Butterfly Birthday

I love parties, especially birthday parties. When I was young, I used to plan my own birthday parties and make my own cakes. On my 12th birthday, I had all my friends come dressed as old ladies and we had a tea party out on the lawn with a hat-shaped chocolate cake. So fun! However, it is even better planning a party for someone else - especially when that someone else happens to be my own precious little girl.

My beautiful butterfly

Needless to say, I had an absolute blast dreaming up ideas and creating this party - and it was so fun for me to put it all together and see Zoë and our family and friends have a delightful time!

Birthday girl with her special friend, Celicia

The dream for this party: to be filled with all the things that Zoë loves - the great outdoors, our neighborhood playground, lots of people, little friends to play with, yummy treats, and of course, butterflies. 

Butterfly shaped P.b.& J's for the little ones :)

The spread - waiting for everyone to arrive

Zoë's toddler buddy, Timothy with his butterfly straw

Cupcakes! 

Timothy really liked those "caterpillars"
(Good n' Plenty, used for the butterfly bodies on the cupcakes :)

Butterfly Craft Table: butterfly masks and coffee filter butterflies

Rachel and Aunt Heidi with the Birthday Girl

Celicia's lovely mask

Where is Zoë??

Peek-a-boo!

Cousin Adon's coffee filter butterfly in progress

Zoë enjoyed coloring with Margaret, Danae and Gail
(friends from church)

Toddler Butterfly Hunt!

It was adorable watching these three search for the butterfly goodie bags
 we hid around the trees with their butterfly nets :)

"I found the last butterfly!"

Playground fun 

Since moving to Portland nearly a year ago, the most difficult part has been finding playmates for Zoë, and we really haven't had any luck with that outside of nursery at church on Sunday mornings. So, we invited her nursery friends, and it brought so much joy to my heart to see my little social butterfly giggling with glee as she pulled Celicia around the playground and had so much fun with her other young friends that came to the party. We are definitely looking forward to creating more opportunities for these friendships to blossom!

 The butterfly wings I made for Zoë using fabric scraps from newborn outfits, quilts and diaper covers that had been ruined one way or another. She refused to wear it on her birthday on Tuesday, but today enjoyed running around "flying" and sharing her wings with Celicia.

Presents!

Enjoying her gifts with Margaret

Celebrating with us today were my family, the Farner clan (above), and a few families from church. Thank you all for coming to celebrate Zoë's life with us, and lovin' on her! She certainly is one special little girl!

We continued the festivities day with a delicious dinner at Outback to treat the moms (Didi, Lola, Oma and me!), and concluded with a dance party in our living room in which Zoë demanded EVERYONE to get up and dance with her! What a perfect way to end the day - Zoë style :) 

Precious butterfly, you have transformed overnight from my little baby to a big girl!
 You are so loved!

Happy Birthday!

Two years ago, Zoë Anastasia came into the world, and the world was forever changed. :)

We celebrated Zoë's life today with all sorts of things that Zoë loves: a special butterfly themed birthday breakfast (with favorites banana and chocolate), a trip to the zoo with mommy and daddy, presents, ice cream, a shopping "spree," fun at the park, and painting in the bathtub.

All decorated and ready for the birthday girl to wake up!

Zoë loves butterflies. And it is perfect that she loves them,
because her middle name, Anastasia, means "resurrection" and butterflies are a
 Christian symbol for resurrection. Cool, huh?

Butterfly Breakfast!

Delicious Banana Chocolate Chip Baked Donuts 

(made with Greek yogurt too, so basically healthy ;)

Blowing out the candles

Zoë truly is full of "life," and brings joy and delight wherever she goes. She has a tender heart and shows great empathy for her age - giving hugs to anyone who is sad (including characters in her books). Her hugs and kisses are precious.

Hanging out with the "penguins" at the zoo. :)

Chillin' by the elephants with her new "Hello Kitty" water bottle

Zoë's intelligence is almost frightening. Every day we are blown away by her comprehension, her memory, problem solving and the connections she makes between words and between people and experiences.

Zoë is a super independent and self-motivated. She basically potty trained herself last week and has been accident free for 6 days! (At barely 24 months - what?!). She is also very spirited (a.k.a. strong willed), and stubborn as a mule (I don't know where she got that...) and has given us a run for our money trying to figure out the best and most godly way to guide/shape that spiritedness into a gift rather than a curse (for her and for us!). 

 

Presents! Regrettably, we let her open her gift from Auntie Judy first -

 a VTec digital camera. She didn't really care about any

 of the other presents after that... :p

The words are really starting to come out now. Some of her recent favorites: "dress"(which she asks to wear EVERY day), "shoes", "gackgack" (a.k.a backpack), "hand,""stop" and "go", "ba-bye", "butterfly" and "mingo" (flamingo).

She loves books. Zoë will sit in her room or on the potty and read, read, read. Any kind of book - children's books, our camping book (her current favorite), songbooks, road maps, and checkbooks. Lately, she has been asking be to read some of the longer books, like Seuss's "Horton Hears a Who!," and sits (mostly) and listens to the whole thing!

Zoë loves this camera!

(And now we can start to avoid the tantrums 

when I want to take pictures but won't let her touch mine! Yay!)

My present to Zoë: Butterfly wings made from fabric taken from old stained baby clothes, ruined quilts, worthless velcro diaper covers, and scraps from things I made for her in the last two years. She can wear the elastic straps around her shoulders and hook her hands into elastic handles on the wing tips.

Unfortunately, Zoë was not thrilled about the wings today and wouldn't even put them on long enough for me to get a picture. *Sigh.* Even though I told her it was making mommy VERY sad! Oh well. Hopefully she will want to wear them on Saturday for her "official" birthday party.

Ice cream is one of Zoë's most favorite things. 

We knew we would have to include a trip to our

 neighborhood Baskin-Robins for her birthday. :)

The funniest part is that she decided she didn't want her ice cream cone, 

and wanted daddy's milkshake instead. Crazy girl!

The grocery store across the street gave Zoë a $5 gift certificate for her birthday.

She picked out this blue bunny. :)

(Thanks Auntie Gloria for the new dress too!)

Zoë is full of adventure. She's a thrill seeker and likes a challenge. The playground is one of her favorite places to "monkey around," and do all sorts of things that make mommy a little anxious. :s If the big kids are doing it, well, so can she! She has mastered the somersault and is working on the cartwheel. :) Zoë loves to dance. LOVES to dance. She requests that we turn on some music at least once every day so that she can show off her moves. And if she hears music outside or in a store, she'll immediately start groovin'.  

Enjoy a little glimpse into the everyday life of the now-two-year-old Zozo:

We love you, Zoë Anastasia! We thank God for sending you into our lives, 

and for blessing us with such joy and delight!

Make New Friends, and Keep The Old

One is silver and the other gold.

Last week, Zoë and I went on a road trip adventure up north to Seattle and Edmonds. We stopped at Seattle Pacific University to have lunch with my cousin, Michaela, then continued on to the cozy town of Edmonds, right on the edge of the Puget Sound to visit and old friend of mine.

Bethany and I have been friends since we were 12, but have been in and out of touch for the last few years. After moving to Portland, we both have been saying "We need to get together!" and finally made it happen. And it was wonderful. And Zoë made some new friends. BOY friends. :)

Here are some pictures from our adventure:

Playing on the beach by the Puget Sound

We had such beautiful weather all three days!

This girl LOVES the waves

Sandcastles

The boots didn't last long. Barefoot just like her momma!

The trio decided to start a band :)

We took a ride on the ferry across the Sound. It was so fun!

"Oooo! Oooo! Look at that!"

Zoë decided that she really liked holding Everett's hand. :) 

Ice cream sandwich time out on the front of the ferry - 

Zoë enjoyed being pushed around by the wind.

Coren enjoyed his ice cream sandwich as well :)

Bethany and Everett

Look at those beautiful smiles!

We went to downtown Seattle for dinner, and once again, 

Zoë decided she wanted to hold Everett's hand, instead of momma's. :P

After dinner we drove around Seattle and savored a gorgeous sunset.

What a gift it is to have a childhood friendship carry into adulthood! Thank you Bethany and Weber boys for a wonderful time! We will see you again soon. :)