Daphne's 2nd birthday party was Hello Kitty themed which, she tells us now, is what she'd like again for her 4th birthday party, an event she started planning apparently right after her 3rd birthday party!
Since she'd only just begun the toddler program at the preschool where she is now (more on that shortly), we just invited a few family friends. She ended up being the only girl at her party! But the boys didn't seem to mind the Hello Kitty theme and prevalence of pink.
Despite her winter birthday, the good thing about living in California is that we had a pretty good chance of having a party outside, albeit a little chilly.
We took over a couple of picnic tables at a local toddler playground, ordered pizza and cupcakes, and simply let the kids play.
We opened presents back at home with the help of big brother. On her actual birthday a few days later, as is tradition in our family since being back in Oakland shortly following Elias's 1st birthday in 2009 (7 years ago this July!), we celebrated with dinner and ice cream at Fenton's.
We did the same thing this year, celebrating her third birthday with way more ice cream than anyone should eat in one sitting.
Earlier that weekend we had her party, at home this year, with a superhero dance party theme (her request).
Here they are coloring instead of dancing! It was a really fun party to plan.
Not sure how many parties hosted at home I have left in me, but this year we got away with only inviting a handful of preschool buddies, and supplemented that with a few additional family friends.
I broke tradition by baking the cupcakes myself. I just couldn't bring myself to spend $3+ per cupcake! And honestly, the kids are not picky.
It's hard to believe how getting a full-time day job right before Daphne turned 2 has sped up time even faster than before! Since my part-time daycare gal doesn't work on Thursdays, I had to quickly find full-time care for her. The preschool Elias attended is for older, potty-trained toddlers, so I started looking into toddler programs for the 18 months-3 years age range, potty-training not required. She transitioned into that program beautifully and did really well there for about six months. At 2 1/2 she transitioned to the regular preschool and it's been a little more mixed since, but we're considering transitioning her to the school Elias attended later this year. I'm still trying to decide if the pros of that school will outweigh the cons of yet another transition.
I can't say I'm loving being a full-time working mama. I look at pictures of myself over the past 18 months and I look more exhausted than ever. But I do enjoy the steady paycheck and the knowledge that for the first time since having kids we're saving in about four different categories. I'd like a little more time with the kids but mostly miss the flexibility that being self-employed afforded me, not to mention doing work that, while not my personal art work, was much more creatively fulfilling than what I'm doing now. So it's a work in progress.
More on how Elias has handled the transition in another post, hopefully not months from now!
