Happy 2nd Birthday Reagan!!

With Reagan's obsession with Mickey Mouse, it wasn't a difficult decision to pick the theme for her 2nd birthday party. When I ordered all of the things for her party I also ordered a pair of Mickey ears. When they came in the mail, I tried them on her and told her that they were for her party. From that moment on they were known as her party ears.

Reagan wearing her "party ears".



I had been talking to her about her birthday party being on Saturday and who all would be coming. She has a special place in her heart for grandpa Bricker so she knew that he would be coming on Saturday. When the house was full of people she quickly clammed up and wanted to be held. Adam's parents were here from Ames along with Anna and Jon and Matt and Tammi, Kyle and Evan. My parents were here along with Dustin, Josh, Ella and Lauren (we missed Beth but understand that it is a busy time of the year for her). Great Grandma Bricker and Denise also joined us for the special day. Reagan warmed up and had a blast playing with all of her cousins!!

Checking out her Mickey cake





We had subs from Subway for lunch along with potato salad, chips and apples. All the cousins sat around the table together eating lunch. We heard lots of talking and a few laughs coming from the table.





Singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles.





Opening up presents!!

Wasserbahn

For Reagan's second birthday we decided to take a mini one night vacation to Wasserbahn water park in the Amana Colonies. Adam took off a little early on Thursday and we headed out. Reagan knew that we were going to the pool and sleeping at a hotel and that is all she talked about on our drive there (that and pointing out that she was wearing purple sunglasses and what color the trucks were as we passed them). She was excited!

We got there just in time for a quick dinner and headed straight the water park. We were one of maybe 20 people there so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The park has two big slides, a pool, a whirl pool, hot tub and a mini slide and zero entry pool for the young ones. We spent most of the time in the zero entry area with the tree house. She loved going up and down the stairs with the water spraying out. She did the slide two times, once with me and once with Adam. After that we couldn't get her even look down the slide.

The hotel itself was pretty nice. We got a suite so we could spread the girls out at night. We had one king bed in one room and a queen in the other. Both rooms had a bathroom and TV. The one night stay also included four tickets to the water park all for $130, which I thought was very reasonable!

Before heading home we stopped at Main Amana and got a couple bottles of wine, some chocolate and hit the toy store.

We had a great time and made some good memories as Reagan turned two! It was the perfect winter get away too!

A few (dozen) pictures from our trip!

Swimming

A couple weeks ago we took the girls to a local hotel that allows the public to come in and pay to go swimming. It was the perfect activity for a Sunday afternoon. To say that Reagan loved it would be an understatement. She couldn't get enough and was very disapointed when we told her it was time to go home. Avery wasn't nearly as thrilled and only seemed to find comfort when I was holding her. It wasn't a good time to forget her paci at home either. Reagan laughed whenever Adam went under the water. She had fun kicking her feet and splashing with her hands. We will be sure to do this again soon!

Making Valentine's

We spent one morning making Valentine's. Reagan finger painted and put some of her favorite stickers (Mickey an Minnie) on a paper to send out. We hadn't finger painted in a while so it took her a little bit to really get messy but once she figured it out she kept asking for more paper! I didn't think to take pictures of the end result, probably because I was trying to keep Avery happy while trying to make sure Reagan didn't make too big of a mess. She sure had fun and was proud of her work!







As you can see, Avery started out all smiles but after shortly getting started she wanted her paci and some attention! It will be fun doing these projects with two of them next year!!

Hanging Out

We manage to keep pretty busy most days. If we plan one thing for a morning the day is pretty much shot. We usually hit the grocery store once a week and a couple play dates through out the week. It is nice to spend a day at home just playing and hanging out too. Before we know it it is lunch time then naps and then daddy is home to play!

Here are a few pictures from a couple of weeks ago. We were playing around in Reagan's room and I grabbed the camera while we were being silly.

Green Beans

Avery had her first bite of baby food! Reagan's first taste of baby food was green beans so we figured lets do the same with Avery. She really didn't seem to mind but only wanted a couple of bites before she was done. She isn't lacking calories so if it takes her a bit to get use to the taste of food I think she will be fine!! We skipped cereal with her because Reagan never really took to it and honestly I wasn't ready for my little girl to grow up (selfish of me!). She has been really interested in our food lately and sits at the table with us as we eat so it is only one more person to feed!

Nap time

Every now and again I am lucky enough to have the girls take naps at the same time in the afternoon. I hope that this is something that only continues to get more frequent! Reagan was up first this particular day so she went with me to get Avery up. I put Reagan in Avery's crib and the two of them played for the longest time. Avery just likes watching Reagan and Reagan thought it was so much fun being in "baby's" crib! It made for some cute pictures too!