Kylee's birthday

I'm willing to bet there has never been an (almost) two year old so excited for her birthday as Kylee was. She has been telling people about her birthday pretty much since she's been able to talk. Everywhere we went she would tell people, "I'm gonna be two on my August 9!" Not only is she making sure that everyone is aware of her birthday, but she's also going to go ahead and take complete ownership of August 9. I hope I love her assertiveness as much in future years as I do now. She is so fun- developing such a personality and so capable...of anything really. From carrying on a full conversation with me to keeping all the kids around here in line she is absolutely my little helper. One of my friends commented the other day, "She's really just like a miniature teenager, isn't she?!"

When Kylee woke up on her birthday, Kent and I went into her room to get her and tell her Happy Birthday and she looked up at us, smiled so sweetly with sleepy eyes and said, "Thank you so much!" We took her downstairs where we had set up her Disney Princess tent in the playroom. She was sooo excited. She and Kael played "camping" for quite awhile and anyone who came over in the next few weeks got asked, "Wanna come downstairs and see my new birthday tent?" Kael really wanted to "help" Kylee open the rest of her presents and she was happy to let him. That afternoon all the family came over for her party. She was in such a great mood partly because she had just woken up from a nap, but mostly because she was happy to have a party dress on. Kael helped her open most of the presents (everyone has Kylee pretty well figured out- I think everything she got was either pink or sparkly!) then it was time for cake. So here's the story on the cake: Tammy and I had attempted to make this pink purse cake I had found online. Oh brother. Thank goodness Tam was around to help because I would have thrown the cake out the window. She drove all around town for me to find a giant tootsie roll for the purse handle. Then when we went to decorate it, it just kept tipping over and it was so humid that day that the frosting was literally sliding right off the cake...finally we got it figured out and I have to admit it turned out pretty good. If teaching doesn't work out Tam, I think you could definitely have a future in fancy cakes. Most importantly, Kylee seemed to really like the cake. She said, "It's got a "K" for me!"

Shortly after Kylee's birthday we went to the State Fair. Here are a couple pictures from that. The first one is of Kent and Kylee climbing in the tractors.

Wow. The following picture needs so much explanation that I'm not sure where to start. As we were leaving the fair, Kael heard music and was drawn in. He is shirtless because he'd spilled nearly a full bottle of water down his shirt much earlier in the evening. Yes, we let him walk around the fair without a shirt. He fit right in and probably added a little something to the "people-watching" element of the fair. He's so happy to be rockin' out here that he couldn't care less about his shirtlessness. Kylee, however, is not quite sure of the guy next to her who's trying to get her to clap along with him. I am in the background trying desperately not to laugh at the whole situation.

On a final note, here are a few family pictures we got taken recently (right in time for football season!). Go Hawks!