Alice's 2nd birthday!

One of the other parents took this at Grace's class teddy bear picnic last week. Grace eating lunch in the sand with her friends Letty and Catalina.

Sunday was our "fry day". After General Conference, I made delicious fried chicken that everyone gobbled up.

 Then Paul fried the donuts we'd started the night before.

 They were delicious! But we soon realized we had A LOT of donuts to eat. After the girls went to bed that night, we put up Alice's birthday decorations.

 Monday was Alice's second birthday. We woke her up singing Happy Birthday, and she was SO excited to realize it was HER birthday! She kept saying "It's my birthday!" all day long! She liked the streamers upstairs, and the traditional static balloons on the ceiling downstairs.

 Alice was pretty bleary-eyed, but donuts and pears for breakfast perked her right up. She loved the birthday hat and plate too! (I had planned something different for breakfast, but we had so many donuts to use up!)

 We dressed Alice all cute, then Paul went to work, and Alice and I took Grace to school on the bus. Poor Alice thought she was old enough to stay in kindergarten. All the kids wished her a happy birthday as I dragged her out the door.

 I babysat Maria that morning, which Alice LOVES, so that was a fun birthday activity.

 When Maria left, Alice was a little sad, so I let her open one present: 3 cute board books from Mom/Dad Gabe. We read them together, and she loved them!

 I fed Alice a normal lunch, then we picked Grace up on the bus. Alice was talking a mile a minute. She was so excited all day.

 During Alice's nap, Grace had fun with the balloons. I guess I should be flattered? When Alice woke up, the girls watched a Dora birthday DVD while I made dinner.

 Paul got home around 5, and we sat down to eat. This is what Alice looks like during the blessing on the food.

 She loved the meal I made for her: pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, apple sauce, and milk.

 She also enjoyed the scintillating dinner table conversation. "Tell me more about the diet of the vampire squid, Daddy."

 Then we had her donut cake. Again, I had planned a different cake, but what was I supposed to do with all those donuts?

 She wasn't complaining!

 Then Alice opened gifts. First she showed Paul and Grace the gift she opened while they were gone. Look at that little garden gnome!

 Grace bought Alice wings from the dollar store. (Grace may have had ulterior motives, and wore the wings a lot herself this week.)

 You getting sick of watching Alice open gifts, Grace?

 The party theme was Dora, so Alice got a Dora flashlight/pop-up book, a Dora microphone, and a Dora mermaid from Grandma Flake.

 She got plenty of gifts from us and her grandparents, but far and away the most played-with gift has been these foam shapes from Mom/Dad Gabe. The girls play with them multiple times a day.

 They LOVE them. (Get it?)

 Oh, who doesn't want a piece of her heart?

 We dressed Alice in her new Dora pajamas, called/skyped the grandparents, and the birthday was over. Alice was so happy with it all. She is such a sweet kid!

 On Tuesday, I woke up with a sore throat. I'm afraid the little girl I babysit had a very runny nose this week, and Alice and I both got sick. Paul and I drank cocoa together before waking up the girls. Alice wore her adorable new outfit from Grandma Flake!

Paul went to class, and Alice and I took Grace to school. Cute sisters! Then Alice and I went to the library for story time. It was really good, with tons of toys to play with afterward. We had the missionaries over for dinner that evening. We are still so impressed with them.

On Wednesday, it was cold. It rained in the night. We had cocoa and oatmeal for breakfast. I watched Maria again that day, even though I was pretty bad off with a cold by then. 

Alice wore her new "I'm cute like my mommy" shirt. She also stole an apple from Paul at lunch the day before, and she ate off it for the next couple of days. She is Grandpa Flake's granddaughter! Yuck! Paul made soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for a cold-day dinner, and we had a mid-week FHE on individual worth. 

On Thursday, I was sick with a cold all day. Grace's class went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch. Another parent took some pictures. Here she is with her pumpkin.

Catalina (our Chilean neighbor) and Grace.

Grace eating a snack with the people she rode with.

Class photo at the farm after a fun morning of picking pumpkins, going on a hayride, and feeding animals. That evening, Paul had to go to an event in San Francisco for class. It's about 2 hours away. Since we have the biggest car, he volunteered to drive the carpool, but he said it was pretty scary. He didn't get home until 11:30.

 We got a package from Grandma Lu on Thursday for Alice's birthday. Both girls got sweatsuits, and Alice also got a reversible puffy vest (which she can't get enough of!). So on Friday, the girls wore their sweatsuits, but Grace's pants were too big for her waist, and Alice's pants got wet and dirty in the rain puddles, so they each ended up with different pants on. Alice is also obsessed with wearing a tiara and dress-up shoes most days. Pretty cute! I watched Maria that morning, and Paul got to work from home all day.

 It was raining when we went to pick Grace up from school. Alice was prepared.

 We all were! That evening, we watched The Princess and the Goblin. I'd never seen it before. I still haven't see it - I fell asleep! We ate caramel apples, and put the girls to bed. Then Paul and I drank cocoa and watched the new Disney Channel original movie: Girl vs Monster. Wow, skip it. We watched a few episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Present afterward to get the bad taste out of our mouths.

 Today, Paul let me sleep in, but the girls woke up early. Paul helped clean the church while I watched the girls and cleaned the house. Then Paul did homework, and the girls messed around on the piano together.

 Cute kids!

 We watched the first and fourth quarters of the BYU game (Paul had to do homework during the rest). Poor Grace was devastated when BYU lost. She cried and cried.

 So we went out back and played. Look at that 37-weeks-pregnant belly!

 Alice was kind of out of it since she didn't actually nap. She sang in bed for almost 3 hours!

 Paul played football with the girls.

 It is SO cute when Alice says, "Hut, hut, hike!"

 Paul taught Grace to catch the ball and tuck it in. She got pretty good at it!

 The girls were pretty good at sharing the ball.

 Alice made a touchdown due to Grace's amazing offensive block!

 Then poor Grace got hit in the face with a football, and the fun ended. Paul helped her calm down, then they ran a few more plays.

 After dinner, we played with the foam shapes.

 Grace as the sun.

 Alice too. Well, Paul is at the evening session of stake conference, the girls are asleep in bed, and my blog is done before Sunday! Have a great week, everyone!