Our sweet Marion Bear is two! I can’t believe it. Chris found out recently that Marion was born on Marie Antoinette’s birthday. How funny is that? Our little princess was born the same day as a real Austrian princess, in the same city. She just needs to stay away from France…
I gave Marion an apple to eat, and for some reason she thought it was hysterically funny to run towards the camera while eating her apple. I couldn’t decide which one I liked best, so here are some of my favorites. She has such a fun, expressive face.
Oliver has been Peter Pan for a couple weeks now, but on Marion’s birthday he decided to be Captain Hook. This is his Captain Hook outfit, complete with a sharper sword than his Peter Pan knife.
Captain Hook is pretty adorable. He helped me make the frosting for Marion’s cake. Or at least he helped lick the bowl while I frosted the cake…
Chris told the kids he would take them camping in the backyard, so they all went outside to set up the tent. Oliver got tired of being Captain Hook and went back to Peter Pan. He was very interested in how the tent was set up, because “Peter Pan has never been camping before”.
Goober.
The kids were so excited to play inside the tent once it was set up!
Meanwhile, Marion decided to play inside with James. I love this picture. Marion is so beautiful, and little James looks like he is yelling at her to get off his blanket…
Marion and Oliver have been collaborating on what kind of birthday party they each want. In their conversations, they debated for Marion about whether she should have an Elmo or Cookie Monster birthday. Marion decided, rather emphatically, on Cookie Monster. We have Sesame Street diapers and she will only wear the Cookie Monster ones, which is very troublesome, because there are three times as many Elmo diapers in the package as there are Cookie Monster. She becomes very sad when we run out of her favorite. Anyway, Chris found this cake recipe online, so I made a Cookie Monster cake. Turned out pretty well I think.
Marion chose pink candles for her cake. She doesn’t call them candles, she calls them, “Pink Happy Birthday!”
So cute! She was excited about her cake. And the fire.
Elora and Oliver both loved the cake too. Oliver has now decided he wants a Cookie Monster cake for his birthday too. A cake just like this one.
It had a layer of cookie dough in the middle (without the raw eggs). It tasted so amazing. Thank goodness I made a small cake, because no matter how big the cake was, I would have eaten the whole thing… This is the first time ever my kids have eaten cake and asked for seconds.
Except Marion. There were presents on the table, and as soon as she tried one bite of cake, she pushed it away and said, “No cake. Presents!”
Elora gave Marion a toy of hers that Marion loves. It is a magic wand that makes noise and lights up. I think it is so sweet that Elora always gives her own toys away simply because she knows Marion likes them. And look how happy she is to give her gift to her sister!
Chris and I bought Marion a stuffed animal Cookie Monster. She really liked it and kept hugging it in between opening her other gifts.
Grandma and Grandpa gave Marion a duplo lego farm set. ALL the kids are really excited about it and as soon as the presents were all opened, all the kids sat down to play with the legos.
Marion, proudly showing me her lego tower. She likes to use all the same color and shape blocks when making towers.
After dinner, Chris set up our movie projector and screen outside and the kids got to watch a movie. Marion got to pick and she picked Winnie the Pooh. The kids all loved watching the movie in their camp chairs. Marion insisted on wearing her new sweater that Nana got her for her birthday.
Chris built us a fire ring in our backyard, and we built a huge fire to keep warm during the movie. So fun, here is James at his first campfire.
After the movie we roasted marshmallows, which all the kids really liked. While roasting our marshmallows, the kids excitedly pointed out the stars that were coming out. Oliver yelled, “Constellations! Constellations!” Our kids are so awesome.
Then Marion and James came inside, while Oliver and Elora got to camp. Elora had packed her backpack full of items she needed to camp – like her blankie, Dirty Teddy, a sweater, pajamas, a flashlight. So cute! She was so excited about it. Oliver was especially excited about the camping, and was quite sad we had to take the tent down the next day. He wanted to camp again and again in the backyard! Chris read the kids fairy tales in the tent until they went to sleep.
