Macie's 2nd Birthday

         I can't believe our baby is TWO. She has grown up so quickly.  I have to say though, this age is awesome!  It's not as terrible as I thought it might be.  Macie has such personality and it makes us laugh constantly. 

As you may know, Macie's birthday is in October.  For some odd reason, this year Chicago has been unseasonably warm.  The day of her party it was 81 degrees outside.  We had planned a pool party and since our pool is indoors we did not need 81 degrees to have a good time, but with all 81 of those degrees we moved the party to the sundeck and had a BLAST! Somehow this weekend all of the girls were out of town or sick, so Ben got his first taste of his daughter at pretty much an all boys party. Luckily we had Annika there to represent the womenfolk.

 

(Stephen, Macie and Miki)

We took the ball pit outside to play while we waited for the guests to arrive.  The kids had a blast in this thing.  Luckily our deck is enclosed because the kids threw all of the balls out and thought it was so funny to see the grown ups run around trying to pick them up faster than they could throw them.

Once everyone arrived it was time for food.  Yes I am that mom who serves fruit at a party.

Time to blow out candles and eat yummy cake.  I made the center cake gluten free and the little "shape" cakes for the kids were very healthy.  Carrot cake with pineapple, sweetened with agave nectar, whipped cream for the frosting, and then fondant of course.  You have to have some sugar.  Macie tends to get very sad after she eats sugar.  We are not sure why but it affects her pretty quickly and she has a lot of energy, but she also gets really sad and cries and cuddles and asks to go home. . . we didn't want this happening at her own party.  This is what spurred minimal sugar cakes. Don't worry, they were still sweet and good.  Adults ate them too.

This little one loves food. She was so content. Just a girl and her cake. As you can see, it was warm but it's still Chicago, so it was windy.

 (Jared, Spencer, and Miki)

We all enjoyed lots of food and playing in the sunshine.  It was the most amazing day ever.

(Spencer, Miles, and Macie)

Then it was time for the pool.  Just in case you had a sugar rush you could swim it off for a couple of hours.

 There was no time for picture taking once the water activities got underway but we swam and brought down the raft and the huge dolphin and all of the water toys. The kids loved it.

 

Once the kids got got cold we took them into the sauna to get warm and change into dry clothes.  Everyone went home in time for dinner and bed.  I heard that a lot of the kids slept very well that night. 

Macie got some fun presents from her friends and she had such a fun time seeing all of them. Thanks everyone! Also, thank you SO MUCH to Hiro who did all of the photography at the party, I love all of these moments. We will miss you guys when you move back to Japan. 

I'm not sure where NIkkie and Annika were for these pictures.  Don't worry though, Macie can't have a party without them.  Or a Tuesday for that matter.  She loves having friends right next door.