We had a really nice day for Lyla's birthday. Mark and I both took the day off to spend with our favorite girl. Mark was actually in Maryland the night before guest lecturing at the University of Maryland, so Lyla and I had a girls breakfast and met up with Daddy early in the afternoon. We went to Moomah for Lyla's favorite breakfast -- bagels :) (such a New Yorker). It is a great spot -- everyone is so nice, they have such great crafts and the food is really good. The only problem is that it takes 20 minutes or so for Lyla to settle down because she has to check out all the cute stuff before she will sit. John Stewart came in looking for his wife (the owner) and gave Lyla a quick wave before heading out. Lyla was wearing a very sparkly "Birthday Girl" t-shirt from Paperlili and a girl who worked there asked me if it was actually her birthday. I said yes and about 5 minutes later she comes over with a gift for Lyla -- two different styles of Moomah t-shirts. How awesome is that? After breakfast, we were on our way out when Lyla saw the old typewriter on the coffee table in the front of the cafe. I could not peel her away from that thing so I got another latte and we sat on the couch for another half hour. Not a bad way to spend the morning.
P.S. This is the best sign ever for a kids' cafe
When we finally left, we walked around the neighborhood a bit. It was chilly but really sunny and it felt good to be outside. We did a quick shopping at the new Crewcuts in Tribeca, stopped at Tribeca Treats to pick up her birthday cake and went home so that the birthday girl could get some beauty sleep before her big night. Well, the beauty sleep turned into just a cat nap, so she helped me get ready for dinner and put up some decorations. I had bought one of those giant cupcake molds to try just for fun, so we made a red velvet cake and iced it with cream cheese frosting (Mark's favorite). The finished product:
And we made a cute mini bunting for the Tribeca Treats cake.
Mark got home around noon and he and Lyla played on the floor together before Lyla opened some presents. Opening presents with a two-year old take some time -- she wants to play with everything right after she opens it, so four presents took about an hour to open. I'd say her princess dolls were her favorite. We got her Belle and Cinderella, but it doesn't matter, she calls all the princesses Ariel. She holds them all together and tells me that they are friends :)
My parents, Nana, Nicolas, Ari, Aunt Phyllis, Eileen and Brian and the twins, along with our friends Jen and Jeremy and their son Collin came over for dinner and cake. Lyla wished everyone a Happy Birthday (I think she was thinking it was more like Merry Christmas than her own special day). We had a really nice time just hanging out and playing with the kids. It's amazing how much damage five kids can do in an apartment in such a short period of time (they can be more destructive than frat boys).
This spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E
The "big kids" -- Lyla included -- loved having baby Collin around and wanted to hold him and touch him and prod him and poke him...Jen was a good sport to say the least (note the balloon that is being rubbed on Collin's little head).
The biggest hit of the night for Lyla was the hand me down scooter my mom brought in from Long Beach.
Lyla was thrilled to hear everyone sing happy birthday and acted as conductor for the whole song. She's been practicing blowing out candles on her Melissa and Doug birthday cake, so she was pleased as punch to get a chance with the real thing.
We had three different cakes, so it was a very important decision for the kids to make. I was so excited that my red velvet cake was the favorite of the night!
Happy 2nd Birthday Miss Lyla!
