Eleanor's birthday party

Right before we left for the beach, we sent out an invitation for Eleanor's second birthday party and figured we would plan the party later. Well we had 40 guests (including 12 kids!) so we decided to keep it low key by serving brunch and having a giant play date at our house. I have learned over the years that doing "cutesy" or themed things is simply not one of my gifts so we just opened our doors and let things happen as they may. It turned out to be really fantastic weather and a very fun get together for both the adults and the kids.

We had people hanging out in the living room, on the back porch, in the backyard, and even in the front yard (which almost never happens!

Some of the kids hopped in the baby pool, and they did some dancing on the back porch, too.

We even got everyone together to sing "Happy Birthday" to Eleanor, which was no small feat!

Happy Birthday from Katie Stratton on Vimeo.

Overall we had a great time!

Eleanor opened a couple gifts from family after all the friends left and before she took her nap, including this gorgeous quilt from my grandparents and a new "baby doll" that she is making sure Maynard gets to know very well.

We ended up not doing cake until the following night because Chris had a prior activity planned that evening already. Cake was a quieter affair, and as she can now use a fork, it wasn't quite as eventful as last year! She still had some pretty good facial expressions that almost match Erika's birthday cake experience from last year and those from her first birthday.

Happy 2nd birthday, sweet Eleanor!