Brooke is two! How this has happened I don’t have any clue but it’s true and boy is she ever two.
We’ve had just a great time celebrating Brooke’s 2nd birthday over the past week and I think Brooke has had a wonderful time herself. I wasn’t sure if she would understand this year that it was her birthday or what was going on but I think when her buddy at school celebrated hers just the week prior, she understood the deal. We started talking about her upcoming birthday all last week and finally on Sunday we had her party and got to celebrate with a whole lot of friends.
Bryan and I had the idea to do a tropical themed birthday party at the McMenamin’s 90 degree saltwater pool and tiki bar up in Edmonds, WA but weren’t entirely sure if our friends would be down for this excursion in the middle of winter, with a drive outside of Seattle, and having to get in your swimming pool for a kid’s birthday party. But we were wrong! Of the 38 people we invited 33 RSVP’ed yes. I then started to wait for the messages of people bailing on us but of the 33 RSVP’ed yes, 30 actually came. We had 15 adults and 15 children and we definitely helped to fill that pool for our hour of swim from 11-12. Everyone had a good time swimming, adults included. Reese had a whole group of buddies to swim with and I actually was quite impressed with her taking off her floaties and practicing getting her face in the water, using the swim goggles, and floating. It’s nice that this pool is shallow throughout, only going to a depth of 4′-10″ at the very end. Brooke had a good time too and got more comfortable in the water as the time progressed but still clinging to me throughout. She did have a big smile on her face when I tossed her up a few times and was delighted when the rain started coming through the opening in the roof.
We had gotten there early, at 10:30 am to buy wristbands, and the staff made no protest of us jumping in the water early so there was actually a group of us that started swimming as early as a quarter to. Because of this I think Brooke was ready to get out at about 11:45 which worked great because I could get her and I showered and dressed before there was a mad rush for the changing room and could help get the party goods set up upstairs in the tiki lounge. We brought a few balloons and some goody bags for all of the kids with just a few simple items including leis, flamingo straws, and a couple suckers (a Brooke favorite). I had also printed out some mermaid and sea life coloring sheets and brought our markers for kids to color.
The tiki lounge Nui Nui didn’t open until noon and as I suspected we had the whole place basically to ourselves which worked great. We had half of the restaurant but were able to freely roam and socialize over a bunch of various seating options and there was even a cool corner nook that the kids hung out at coloring that overlooked the pool. I had pre ordered a bunch of food and I think I ordered correctly. I kept it to all simple finger foods and got the kids a bunch of chicken tenders, fries and tots while the adults had a few variations of sliders, kahlua pork tacos, and chips and salsa. Our group managed to consume all of the food but I don’t think anyone was really left wanting more either.
Just before 1 pm we knew we had to get the cake part going as guests with littles, like ourselves, would need to be heading home for naptime. We had gotten two cookie cakes from Safeway, decorated with all sorts of tropical sea creatures and really cute I have to say. Brooke was already to go and our group sang happy birthday and Brooke was all about it, sandwiched between her sister and dad. We hurriedly cut the cake as the kids were bidding on what pieces they wanted and soon everyone was sugared up and started to leave. We stayed until the end, spent all of about 5 minutes cleaning up before heading out ourselves. We didn’t leave until close to 2 and Brooke managed to keep her eyes open until about the last ten minutes home and from there she didn’t want to continue napping. She had napped on the way to the party, which was great, so she was set for the day.
On her actual birthday it was rainy, rainy, rainy. I had put together cake pops for Brooke to take to school Sunday night. Bryan graciously took her to school with the cake pops since it was raining so hard. Brooke came home with an empty container and her Birthday crown that she proceeded to wear most of the night. We spent the evening facetiming family and gradually opening her gifts. The real hit was this car track toy that is super cool. It’s a toy that Reese can help Brooke do and that gives Brooke as much excitement as doing it herself, although she will get there with time. We had a lowkey dinner and I sang Happy Birthday to her when I was putting her to bed.
We’ve continued to have so much rain, which I think has really hit hard because our fall has really been so clear and sunny. We’ve tried to keep ourselves busy and active. We had gymnastics on Saturday and went to the climbing gym mainly for Reese last night. Reese had such a good time and literally worked up a sweat climbing. We’ve also started our chocolate advent calendars and do that after dinner each night and that is a hit with all of us!
Christmas is approaching and we are all very excited for it but I think we also did a good job celebrating Brooke’s birthday. I don’t want her to ever get overshadowed by Christmas. She’s a great little girl who we all love so much. She definitely is turning two, becoming very opinionated and having big feelings a lot but I also think I’m better at knowing how to handle these feelings, let her feel them and then work through them. She’s been super chatty lately and really starting to form words into meaningful sentences, although I will say at her birthday party she was super observational, watching and enjoying the group more than talking. But she loved it!
Chelsea
