whooo's 2? em, that's who!

considering the fact that nanette's adorable baby em had an owl-themed party for her second birthday, i had to work that in somehow.  shut up.

having missed our friend california girl's party the weekend before for her own 2-year-old,  i was bound and determined to make it to this one.  it'd been a weird day for the bean, who didn't manage to fall asleep for her daily nap until 3:00 - which was when the party was supposed to start.  d-oh!  so right at 1:00, i pretty much locked us in her room and stayed there until she fell asleep - which happened blessedly fast.  for some reason, she still woke up earlier than normal (1.5 hours vs. the usual 2), but i was pleased.  this meant we wouldn't arrive at the party too late, since it also started at 3 and we had a good 45-minute drive to get there.

when we arrived, the shindig was already in full swing.  we sat and chatted with lilcee and her mini-me for a bit before making our way out to the back yard, where there was a fun ball pit set up, a bubble machine doing its thing, and an owl-shaped piñata hanging from the patio cover. 

the bean had spotted some yummy stuff on the table as we headed out, and sent me back in to grab her one of nanette's cute little owl cake pops.  of course, i tortured her a little by making her pose for the camera before she could snarf on it.

sadly for her, she took one bite and the rest of it tumbled off of the stick, into her lap and right onto the ground.  if i hadn't been watching, she'd have snatched it up and popped it in her mouth (and it would've been within the 5-second rule anyway), but i grabbed it with a napkin and promised to get her another one in a little while.  she was somewhat mollified with that and settled for joining li'l lilcee in the ball pit.

the birthday girl came out to play, too.  this face cracks me up.

they all played for a little while before nanette gathered everyone together to do the piñata.  i'd seen the pull-string style piñatas before, but never in action, so i was curious as to how it would work.  all the kids clustered around beneath it and grabbed a ribbon (or two, or five), and waited for the signal.

i don't know some of the other kids and don't have permission to show them here, so there you go. 

anyway, when it was time, they yanked on the ribbons until the bottom pulled right out of the piñata and all the fun stuff came out.  we'd already been alerted that there was no candy inside, which was a good thing (although i expected no less of nanette, who's always thoughtful like that).  so out tumbled a plethora of goldfish crackers, boxes of raisins, and fun little trinkets to play with.

even li'l lilcee had a treat bag full of goodies.

then it was time for the birthday song and a little candle-blowing.

she's just so stinking cute, i want to bite her.  in a nice way.  hee!

em sat on the stair and dug into a box of raisins from her bag o'loot, and other toddlers followed suit.  and in a case of monkey-see, monkey-do, the typically non-fruit-eating bean (wonder where she got that from?) decided to give it a shot.

"okay, let's see what the fuss is all about."

"uhhh..."

"are you freaking kidding me?  this is not delicious."

and because she'd actually tried it this time instead of just smelling it (or licking it), i gave in to her request for her replacement cake pop.

oh, well.

before we left, we managed to get some of SFAM, the next generation together for a group pic.  li'l lilcee had zero interest in joining in, so we took what we could get.

nanette posted one of these shots on her facebook wall with the caption "toddler posse.  they will cut you."

i'm still cracking up over it.