Rya is 2!

What a weekend! We started the birthday weekend with a family party on Saturday afternoon. It was so nice to have almost all of Jason's family over to our house. Many of them helped us paint back in December, but the house was still pretty much gutted at that point. They got to see the ALMOST finished product (inside). The outside is a whole other story- one which will be ongoing for awhile I'm guessing. Rya was a bit overwhelmed as usual by the big group of people, but warmed up after awhile. She spent a great deal of time on the trampoline to no one's surprise. Jason purchase three little Sesame Street plush toys for Rya and we made the mistake of having her open those first. She was so in love with Oscar, The Count, and mostly Ernie that she didn't want to open other gifts. The gift-opening process took two different sittings and then didn't hold her attention. She loves all the gifts, she just wants to have time to spend with each one after opening it and we didn't have that much time. Rya made out like a bandit with some awesome gifts!

Sunday brought another party! Uncle Mike gave Rya an awesome present- he ran all the electrical (with some help from Jason) for the new pool equipment! We are so appreciative that he spent time in the heat doing that in order to save us quite a bit of money. Plus, Rya got a bonus of hanging out with her cousins during the day.

The friends party was on Sunday night and started with Rya just waking up from a nap. She's not the cheeriest baby when she wakes up. I spent a good deal of the party wondering if the Terrible Two's started a day early. She was very fiesty and only wanted to jump on the trampoline with Jason who was trying to barbecue dinner. With help from both grandmas, Auntie Chandra, and Uncle Mike we were able to serve dinner to the 30+ adults and kids there. Once again, we had the gift-opening issue. It was getting late, so I ended up opening most of the gifts. Next year we'll plan to start opening gifts when the party starts. Ha, ha. Though it started off a bit roughly, the party was super fun. The only thing I would change is being able to talk to more people for extended periods of time. We have the best friends and family!

The cake. I planned to make this (in my mind) perfect cake for Rya's birthday party on Sunday. I baked the cakes on Saturday and the crappy pans I own coupled with the major PMS from which I was suffering put me over the edge. At one point I was sobbing on the kitchen floor. Thank goodness for Jason. He came to the rescue, assured me all would be okay, and helped get the cakes somewhat back together. Sunday morning I made the buttercream icing and covered the cakes before making the fondant. The store bought fondant doesn't taste great to me, so I decided to make my own. That basically caused a repeat of Saturday's breakdown until once again Jason came to my rescue. The fondant was just not cooperating with me. Jason covered the cakes with the fondant, but unfortunately the mangled cakes were not magically transformed into perfect molds under the fondant. I finally (sort of) came to terms with the fact that it was my first time attempting to make a cake with fondant and I was just going to have to live with the finished product while it was far less impressive as I had intended. Jason insisted I call him Cake Boss after that. I tried to explain to him that I was pretty sure that name was taken, but he would have none of it. Cake Boss he was- for the day. The good news is that the cake tasted good. I swear it's the buttercream icing. I found the recipe a few months ago when I was dissatisfied with the one I had and it's far superior to the old one.

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful company and awesome gifts!