two-year-old | More Matthews

We had Kinsie’s birthday party at her favorite place…the lake! Based on the fact that we were having her party there, we decided to go with a “fishing” theme. She was all about it from the moment we told her. She talked about her fishy party for weeks leading up to the party. We knew we were going to have one happy little girl when her party came! I honestly wish it was my full-time job to plan birthday parties for toddlers. It is too much fun. Thanks especially to Pinterest and Etsy, I found lots of cute ideas to make the party unique and fun.

Thanks to the help of my mother-in-law Bev, my mom, Ryan’s aunts – Rita and Renata, and my aunt Mary Lou…there was plenty of food to go around. And of course we had to add some “fishy” fun with the food as well! The main course included hot dogs, hamburgers, and Bev’s famous chilli. Dessert included cake (Brenda’s Cakes), dirt and worms (Aunt Mary Lou), fish cookies (Renata), and fishy chow (rather than “puppy chow” – made by my mama). The food certainly did not disappoint!

Ryan and I both worked hard to have plenty of fun activities for the kids. There was a coloring and craft station, fish cornhole, a magnetic fishing game, and of course, boat rides!

I was really curious to know how opening gifts would be with Kinsie this year. I had a feeling that she would want to open and play with each gift as she opened it, and would be overwhelmed with all her new toys. Well, I was kind of right. She did want to open and play with each gift as she opened them, but after she opened about the 5th gift, she was done. She obsessed about the toys she had already opened, and didn’t want to open anymore! She just sat and played with those toys while I opened the rest of her gifts. Once we got home and got all her new toys out though, she was a happy camper and played with everything!

Kinsie has been really into the “Happy Birthday” song lately, so when everyone sang to her, she was on Cloud 9. She certainly enjoyed being in the spotlight and eating cake and ice cream!

The only down side to her party, was that her cousin (and best friend), Briggs had to leave a bit early. He woke up that morning with hives, and a swollen face. He still tried to have fun and enjoy the party, but you could tell the poor guy just didn’t feel well. He started getting more swollen as the evening went on, so they left early to take him to the hospital. He got worse before he got better, but after a couple days, he was pretty much back to himself.

Other that the issue with Briggs, the party was a huge success!! Kinsie had a blast, and of course, if Kinsie was happy, mommy and daddy were happy too. All of the guests seemed to have a good time as well, and we were lucky to have a beautiful day on the lake!

Is this real life? How can my baby be two already? It honestly does not even seem real! These have been the best two years of my life. She certainly exhausts me and tests me to my breaking point, but I have more love for that girl than I ever thought was possible. She has brought so much joy into my life, and has helped me find joy in the little things in life. I feel so lucky that God chose me to be her mom!

Kinsie’s 2 Year Updates:

Her vocabulary is incredible. Not only does she pick up on new words very quickly when we teach her, but she is a sponge that absorbs so much even when we aren’t trying to teach her.
She knows the entire ABC song, and starting to work with her on identifying individual letters.
She can count up to 15.
She pretty much knows her colors. Sometimes she gets lazy and just says that everything is blue, but when she’s ready to focus, she’s got her colors down.
She is still in the potty training process. She decided to take a break for a few months (refused to sit on the potty), and now she’s back at it.
She has a sporty, adventurous side, but also a girly-girl side. She loves playing soccer or any other sport, loves being outside and playing with bugs, and isn’t afraid of exploring and getting dirty. However, she also loves playing dress-up, putting on fake make-up, taking care of baby dolls, and carrying around a purse.
She got her first haircut a couple weeks before her birthday. She was scared at first, but perked up when we gave her a sucker.
She is obsessed with stuffed animals. She sleeps with about 15 in her bed, and she will notice if I try to sneak some out when she’s not looking.
We say a prayer with her every night before bed. Her favorite things to pray for include her grandmas/grandpas, the lake, Mickey Mouse, and Briggs’ soccer games.
Her favorite songs are Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Wheels on the Bus, ABCs, and almost anything she hears on Barney.
Favorite characters: Mickey Mouse, Olaf, Shrek, and Barney
Favorite food: Pickles, macaroni and cheese
Favorite movies: Jungle Book, Frozen, Aladdin
Favorite books: Anything by Sandra Boynton, and “I know a Rhino” by Charles Fuge
Favorite animals: Monkeys, Elephants, Tigers
What she enjoys: swinging, swimming, bath time, cousin fun, picking out movies (and watching about 2 minutes of it before picking another), coloring, playing soccer, gymnastics, and seeing any/all kinds of animals.

Kinsie had a very busy birthday weekend. On Sunday, we had a fishing-themed birthday party for her at the lake (blog post on that later). Her actual birthday (today) happened to fall on a Monday, and I couldn’t bare the thought of not spending the day with her on her birthday…so I took the day off. My original plan was to take her to the zoo, her happy place. However, from the second she woke up, she was asking to play with all her new toys she got from her birthday party. She didn’t want to leave the house all day! I was able to pull her away from her new toys for 10 minutes to run to Dunkin’ Donuts to get her a birthday donut…which she was pumped about! We pretty much spent the rest of the day playing with all her new stuff. It was a beautiful day, so we went outside for a little while in the afternoon too. Ryan came home from Muncie to spend the evening with us. We asked Kinsie where she wanted to go to eat dinner for her birthday, and she said she just wanted to stay home and play, so we got Red Robin carry-out. We used some of the leftover “dirt and worms,” (Oreo ice cream with gummy worms) from her party to use as her birthday cake. She loves the happy birthday song right now, so we sang to her a few times and blew out her candle. It was a nice, quiet (or as quiet as it can be with a 2 year old) evening just the three of us for her birthday. It was perfect!