A snowed in birthday

Virginia declared a state of emergency about 2 days ago for the snowstorm we are currently in. We haven't lost power and have maybe gotten half of the snow they said we would but that still amounts to a foot, and all church meetings tomorrow have been cancelled of course. It started coming down yesterday and has only recently stopped.

So today is Megan's 2nd birthday! We didn't have a big party planned, just cupcakes with the family that lives around us, but we had to modify of course and it turned out really well. My pictures always get scrambled when I post so I'll go through the details now and then just post all the pictures.

Yesterday we went to Chopper's parents to say hi and wish his mom a happy birthday (that was yesterday) and they gave Megan their present. A tea set! She has been so thrilled with it. I knew she was ready when she started pretending to eat and drink from other toys and I tell you she has played with that thing almost every waking moment since then! It was the first thing she asked for when she got up this morning -- "tea set?" -- and she loves to play and serve Chopper and I who knows what. She'll even feed her animals if you prompt her too. And she got really mad last night when I tried to put it away before bed -- so it waited to be cleaned up until after she was down for the night!

Today with the snow we haven't gone anywhere of course but Chopper's brother Jesse and his wife Emily and their 3 kids -- Eve, Sophie, and Blu -- decided to brave the weather and WALK over to spend some birthday time with us! I couldn't believe it honestly. I wouldn't have taken my 3 kids out in this, we've had wind as well as snow and that just makes it miserable. But they did. They really don't live far, but it was really sweet for them to do that. We had a big sandwich buffet and the kids just played and played. I think it's always fun to have access to "new" toys and the girls especially were really good about playing with Megan. She's still learning how to do that and it's nice to have some older kids who can play with her and show her the ropes!

After lunch we had cupcakes. Megan got her 2 candles and we sang happy birthday but she does not like fire! On this, I have to say I'm not too sad. She knows it's hot and dangerous. She did blow a little bit when we asked her to but when they didn't go out right away she was done! So Chopper blew the candles out and let her have at it. True to Megan form, she ate hardly any cake but was very interested in picking the sprinkles off the top. I also made some eyeball cupcakes since her eyeball is literally her favorite toy in the world and she asked for those as well. But since she just played in the frosting and ate the mini-M&Ms (the pupils if you will), she didn't get too many of those!

Then we opened presents. Megan is more interested in presents than in the paper and boxes. So much so that I put most of it in bags so she wouldn't get bored! She opened up a Little People house first and then was not interested in opening anything else. So we coaxed her into opening the play food to go with her tea set and a present from Grandma and Grandpa Gasser -- a hamster! Thank you not a real one! It's mechanical (?) so it rolls around on the floor and changes directions and makes the funniest noises: it moos like a cow, crows like a rooster, and sneezes -- all this in addition to little hamster chatterings. She didn't pay much attention at first because it was in a box (no easy access) but after everyone left and the craziness of 4 small kids in our too small apartment died down, we let it run and she got a really big kick out of it. She also got some books which she had to read as soon as Sophie opened them -- yep, cousin Sophie. You can't complain though about someone else opening your presents when you aren't doing it yourself!

We had a great time although she crashed hard and early from the sugar, the people, and no nap! I think it was a great day for her -- it's hard to tell when they're 2 of course -- but Chopper and I had a good time and she really seemed to as well.

My friend Alicia posted directions on how to turn your blog into a book and I've been working on doing that myself these past few days. It is time-consuming but really fun to go back through all of the things I've blogged about and read about the changes in Megan and see the pictures of the last 2 years. She's so different from this time in 2008 and yet so much the same and it's amazing to me that we're going to have another one starting the same process here soon! I absolutely love birthdays, I love celebrating the person and today was just wonderful!