The Schuchards: Lila's birthday weekend

Lila turned 2 on Friday, October 26th!!! Her birthday was very relaxed. As is typical for her these days, Lila slept late that morning, so John and I took the opportunity to prepare a special birthday breakfast for her -- pumpkin muffins (with Minnie Mouse muffin cups). Then we "borrowed" Minnie and Mickey Mouse plates from the stash of birthday party paper products so the food would look even more festive. She was SO excited to see her favorite character at the breakfast table, as you can see below. And notice her birthday outfit, which included the same pink tutu she wore for her 1st birthday party and a pink cupcake t-shirt, which I bought months ago while she was going through a particularly intense cupcake obsession.

After breakfast, we went to a playdate at the home of our new friends, Ollie (Olivia, who's 21 months) and Miss Abbi. (They live just down the road from us in Elm Grove, not too far from John's school.) John and Lila couldn't get enough of Ollie's new toy -- those little plastic balls that are in jumping pits at Chuck E. Cheese. They both climbed into Ollie's plastic infant bathtub (which she now uses as a toy) and then wanted me to put all of the balls in the tub with them. Rub a dub dub, two kiddos in the tub! I wish I had gotten a picture of them with my phone, but of course I forgot. I think I'll get this toy for the kids for Christmas.

Miss Abbi and I decided to extend the playdate with lunch at Chipotle. It's amazing how many birthdays our family has celebrated at various Chipotles over the years! Then we went home for a "birthday nap." The kids needed to rest so they'd be fresh for the arrival of Papa Harry and Grandma Robin, who were driving down to Milwaukee for a weekend visit! Mommy had to finish cleaning while the kids were sleeping.

Papa and Grandma arrived in time for us to all go to dinner together. We took them to Marty's Pizza, a really popular local place that's been around forever and that we used to go to more than 20 years ago when Papa and Grandma lived in Waukesha (a suburb of Milwaukee). Lila was a total ham all night. She loved playing with Grandma and wanted Grandma to hold her constantly ("Uppies! Uppies!" she says, meaning, "Up, please!")

When we got home, it was already so late that it didn't make sense to open any of Lila's birthday presents. Instead, we let the kids play in John's room for a little bit. Papa and Grandma had brought Uncle David's old Texas Longhorns twin-size comforter for John to have, and the kids wanted to play a "sleeping game" with it. Daddy laid the comforter down on the rug along with some pillows, turned off the light, and he and the kids went "night night" together. Hehe, you can imagine that there wasn't much actual sleeping in this game. John and Daddy pretended to snore, and Lila was the enforcer, telling the boys over and over again to "lay down" and "go night night." I got some pictures once we turned the lights back on.....hook 'em!

The next morning, we went to Jim's Pumpkin Patch in Germantown with the Boenitzes, who just moved to Wisconsin this fall! We wanted to get some pumpkins to carve during Lila and Kael's joint birthday party later that afternoon (Kael turned 2 on October 24th -- he and Lila were born just two days apart)! The kids loved the tractor-pulled hayride out to the pumpkin patch. There were a bunch of other activities to keep them busy, too, which was nice, since we were trying to ensure the kids tired themselves out enough to take good naps.

Kael napped at our house so we could start the joint birthday party as soon as all the kids woke up. It was a small birthday party -- just Kael and his Mommy and Daddy (Aunt Chiara and Uncle Eric), Kael's grandma (Chiara's mom), the four of us, and Grandpa Harry and Grandma Robin -- but it was nice to have things be so relaxed! We had a very easy Tex-Mex menu of creamy chicken enchiladas, rice, black beans, and chips and salsa, and I can say without any doubt that we all ate WAY too much food. Of course that didn't stop any of us from enjoying dessert -- Mickey and Minnie Mouse cupcakes and vanilla ice cream. Here are some pictures from the evening.....

Carving the pumpkin....we used trash bags for smocks!

Lila with Papa Harry....she wasn't too interested in the carving process.

Kael gets a ride on the train from his grandma!

Opening presents in the living room......there was a distinct Minnie/Mickey Mouse theme to the gifts for Lila. The rolling duffel bags (see below) were a huge hit, thank you Aunt Chiara and Uncle Eric! The Minnie Mouse Bow-tique fashion set was very popular, too, even with John (he still asks to play with it more than a week later). Papa Harry and Grandma Robin gave Lila the Bow-tique, along with the cutest Minnie Mouse outfit ever (see her wearing it in the photos at the bottom of this post).

Grandma Robin looking on as Kael and Lila give hugs to Grandma Cynthia.....and Grandma Robin helping the kids take a pony ride on Grandma Cynthia's back!

Cupcake time! Lila was dainty with her cupcake, whereas Kael was destructive with his (notice all the crumbs on his side). The frosting was their favorite part for sure.

Finally, here are some pics from Sunday morning, when Lila opened her gifts from Grandma Bonnie and Papa Jeff and Uncle Jesse and Aunt Sarah. John had fun helping her opening everything. Lila got so many adorable outfits and the cutest pairs of Hello Kitty shoes from Grandma and Papa.