Clara's second birthday party!

Clara's birthday party was last Friday, and it was a lot of fun! Since her current obsession is Dora and Diego, that was the theme. I will admit that I basically used all store-bought stuff as the decorations and even a cake mix and store-bought frosting (I can hear some of you gasping right now!) but hey, I'm pregnant with twins, so I made it easier on myself. :) I did take the time, though, to make up a little scavenger hunt for the kids, which turned out to be a pretty big hit for everyone except Clara, who just wanted to stare at her paper with the pictures on it and I had to drag her around the room to find the little pictures to stick onto it!

We had the party in the church basement, and the kids came and played with the scooters, balls, and bowling stuff for a few minutes. Then, Clara initiated everyone doing her favorite song: "The hokey pokey" and we also sang "Wheels on the Bus." I had bought a cheap little "stick the sticker on Diego" game, so we did that . . most of the kids opted not to put the paper bag over their heads, and wanted to just walk up to the poster and stick it on. We also made little binocular sets out of toilet paper rolls, did our scavenger hunt, ate cupcakes/ice cream, and Clara opened a few gifts. One of her "gifts" was to have people bring money to donate to Haiti earthquake victims instead of giving her a gift, so we had a little five minute talk about that, complete with a few pictures I printed off the Internet ahead of time . . a few of the kids got the concept . . . Jayna actually made a cute little comment about how "they need a new house."

All in all, it was a very fun party, and I was exhausted when we were done! I didn't get very many great pictures, but here are a few: Ok, this first one isn't of the party, but it is so cute! Clara got a twin baby set from Grandma and Grandpa Lebow for her birthday, complete with a double stroller, high chair, and swing, as well as little bottles stuff to feed them baby food. On her own, she named the babies Savannah and Emma (although she's not so great at pronouncing Savannah . . .but we know what she's saying!) and she refers to them as her sisters. Too cute. This is a picture of her before we'd had a chance to put together the high chair, so she improvised and used her own chair to feed her babies.
Here's the whole group at the party, with their binoculars, ready to go on the scavenger hunt!

Eating her cupcake.

Playing the sticker game

Doing the hokey pokey!