Moo...Moo...Brylee is Two!

On Saturday, we celebrated Brylee's 2nd Birthday with a cow-themed birthday party with family and friends. Brylee still loves farm animals, and the cow is one of her favorites. She enthusiastically says "Moooo" very loudly when you ask her what a cow says. Since she was a cow for Halloween, we decided to stick with the cow-theme for her birthday.

 

I made these cute invitations with a Groupon I had, and we themed everything around pink, orange, and cows!

 We started the morning with birthday donuts, and I slightly regretted that decision after I realized she was probably only going to eat sweets all day long! But she loved it!

 I basically used all paper for decorations (wrapping paper, paper streamers, construction paper banner), and some tin and wooden buckets I already had around the house. We added some cow-print and pink balloons and tissue paper flowers for an extra pop.

 

The Party Table

 We had 3 types of cookies, including cake-batter, chocolate chip, and white chocolate-cranberry cookies, in cute cookie jars. I am happy to say that the two new recipes I used were delicious!

 I made a cookie-cake for her birthday cake and added cow-print icing! The icing turned out to be her favorite part!

 And we made cow-girl chili for the grown-ups who were at her party

 The present mantle

 Party favors

 We passed out bags of cookies in cow-tins along with some cow-hats we got from Chick-fil-a

 The birthday girl welcomed her guests, and we have been working really hard saying "I'm two" while holding up two fingers. She's mastered saying it, but hasn't quite gotten the finger motion down!

 Sweet girls enjoying playing with balloons! They were patiently waiting to go see the "surprise" outside

 As hard as we tried to get a baby calf to appear at her cow-party, we could not come up with one. But as it turns out, having a baby goat at your party is even better! Our wonderful brother-in-law brought his 3-month-old goat to hang out in our backyard for the kids (and parents) to enjoy! This was the sweetest goat ever, and let all the kids touch and pet her while she enjoyed eating or nibbling on hay bales. A few party guests were a bit frightened by the goat, and after all the kids got a chance to pet her, they quickly enjoyed running around the backyard playing chase and kicking balls and halfway forgot about the goat. It was definitely a fun addition to have at her party!

 After a while we came back inside and sang happy birthday to the birthday girl, who got a cookie as a "snack" before she dove into her cookie cake!

 Daddy helped blow out one candle, but Brylee was able to blow out the other candle all by herself!

 She was very enthusiastic about opening her presents, and went from gift to gift pulling out tissue paper, looking at the gift, then telling her friends "thank you" as I pointed out who got the present for her!

 Her two 'bigger' gifts included a tricycle from her Nanny and Papa and a wagon from us.

 We took the wagon to the backyard, and Brylee was not too pleased that the goat jumped right in! I think she was more worried about her baby she just put in the wagon than the wagon itself.

 One of the funniest things of the weekend was the relationship between this goat and our dog. After a few "get-to-know-me" moments, these two became great friends and chased each other around the yard!

 We had such a great day, and want to thank everyone who helped us celebrate Brylee's birthday! Now we head to my family's house to celebrate Thanksgiving and Brylee's actual birthday next Friday! I can't believe I have a two year old!