welcome to the TWOs!

Pearce's Dragon Dance Party (aka photo overload)

Please tell me the humor was not lost in having a dragon dance birthday party for a 2 year old!! hahahahaha What started out as a joke, and my way of coming up with ideas that my husband would think weird/crazy [something I love to do-hehehe], actually turned out pretty dark cute and fun. 

The Birthday Girl!

The Details

It seems around this time every year I get a promo email from Shutterfly with 100 free prints. So I printed out 100 of my favorite photos of Pearce from the last year, and glue-gunned them back-to-back hanging from skinny ribbon. I figured they'd be blowing from the wind since it was right next to the [open] front door. 

And Jeremy made a "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" sign in Chinese, of course! And also included the Chinese character "dragon" on top and bottom.

 

I found these "branches" as a "garden bunch" at Costco, and they reminded me of something Asian, maybe not Chinese, but Asian nonetheless. Close enough. What are some Chinese flowers? 

I had this red voile fabric (Anna Maria Horner Little Folks) and thought it would go right along with the red/dragon party theme. So I made her a dress from the Oliver+S picnic blouse pattern, and lengthened it so it would be long enough for a dress. (Actually a little too long, now that I'm seeing it on her, I might raise the hem an inch.)

Pearce and her pet dragon. hahahahaha. I caught her petting the dragon's furry eyebrows.

I love fortune cookies so much that whenever we go to Pei Wei, I end up leaving with a purse full. So I bought 2 packages at a local Asian Market, totaling 100 cookies!!! I assumed everyone loved them as much as myself, but they ended up barely eaten or taken. Oh well, It was the perfect treat last night while watching the Mad Men season premiere.

The Food
One of my favorite things about any party, is planning the menu. I love searching for recipes online, and I'm not afraid to try new recipes. However, I do wish I would have tried out the recipes ahead of time, because there are a few things I would do different. I didn't want to do traditional Chinese food, where's the fun in that?!?! So I found a few cool, contemporary appetizers that still had a Chinese kick.

Sweet and Sour Pork Sliders -- these were pretty darn yummy. And I've become fanatical about getting all of my meat at local Meat Markets, since living in Cle Elum. I picked up really great ground pork at Snider's Meat, and I think you can really tell the difference. This recipe I would have done differently, instead of frying the balls in a wok with an entire bottle of peanut oil, (which was extremely messy) I would bake them. The sweet and sour sauce was awesome though. And Jeremy said it tasted "very Chinese". It was tangy and gooey, and we all loved them on the sweet Hawaiian Rolls with slices of cucumber.

Chinese Chicken Salad -- the best part about this recipe was the fried-at-home wontons. They were suppose to just be garnish on top of the salad, but I doubled the amount and served them in a giant bowl next to the salad, and couldn't stop snacking every time I walked by the bowl. The salad recipe was just okay, I think I might have found one with too many ingredients/things to chop, toast, and prepare. It seemed too much work for what it was. But I do love that it called for Rotisserie Chicken (Thank you, Costco).

Strawberry Coconut Cake -- this was awesome! I had pinned this a while ago on Pinterest, because the picture was so darn pretty. And since Pearce (and I) LOVE strawberries and it is RED I thought this would be a fun cake. My siblings were crazy about it, and snuck seconds (maybe even thirds). :-) The recipe says to shred the coconut in the food processor, which I think turned out great, since I'm not a big fan of the shredded coconut, it's a little too shoe-lacing if you ask me.

The Dragon Dance

Dodo (Uncle Freddie) seriously did a great job. After watching NUMEROUS YouTube videos with Pearce, I started realizing exactly how difficult this dance would be and that you'd need to be in really good shape to do this--so I pawned of the dance to my lil bro.

Jeremy commenting on the dragon's "braces"- because I had a wire hanging from the mouth- I ran out of time, and never made a mouth (from cardboard) so that it would flap open and closed.

 At first it was just Freddie under the dragon, But since the tail was long enough, we thought it'd look better with a "butt". So... enter Amy. Amy, I'm sure it's a lot harder than it looks, walking around hunched over and following Freddie, under 3 yards of staticky fabric. hahahaha So, Amy, YOU did an awesome dragon dance, too!!!! hahahahah

 P.S. I love seeing the mountains in the background.

 peek-a-boo! Awesome job Freddie!!!

Gosh, I have such great siblings to go along with my crazy ideas. And Thanks, Laura, for filling in on camera duty, I always love your photos. You are great at capturing "action". :-)


The Party/Party Guests/Presents
 Everyone loves a good mid-eating picture, right? You're welcome, Freddie, Amy and Jeremy :-)

 cutie-pie Braylon!!!

sista Laura & Jeremy

My BFF from BYU, Brookie!! And also my fellow Sugarhouse buddy. [We live so close, that sometimes after we put the little ones to bed, we sneak out midweek for frozen yogurt or Target. ] And her cute little family. I feel so lucky to live by one of my besties, and of course 3 of my younger sibs.

Our cute neighbors the Paces. They moved into the ward the exact same time as us. It was fun chatting with them and making connections. Turns out they were same graduating class as Brooke's husband, Christian (@ Olympus High) . Class o' '99- woot! woot!! And Brent served his mission in Fresno, where my family lived for 1.5 years (while I was in college) and knew lots of my dad's family in Madera.

This is their little girl, Miyo, who Pearce plays with in nursery.

 My sweet sous-chef Jeremy. :-)

This will have been her 3rd "Happy Birthday" singing and blowing out candles. (BDay morning she blew out a candle on her Dunford Donut. And after bday dinner cake on Wednesday, too.) But seems as though she still needed more "practice" before the big day. :-)

Pearce's new obsession lately is lions (because of Lion King, she even picked out Lion Jammies from Costco the other day, didn't matter that they were boys. They're actually cute, though, not too boyish.) So she loved the Lion/Animal puzzle blocks the Paces brought. And we all know the girl loves anything art/coloring/markers/paint/drawing related. So she hit the jackpot with Brooke's bag of goodies. So thoughtful, everyone. Thanks!!

This was the funniest gift though. My lil niece Grace (7 years old) made this "doll" for Pearce all by herself and borrowed her mom's (my big sis, Jessica) sewing machine. And on the notes it said "I wanted to make something hand made because Emily always makes such cute stuff for us." Adorable!! That Grace is a girl after my own heart. 

Aunt Jessica, AKA book worm!!! Sent 2 fabulous books as well. I sometimes think our kids were switched at birth in heaven--Grace & Pearce. Grace is the cuckoo/wacky/goofy girl (also 2nd born, like me) and Pearce is a total book worm (first born, like Jess)!

Freddie, Laura and Amy each picked her out a gift at the dollar store. It's funny how kids love that stuff, and they don't associate $ with gifts. She loves her little "crown" and wand Dodo gave her, and stamp set from Muppy, and Mickey coloring book from MiMi.

The After-Party
Sweet little Pearce looking outside wondering where everyone "go?"

My sibs hung out long after everyone else left. We chilled watching Pearce play with her new toys, and Laura read through my new Pioneer Woman cookbook I picked up this week at Costco. Freddie and Amy introduced us to "Draw Free"-- the fast growing and #1 free app right now. It's really fun, it's like Pictionary. And I was seriously impressed with the drawings they were doing all on a tiny iphone screen. I wish I could have saved them. But the disappear really fast after you guess the drawing.

And that's a wrap! My brain hurts from writing such a long post.

dragon dance in ACTION

I have the most talented siblings!! My sister Amy was filming throughout the party yesterday, and even a little before and after... and she just put together this really cute sweet video. LOVE LOVE LOVE it AMy!! You are incredible!

Now you all can see the dragon dance!! Freddie seriously did such a great job doing the dragon dance! He definitely did his YouTube studying of other dances. He said his legs are sore today from all the squats. hahahahaha And I love how you can see in the video, how Pearce got a little scared when the music came on and freddie brought the dragon to life, and she ran away. So I held her and she was cool.

Tons of pictures still to come, still sifting through the 100+. :-)

an interview with a 2 year old

I'd seen little interviews with toddlers/kids in the past on blogs and I thought it was cute, so I wanted to start doing it every year with Pearce around her birthday. I think it will be really fun to look back and see her little personality, her favorite things, and her talking. I'm glad I started this a couple weeks ago, because it was no where near as easy as I imagined. In my mind, I pictured her sitting still in a chair while I asked her several questions. And answering them with many details and chatting along the way. Each day I tried different spots, higher chairs, and eventually just filmed her playing or reading.



And just because I still need a place to stick a few remaining birthday photos, i'll put them here. :-)

I got a little carried away with the chocolate fudgey PW sheet cake icing on the cake. I was dipping strawberries with all the excess. I couldn't clean up the sides, so I ended up transferring to a new stand.

I caved and let Pearce open all her presents on her birthday vs her party tomorrow. She pushes her new baby crib around like it's a stroller or hospital bed.

I love the little apron I made for her to go with her little kitchen, that I used it for a bib to make the cake-eating pictures cuter. :-)

And a little action from this AM. She is busy "making bug soup" and "reading recipes".

I'm a KSL junky, and was thrilled to find this little gem last minute.

Pearce is 2!!

BIRTHDAY GIRL!!!

We are so lucky to have visitors on Pearce's birthday--Grandma & PopPop Curfew!

We did what Pearce likes best this morning and enjoyed the park. So glad it's warm today, considering it was cold and snow on the ground the past 2 days.

Last night I told Pearce her abridged birth story, and how this time 2 years ago we were at the hospital, so excited for her to arrive. And that mommy and daddy were eating domino's pepperoni pizza when my water broke. And Daddy panicked and started pacing from room to room trying to pack his "overnight bag". Mommy was already prepared, I had my bag packed the very night before. I just had a feeling I needed to be ready. We drove along PCH in the late afternoon (Saturday) and it was a beautiful day. The beach was glistening and the sun was still shining. We checked into the hospital, and chilled in the laboring room for about 6 hours until any action happened. Eating Popsicle after Popsicle. Red ones, orange ones, and purple ones. I still didn't even feel any contractions at that point, even though my water broke many hours before. [Pearce chimes in with a, "ooooh...hahahaha".]

Then the very next afternoon, after 24 hours, you were stuck! The doctor couldn't get you out! So they said , it's time for a c-section, and they cut you out of mommy's belly! Daddy was the first one to hold you. You melted his heart. [Gee, I can't ever tell this story without getting teary eyed, especially when I get to this part.] Mommy was still getting stitched up by the doctors, so daddy took you to the waiting room and fed you your first bottle. Mommy FINALLY showed up, and they placed you on my chest. I felt like you knew that I was in pain *and a little traumatized*, and I'll never forget how you looked up at me for the first time with your sweet "I'm so sorry mommy" eyes. And it was LOVE at first sight. I felt a sweet comfort and love immediately. And my life changed. Forever. 

We loved you every second, and daddy took care of you for the entire first week, and changed all your diapers, while mommy was healing in the hospital. 

You have given us so much joy, and you are such a sweet little girl, and we are so blessed to have you in our lives.  

It's getting harder and harder to get pictures of her facing me!! Most of my pictures from today were like this...running away!!

Oh Pearce, I hope you will always know HOW VERY much we love you!!

xoxoxo, Mommy & Daddy

And for fun, here is the link to her actual birth story. :-)