She's two... boo hoo!

Shortcake is TWO today and I'm having a hard time admitting it. She has grown up SO fast!

It was actually a really anticlimactic birthday because we had her party on Sunday, but she partied enough on Sunday to make up for it :)

Warming up the crowd.

My first attempt at a three layer cake. It turned out ok, but I got the icing too runny and I had to put it in the freezer to keep it from collapsing.

Her first look at her cake. She looks a little suspicious for some reason.

I got so caught up in making decorations and the cake that I forgot candles! Lame, I know... So what did we do? Substituted matches instead. We are well aware of how redneck that sounds :)

Present time. This girl LOVES books!

She was so excited about the book that she didn't want to move onto other presents.

She got a color Magna Doodle. She was really excited about it. She has played with it every day since.

She got a Disney princess doll, Sleeping Beauty. Did you know that Sleeping Beauty's name is Aurora? I do now! I told her that her doll is a princess, so since then she has started saying "princess."

The last gift we brought out was this little furball. She was so excited. She absolutely loves dogs, loves!

Walking her new "pet."

I love this picture. She is a happy girl!

She decided to try on Aurora's shoes. The girl is obsessed with shoes.

She then decided to try and put Aurora's shoes on CH. Not sure how I feel about those tiny pink flats with black dress socks! But it was fun game.

Speaking of shoes, she got some adorable light up tennis shoes. She had to model them right away. She had plenty of helpers and admirers.

She's getting one more present, but she'll have to wait until February!

Shortcake will be getting a new nickname- Big Sister!!! We are thrilled. She doesn't seem to share our enthusiasm yet. I think we have conditioned her to say "no" to the questions because we laugh at her. She just seems so sure of herself when she says it, but I am convinced that will all change. She's going to be a great big sister. I just know it!

Keeping her busy

Well as you saw last week, it is not a good thing for Shortcake to get bored... One day, to keep her busy, I decided to see how she would do with making a collage. I cut up pieces of construction paper and put some glue on her paper, then showed her how to stick the pieces to her paper.

She loved the glue. It was a major treat for her to get to hold it and do it herself.

"Oh glue, how I love you!"

When they are busy doing this, they cannot be doing this :)

Checking out the finished project. I'm not sure how much she actually enjoyed putting the stickers and papers on as much as she just enjoyed the freedom of playing with the glue stick, but either way it kept her busy for half an hour! I'm pretty sure I actually glued most of the things on the page, but oh well... it still looks good on the frig.

Someone's been up to no good...

She was playing quietly in her room.

I should know better by now...

Knows she's in trouble!

Not cool, Shortcake!

You're looking at an entire box of cornstarch and most of a bottle of powder, just in case you were wondering.

Happy Monday!

Insta-Friday

Thought I'd jump on the Insta-Friday train over at Life Rearranged. It's a fun and quirky way to share about your week using only cell phone pics :)

These pictures are actually from the last three or so weeks:

Just a little game we play called "let's see how many bows mommy can fit on my head before I rip them all out in about 1/2 a second." It's pretty popular around here.

The blue tarp covered structure was home to some of Shortcake's friends. Their parents are construction workers and they were building the house next door. Sadly they moved away this past week. She loved playing with them and they were so sweet to her.

She LOVES dogs! This "so ugly he's cute" little guy, belongs to one of our neighbors. She always gets a huge kick out of seeing him when we're out on a walk.

Water is something I certainly took for granted in the US. In India, not only can you not drink the tap water, but many people also don't have enough of a water supply where they live so they have to pay for one of these big tankers to come and fill up their water tank.

She tried the Donald Trump look. I told her it wasn't really working for me.

Random little donkeys that live by the dumpster down the street from us. They're kinda cute, but kinda scraggly too.

Chasing an ant.

More random animals. It's extremely common to see water buffalo wandering all around our city. Not so much cows here where we live, mainly water buffalo. They are HUGE, but at the same time, usually kinda skinny. Many people have asked if this means that the milk we drink comes from water buffalo instead of cows. I have no idea, and I'd really rather sty in the dark on this one!

Mommy's birthday lunch. Love this little sweetie so much!



Have a great weekend and maybe even join in the fun by linking up over at Life Rearranged :)

Monday, Fun-day

Mark's weekend is Sunday/Monday, so on Mondays we usually try to go and do something fun together as a family. This past Monday we went to an outdoor food court beside the lake that is in the middle of our city. It has a little game area with rides for younger kids. Sadly, it doesn't open until 2pm and that is Shortcake's naptime. Fortunately, she had no idea and didn't even seem to care that the rides weren't actually doing anything. She ran around and climbed on each one and just pretended that she was driving them.

Not a great start. Apparently she really meant it when she said she doesn't want to be a cowgirl.

It got so much better. She climbed in nearly every train car.

They usually have boat rides that take you out to see a big Buddha statue that is in the middle of the lake. Apparently not today though... The was/is cracks me up!

The steering wheel was barely hanging on.

They even had a little miniature pirate ship. I'm not sure what it does when it's actually operating. But she liked sitting in it for about a second.

Oh, how I love this little face!

View of the lake. You can see the Buddha statue I mentioned off in the distance.

Our one sad little attempt at a picture in front of the lake. Before she saw this:

They have a gift store at the food court. I guess because this is a place where a lot of people go to have their birthday parties. Leaves no excuse for forgetting a gift!
"Sorry, Shortcake, it's not your birthday", and "no, you cannot have that Valentine's teddy bear".

The floor was really cool. It's made to look like a game of snakes and ladders. I love how colorful it is.

Ending the day with some ice cream.

It was a fun-day :)

Our life with skype

Since we've been living in India, skype has become an integral part of our lives. Almost like a member of the family. And we're very, very thankful for it! What did people living far apart do before skype? Our daughter is able to get to know her grandparents and other family members more and more each week, even though she only gets to see them in person about every year and a half. She knows skype all too well. She knows the sound it makes when it's dialing a call and will run to the computer and start "talking." Very cute!

This is one of my all-time favorite photos! She was just a few minutes old. It was their very first time to lay eyes on her :)

Here she is at about 7 months wishing her great grandma a Happy Birthday.

Nan Nan is 85, I'm sure she would've never believed this would even be possible if you'd told her 50 years ago that someday she'd be able to see her great-grandbaby through a computer screen in another country!

Talking to her sweet little cousin.

Giving kisses

Yay, for the great aspects of technology!

A little help from my friends

Remember that Beatles song,"With a Little Help From my Friends" that was the intro to The Wonder Years? We love that show in this house. Know what else we love? Adoption! It's so amazing to hear other families' adoption stories, amazing! The other day I read a story on another blog that mentions a family who needs a little help. Here's how you can be a part.


The blog world is really an amazing network of people, who become real life friends and help each other in amazing ways. I love to see technology being used for GOOD! Wanna know how you can do some good?! You could help bring a sweet little boy home from Ukraine to his forever family. His name is Davis and he has been diagnosed with Down Sydrome. His family can't wait to get him home to love on him, but adoption costs a lot of $$$. But if each of us helps a little, well, that's not a lot for each of us, plus, Amy is giving away some incredible prizes that some generous folks have donated. Please consider helping this wonderful family. I don't know them at all, but I feel connected with them as a family who is in the adoption process. I feel so blessed to say that as far as we know we have received 100% of our funds to complete our adoption. How wonderful if we can help this family say the same soon!

Click here to get all the exciting details and see all the awesome prizes! Here's a teaser, one of them is an iPad! You'd donate $10 to have a chance to win an iPad, right?! How much better when you are also helping out a sweet little boy and his family! Sweet indeed :)