Happy 2nd Birthday, Lily Kate!

February 10th is such a special day to me! The day I became a mom. Truly life-changing. I am feeling so blessed today for my healthy little girl. I was re-reading my post about Lily's HIE at birth and I clicked on the  HIE website to read that story again. This time I actually took 5 minutes to read (and not just skim) the other 3 stories on there. I have no idea how I never noticed before tonight (or the wee hours of the morning at its 1:30 am), that the birth story of the baby born at TMH 2 days after Lily with HIE was on there as well. And that baby was delivered by Dr. McAlpine whom I adore. So interesting to me. Dr. McAlpine delivered Brinley via a scheduled c-section AND I pre-arranged to have my good friend Beth as one of the nurses for the surgery. Talk about night and day birth experiences for my two daughters. Brinley's birth experience was amazing. I had heard about the other baby born at TMH because it was very unusual for two babies to be born two days apart with HIE, because my understanding is that TMH only sees one or two babies a year with that condition. Anyway, I'm thinking about emailing that mom just to say Hi and tell her that I enjoyed reading her story of her daughter's birth on the HIE website. Here is the link to Kiley's story, she will be turning two in 2 days.

http://hopefn3.org/share-your-story/kileys-story/

On a lighter note, Lily's birthday party today was a SUCCESS!! Mason's School of Dance is a little expensive, but worth it in my opinion. And actually, I spent more money on Lily's 1st birthday party at the Bradfordville School House because I went overboard with decorations and food/drinks. The school house is a bargain at $35 for 4 hours, but by the time you buy chic-fil-nuggets for $40, a case of beer for $18, invitations off Etsy for $20, etc. etc, it is VERY easy to rack up hefty party cost. After last year's 1st bday party I said I was going to skip a big party when Lily turned two and just celebrate with family. Well....then Lily and I went to Allie's 3rd birthday party and Mason's back in August and I changed my mind. We'll see if I can now stick to my plan of a low key party or a family party when Lily turns 3! I am happy to report that this party did not stress me out at all, as the 1st bday party did. I didnt make any elaborate banners or go crazy preparing food. I baked some brownies while Lily was pretending to nap on Saturday and that was it. Jenn had a Sesame Street Party for Emily last summer and was kind enough to give me her decorations and left over stickers. Clint's mom took care of the table cloths, invitations, plates, utensils, etc by ordering an Elmo party bundle online. My MIL also took care of ordering, picking up, and paying for the cake- that was nice! I've seen how easy and cute Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes are on Pinterest, but I am simply not a Pinteresty girl. I used to be pretty crafty in middle and high school...but somehow I have lost that drive. Maybe if Clint's mom didn't offer to buy the cake, I would have thrown on my apron and made something cute, but I was grateful for one thing less to worry about. In an effort to stay on budget, I was proud of myself for resisting the super cute Sesame Street photo invitations I found on Etsy. With ordering the template and printing them at Costco, it was going to be around $30. I really wanted them, but already had 24 perfectly good Elmo invitations in the bundle Dawn ordered me...so I was good and hand-wrote away. :)

I also found someone to take pictures at the party for a bargain price. His name is Edris and he is a friend of my co-worker Charmaine. He offered me $45 for one hour of the party or $75 for the whole party. Again I was good, and only booked him for an hour. I asked him if he could try his best to get a picture of every kid there, and I am excited to share those when I get the disc. Edris said probably Friday. Woo hoo,cheap and he works fast! I didnt take a single photo at the party, so I am grateful I'll get the photos from Edris soon.

Sorry for the lack of pictures...they will be added as soon as I get them.

Happy 2nd Birthday, sweet Lily Kate!!!!!