Birthdays: Part 4 (and DONE!)

our little jenna is 2!! she is a ball of energy and just a doll! 

when we asked her where she wanted to go for a birthday family date she said Disneyland so we went to the Rain-forest Cafe in Downtown Disney. it was a blast!

while we waited for our table we got to check out the fish tanks and all the cool merchandise in the store.   

even seth loved it as you can see from this picture of him peacefully concentrating on the fish. 

our table was right next to a huge fountain and the kids had a great time looking at all the "animals" and doing activities in the little booklets they received. 

seth ate his dinner in the stroller while the rest of us waited (i'm so glad they let us bring it in or we would have been miserable the whole time!)

they gave us these hilarious hats to wear! kent and i took turns trying seth's on for size though we didn't get a picture =o]

the food was SO GOOD! seriously, this is the first time we have EVER been to a restaurant where everyone got something they enjoyed and literally everyone ate their entire meals. it was our most successful experience ever. there is hope!! 

seriously, can she get any cuter?!?

they brought out a little cupcake and sang to her when they found out it was her birthday. honestly she was pretty shell shocked as they came over clapping and singing loudly, but she recovered quickly =o]

before we knew they were going to bring her a cupcake, we had ordered this volcano cake. it was delicious!! literally the best dessert i have ever had at dinner restaurant. 

she had an awesome night! it was the perfect way to kick off the celebrations! 

(oh and not pictured: for her special outing with dad she went with him to the grocery store lol sorry you got jipped chickadee! i promise you were just as thrilled and felt just as special as if you were headed out "for real")

the next day she got her birthday blessing, and got to wear her new dress that she picked out herself.

then monday was a flurry of preparations including wrapping her presents, doing her photo album and scrapbook, and making her cake of disney character cupcakes.

caleb is the stalwart baking helper =o]

right now Buzz Lightyear is her FAVORITE character to watch and play with (other than her baby dolls)

and then on tuesday after opening two of her presents...

we went to disneyland!!

of course the first thing we did was "go see buzz!"

then we met up with some friends and played in toon town

went on pirates of the Caribbean and jungle cruise 

and then headed into the shops. caleb got to pick the treat since jenna got to pick a present and natalie had a gift card to use. he chose a pack of lolly pops one of woody for him, jessie for natalie and buzz for jenna- what a sweet brother! 

jenna chose a rapunzel baby 

and natalie of course chose a puppy (lady from lady and the tramp)

on the tram on the way back to our car as jenna and caleb took turns sharing their suckers and we chatted away about our favorite parts of the day and sung little songs and just laughed together i had one of those incredible moments that wash over you when all is right in the world and you feel so happy and blessed and filled... i can't describe it really. and it almost cheapens it to try and put it into words but i know we all felt true joy and love for each other in that happy moment together. i hope everyone gets to experience that, someday.   

when we got home i put jenna's choice of toy story on for the kids to give us a little quiet time while i made dinner (no one fell asleep in the car as i had hoped- oh yeah wait they were all still eating huge suckers!) we ate dinner and then i put seth to bed while they finished the movie and waited for kent to get home.

we got to sing to jenna- it was adorable to hear her little voice singing along at least with the intonations if not with all the real words.

eat more ice cream and cupcakes than we really wanted to 

and then opened presents. man did this girl know what she was doing! between christmas and the past three family birthdays she was ready to go! i think caleb and natalie were just as excited about her presents as she was because jenna is a champ at sharing (except for her baby dolls) and so each of them landed the jack pot in more than one instance! 

i feel bad we had to kind of hurry her through. it was getting late and it had been a long day so even though she would have liked to play more with each thing as she opened it, we had to push her a bit and she still went to bed almost an hour late. she was such a sweetheart though and really didn't lose it until someone tried to suggest that she couldn't sleep with ALL her babies (the total is now up to 5, plus two special blankets) but we quickly decided to not choose that battle and caved. i really need to get a picture of her with all her babies now that i think of it! i'll try to remember. she really does love them and takes such sweet care of them =o]

all in all i would say she had a great birthday. she is such a blessing to our family! even with all her antics and huge disasters i wouldn't trade any part of it. we love you jenna!! happy birthday my little sunshine!