two.

only 22 minutes left before this day ends. the day my sweet girl was born, already (and in some ways, just) two years ago.
it still surprises me some days that we have a toddler. but ruby never let's us forget it. she is skilled at the toddler ways already. she is so much cooler than I could have ever imagined she would be.

happy birthday, sunshine girl. we love you, ruby harper.

it's time to play catch-up for a bit...

so, i'm going to go waaaay back. over a month, exactly. the last month has been a whirlwind of events from ruby's first birthday party to doctors appointments to vacation to more doctors appointments and finally (i think. i hope!) dwindling down to our entire household getting over some crazy flu-cold-kill-me-now bug. it's all been nuts, but most parts of it have been seriously awesome.
and it all started out with ruby's rainbow-filled party. and let me tell you. it was glorious. it was colorful. and full of family and friends. and food. and one happy little birthday girl. (take a moment to prepare yourself for the photo bomb that is to come) and then check it out!

i decided to do a build-your-own-sandwich bar since i could incorporate pretty much every color of the rainbow that way and we wouldn't have to worry about cooking or keeping anything warm.
it worked out great and it looked awesome!

i made the "happy birthday, ruby" banner. i found these pendants pre-cut in the scrapbooking section of our JoAnn's, then just cut out white card stock, free-handed the letters, glued them on the pendants, and strung white yard through each. easy-peasy. nothing fancy but it looked cute.

the rainbows continue... i can't recall where i saw this (someone on pinterest, of course!) but i loved the idea of putting all the natural sodas and drinks in rainbow order. and (again from pinterest. obviously.) the rainbow fruit kabobs. one of my moms had the brilliant idea of dipping the marshmallow on the end (for the cloud, of course!) in white chocolate and then cover in rainbow sprinkles. it's all in the details, ya know? and we did go a little overboard with the details. well, I did. everyone just kindly obliged by wishes. :)

one of my favorite decorations was the wreath i made. which, you can't see very well here. ah well. anyway, it was white yarn wrapped around the wreath with felt flowers and sparkly buttons as the flower centers. then i glued on "happy birthday". it looked adorable. i'm in the process now of ripping off the "happy birthday" and putting on "ruby harper" so we can keep it hung up in her room. it was kinda a pain in the bum to wrap all that yarn,
but it turned out great so that's okay.

and then i got candy, candy, candy. in every color of the rainbow. and believe you me. we had loads! i just finally got rid of the last of it by bringing a little to work with me every day until it the pile was gone. although, i gotta say - starburst jelly beans are kinda the bomb.

more shots of candy. and the cake. of course. you can probably guess what the big surprise is there. more to come...

and lastly, for decorations, i strung up on rainbow ribbon each of her monthly pics from birth to 11 months. and yeah, i kinda definitely got all kinds of emotional putting this together.
oy. my girl is getting so big.

i feel like there should be music playing when you get to this picture. pardon the cake-covered fork messing up this picture. that being said, can i just tell you - this cake was every single bit (probably even more) as good as it looks. our friend, sarah, makes cakes as a side business and her recipes are to. die. for. the girl's got some serious skill. i mean, the color was perfect and the taste fantastic. i will not even attempt to lie - i ate this cake for breakfast for about a week after the party.
yup. i have no shame.

and speaking of no shame, here's ruby stuffing her face with the glorious goodness that is cake. actually, she mostly just grabbed it in huge handfulls, rubbed her hands together and all over everything, and then repeated this process until it looked like this...

so, i think she had fun. :)

had to get in some pictures with the fam...

ruby with her aunties candice and rhonda

with all of her grandparents! from the left, T's dad and mom, my mom, and my other mom, and dad
(ruby's the one in the middle, for those of you still in awe of the cake) ;)

family photo time. ruby seems to be enjoying herself. oh, and in case you're wondering, those are two balloons, one tied to each of ruby's wrists. it was pretty funny during the party, if you weren't sure where she was, just looked for the balloons floating around as she crawled. i'll have to remember this trick when she's older and we're at amusement parks and such. or the mall.
although, that probaby wouldn't go over to well with her. but i digress.

my absolute favorite.

this isn't the most exciting picture but we were opening presents here. i had suggested books for ruby. mostly because she has a bunch of toys that she doesn't really even play with but she loves to read. (and yes, that is a giant giraffe in the background. ruby's aunties went all out.) all together, ruby ended up with around 30 books, which she's been tearing through. (not literally, thank goodness). we've loved all the new choices we have. and i'm psyched we have some of the classics now - a bunch of dr. seuss, where the wild things are, courdoroy, to name a few.



and let's just say, you know it was a good party when...