, we were all decked out.  I got the butterfly happy birthday sign, the twirly, hanging butterflies in the foreground, the wings and headbands pictured below, some butterfly wall stickers for Joy's room, and the coloring books for her present.  Cheapest birthday ever.

So, Joy wore one of her butterfly shirts with butterfly hair (high pigtails), went to dance class where we passed out stickers (also from the Dollar Store), then took a nap while The Captain and I decorated the house and the cake.  Then we went butterfly crazy. 

We started with a butterfly craft that involved lots of paint.  Sorry no pics, I'm not finished yet, but they turned out so cute that I'm going to frame them in Joy's room.  I do have the two I used pinned on Pinterest with a bunch, so you can always try guessing. 

 Then they dressed up like butterflies and ran around the house.

The Captain was WAY happy to be a butterfly, just not so happy to get his picture taken.

And the cake.  The Captain did the sprinkles. 

I finally managed to capture a half-decent candle blowing shot.

Stuffing her face. Notice her hair is pulled out on one side and half out on the other.  Getting her hair done is not one of her favorite things.  

She likes it!

She was happy to get Grandma and Grandpa's card and promptly handed the birthday money to Daddy.  Even this girl knows who takes care of the finances in this house.

She got 5 coloring books and twisty crayons from us, since she loves coloring.  We got an Ooo.