Bekah's 2nd Birthday!!

Bekah's party actually fell on her real day, so it was a big day for us in the Burkhart household!

We started the day off with a birthday breakfast made by MayMay! Bekah, of course, insisted on getting dressed up for the event with her bumblebee wings, her jammie shirt and her party tutu : ), oh, and with  random pink comb as a prop!

She could NOT get enough of the candles and I think she asked to blow them out at least 7 times, she sure got some good practicing in before her party! I wasn't worried about her handling that important birthday girl job!

She got many phone calls from sweet friends and family, and couldn't have enjoyed the attention anymore!

Thanks to everyone for remembering our Bekah on her day!

I think though, the one person she wanted the most attention from was her hard working, nose stuck in the book from studying, daddy! Dear daddy was on call the night before, and sure did muster up some extra energy for his daughter on that very important day!

We opened a few presents, one being a BLUE DRESS from Aunt Pammie Pie! To the naked eye, a blue dress may seem, just as it sounds, a blue dress, but to Bekah, that means she gets to wear a BLUE CINDERELLA DRESS! The minute she opened it up and saw that it was blue, she said, "Bekah Cinderella!" Teehee! Had no idea the dress would be such a hit!

Such a hit that her, what  I would like to think, super duper pink tricycle, would be overshadowed! We presented it to her that morning and she really hardly even batted an eye, she wanted to be dancing at the ball in her blue dress! Oh well, I think she will come around one day!

And now for the party that afternoon!

So, usually I am pretty ambitious about getting "before shots" of the parties/showers I help to throw, it's fun to capture the work "behind the scenes", but you know what? This time, I did NOTHING of the sort! I was so busy running around , making sure everything was ready, the next thing I knew, guests were there and I had much better things to do, which was to make sure the party was running smoothly and to socialize with all of our fun family and friends! Thank goodness for Aunt Rani though, because she took pics of the kids on the horse and of some of the activities during the party, so thank you sooooo much Aunt Rani!

I will attempt to "set the scene" for those of you who were not there:

- We had it at our neighborhood park , in the pavilion. Thanks to Grandpa, the pavilion was outlined in hanging pink and brown balloons, tables were covered with pink table covers, flowers in vases ( or boots) were in the middle of each table, and there was a birthday banner hanging up in a very fun western font, in pinks and browns. ( thank you Emily, Robyn, Amy and Rebekah for your help with all the signs and the banner!)

The kids could play on the playground or at one of the 3 activity areas:

-  Crafting Coral- with horsey arts

- Pony Pen- with Bekah's Red Rider horse and a smaller rocking horse

- the Pinata!

And of course, the theme is pretty much self explanatory, Bekah loves horses and talks about Reba ( one of the horses out at the ranch) all of the time!

Greeting each child, when they arrived, were 25 stick horses that would soon be their party favor! It was certainly a huge task to take on, but one I don't regret one bit, turns out the kids really did like them! I want to thank Ting for sending me the link to the tutorial, and to people like my mom, dad Robyn and Rebekah for actually helping me assemble them! With my pregnancy, I would never have been able to finish them in time!

Here is the tutorial if you want to see them up close : ). I attached a name tag to each horse when the child chose their favorite, and then, a pink or blue bandanna : ).

http://lightbluegrey.blogspot.com/2011/01/lets-diy.html

When I noticed that I never truly got pics of the "party elements" after a few minutes of beig sad, I felt at peace about it when I realized what made this party, was not the planning or crafting that went into it, it was the amazing people that showed up! Living here less than one year, it sure was a special afternoon for many reasons, but to see over 60 family and friends there, sure did remind me of how God did answer our prayers about finding a loving community here in Houston. I couldn't be more grateful to our new friends and old, for being so wonderful and for loving our daughter : ).

I am so happy Rani got this shot, of a particular guest of honor family, The Seamans who drove in from Dallas! What amazing friends we have in that precious family!

Thank you Mikey, Vaughanie and Ava for coming to the party, your presence made it an EXTRA special day!

Here are the horsey shots:

Big Boy Jack who had JUST become a Big Brother! Congrats to him and his wondeful family!

Sweet Ava who just turned 2 herself!

Happy Anders:

Smarty Pants Jack:

Darling Catherine wanted to ride both horseys!

Bekah's best gal pal Lina:

The "baby" of the playgroup, Ben : ).

Precious Isabelle:

Our neighbor "Batman" otherwise known as Jay : )

Jay's big sister Hanah who I can tell Bekah already looks up to!

Her other neighbor friend, Funny Man Robbie : ).

Wish we could have gotten all the kids on the horse, but they were too busy doing other things, like playing on the playground and crafting!

To gather the guests together right before the food came ( we had Chick Filet, you should have seen Zack's eyes when I suggested it to him!) we had a pinata! In hind site, asking the cute 1 and 2 year olds to whack at a innocent pink pony is sort of odd, but hey, they need their first pinata swing sooner or later!

And the combo of the pink bat ( from Rocky when Bekah was born, thanks Rocky : )), the fact that both Zack and I were raised in San Antonio and due to how the pink pony was on sale, I could not resist the attempt!

Bekah certainly approved! It was hilarious, watching toddlers try to hit a pinata!

( guess we should have corrected what side of the bat you hold, but it only made it cuter!)

Ben taking his shot with Abby as an onlooker . .

Major, getting the hang of it!

Isabelle, getting a few pointers from her mommy:

Lina, assessing the situation, not sure what to think . . .

Samantha, trying to remember what big brother Mason does at his Tee Ball practices . . .

Bekah's church friends, Jack and Catherine, figuring out what to do with the bat . . .

Jay, showing everyone how it is done, and try, try, try as they all may, even Mason could not get the pinata open! Teehee, and Zack just knew that Mason would be "our guy!" I guess it was a little too tough, don't know what I could have done to prevent it, but it turns out, Daddy had to be the one to finally demolish the pony! He too wasn't sure what to think about demonstrating such a task to darling little children, but the deed had to be done, and daddy did it! We are just hoping none of the kids are scared of Zack now!

The kids could color in a large horse coloring book ( thanks Aunt Sarah!), color on cut out horses or just draw. Had I realized there would have been so much interest in the craft table over the playground, I would have beefed it up a little, but they seemed happy!

And now for the part of the party that warmed my heart to no end, to see our little girl so happy and aware of her special day, the birthday cake and song! She could not have been more WILLING to receive attention and confident and proud to have everyone singing to her!

Playing peek a boo with the crowd of onlookers : ).

Hamming it up : ).

When we sang to her, I was holding her hand, and swinging it back and forth, sort of like we were dancing, and it was so sweet y'all! One of those moments you never forget, my baby is 2! And happy and healthy . . .wow!

Expertly blowing out the candles:

Quite proud of her accomplishment:

Here is the cake that Bekah had talked about for over 2 months! Thanks to Amy for helping with the horse and for MAKING the peg doll! Yes, she made a "Bekah Cowgirl Pegdoll" to put on top of the cake! ALL her idea and her own creation! What a thoughtful thing to do! Thank you so much Amy! She now sits proudly at the top of Bekah's kitchen and gets recognized almost daily : ).

After eveyone's bellies were stuffed with Chick Filet sandwiches, chicken tenders, fries, fruit and cake, all the kiddos had selected their stick horse of choice, the long awaited day had come to an end, with a few special peeps hanging around to play in the field : ). Bekah could have played into the night, she was on such a party high : ).

And that she did, while my lovely family cleaned up and Zack and I chatted with the Seamans and the Smiths, thanks guys!

Here is her "aftershot" of the party, marker all over shirt and arms AND face, glue stick ALL over face ( she decided it was lipstick) so that dirt then stuck to it . . . oh she was a mess!

And that hat? Don't know where that came from, gross! Oh Bekah! Always accessorizing!

"What are you talking about? I found the hat on the playground, it's mine, no need to worry Mom!"

Yes, there were absolutely NO worries in this little girl's mind, she was fabulous!

"Isn't it pretty?"

It was a great weekend, because the next day, we joined our church! After church, May May and Grandpa took us out to lunch, where we decided the birthday girl needed icecream, given her outfit and all.

Icecream can keep a child happy for atleast 10 minutes! : )

That same day, we started opening up all of her presents that really turned into a 2 week event! What a fun 2 weeks that was for Bekah and what kind and generous friends and family we have, thanks y'all!

Being a "birthday person" I think birthdays are just the best, because of the way it brings people together to celebrate someone they love, thanks to my wonderful family for all of their love and support throughout the whole planning and of course, to all of our dear friends!