Lyla Belle's Birthday

I can't believe our little Lyla Belle is two years old! This past weekend we celebrated her 2nd birthday with a raging house party. It was good times had by all. We had 25 adults and 12 little kids running around our apartment. The biggest highlight of the party was the guitar player I hired to entertain the kids. She was awesome - and at this age, that kind of entertainment really helped with the party flow. We set the party at 2 hours, which was perfect. Any longer and I think it would've been too much.

A friend gave me good advice and told me to avoid chocolate icing on cupcakes for 2 year olds. She learned the hard way on her white sofa. It was great advice and I felt the need to share it with you. But I did use chocolate on the cake pops I made and those were a big hit. And they were delicious. I'd never had one before this weekend and now I see why they have a cult like presence on the blogosphere. And they weren't that hard to make. They are really tasty and so much fun for the kids and adults alike.

I didn't really have much of a theme going on - we used pink and orange balloons as decorations. Boy do balloons go a long way when decorating! The hats and goodie bags I bought for the kids were from Kelley Cards and they were a huge hit! I loved them. All of the characters were made from stickers, and they were all so cute.

Celebrating Lyla's birthday was a lot of fun, but it was also really emotional. It feels like yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital. Time really does fly. I can't believe she's already 2. And she's a really sweet kid. I can't begin to tell you how lucky and blessed we are with her. She's the most amazing thing in our life and it's so much fun to see her blossom into a little person.


{For the party I made Martha Stewart's perfect macaroni & cheese recipe & it really is perfect! It's a huge recipe - I was able to make two large casseroles out of it.}

{photos from me}