Kennedy's 2nd Birthday

Kennedy turned two on Tuesday, November 23. We had a super fun and busy day with our sweet girl that started out with her waking up to green and purple (her choosen birthday theme) balloons all over her floor.

We then headed downstairs to open presents. Reagan received a couple too and was probably most excited about some new water color paints.

Kennedy absolutely loved blowing out her candles on her sprinkle donut from Krispy Kreme after we sang Happy Birthday. I don't even know how many times she had us sing and relight her candles Tuesday morning. She was so funny about it! lol :)

The girls just love to dunk their donuts in coffee (something Pop-A-Lops got them started on)

Back to singing "Happy Birthday" and blowing out the candles lol :)

The girls wanted to wave good bye to Daddy with their new Rapunzel dolls

After we got ready for the day the girls decided to try out their new water colors on some of their big fairy and princess coloring pages

The girls thought popping the balloons was super fun and funny

Kennedy pushing the Mayflower in for me to see

At storytime at Barnes & Noble everyone sang Happy Birthday to Kennedy and she stood on the little stage as proud as punch of herself. She's been so shy lately it amazed me that she was that excited about everyone singing happy birthday to her. At our music class on Thursday mornings she puts her head down on the floor and cries everytime everyone sings "Hello Kennedy." I really wish I hadn't forgotten my camera in the van, she was so darn cute up there on that stage loving being 2!

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Even though everyone else used many different colors for their Indian feathers, Kennedy decided she wanted only 3 and only green feathers for her art project. She is a girl who knows what she wants! :)

After lunch we made playdough for something special on Kennedy's birthday. The girl's have gotten so good at following directions and helping out in the kitchen!

Kennedy, not surprisingly chose green (I knew it would be that or purple or brown) for her playdough

Kennedy moving her stool from the stove to the counter to add some flour and kneed her playdough so it's ready to play with. I believe when I took this picture she was telling me "very strong, very strong!"

Blowing on her "hot" playdough

The girls like for us to make cheese roll ups with their playdough and it was the first thing Kennedy asked me to make with her new playdough. So here the girls are checking out one enormous green cheese roll up. :)

Reagan hard at work on her new blue playdough

Reagan's fingers while kneeding the playdough

One big ball of blue play dough!

Kennedy was excited about her big green ball too! :)

Jackson was super happy and accomodating sleeping and smiling in his swing while the girls made their playdough. Can't wait for him to join in on our cooking fun! In the meantime thanks for being so patient sweet baby! :)

We met Daddy, Aunt Dorothy and Heidi at Chick-Fil-A for an informal birthday dinner with Peppermint milkshakes for the birthday girl. It was super fun and a nice way to end our sweet girl's day. Thanks to everyone who called and/or sent birthday wishes and gifts! Missy K felt very loved and special!

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Kennedy has to be the sweetest little girl on the planet! She is absolutely precious. She is a wonderful big and little sister. She is fantastic at sharing with her big sister and is so mothering, nurturing and caring for her little brother. Missy K is just a little doll!

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Kennedy's favorite color is brown. How weird is that? lol :) Her favorite toys are puzzles. It started with a clown puzzle my cousin Stacy and her family sent us when Jackson was born. Kennedy has carried that puzzle all over the house and everywhere she goes. She has since received several other puzzles and she loves putting them together over and over again. She does the best with puzzles around 12 pieces but we have a couple of 24 piece puzzles that she's pretty good at too. Kennedy also loves everything Mickey & Minnie Mouse as well as princesses. What can I say? We're a Disney family! :) She loves chocolate and I would say M&M's are her favorite candy (probably food too lol). She is a good little eater and eats everything from avacodos to olives and everything in between. She still takes an afternoon nap but I think she may give those up sooner than her big sister did. She is an excellent listener and a very good cooperater. Kennedy is also such a polite little girl and uses please and thank you all the time without having to be reminded. She is such a honey bear!

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Kennedy is so easy going. Right before her birthday one day she was starting to throw a fit. I told her if she wasn't nice she was going to have to sit in time out. She went and sat herself in a corner all on her own with some toys. A little while later I noticed her sitting there singing away to her toys. I had totally forgotten about her being naughty and was thinking how sweet she looked when she came up to me and with the sweetest and most pathetic voice told me "Control of myself, control of myself, control of myself." It made my heart melt. It was adorable and I told Tim later that I'm glad our parenting techniques are sinking in with at least one of our children! lol :)

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Missy K is a little clown. She will do about anything for a laugh whether it's bumping into a table repeatedly or just telling everyone "silly!" or "funny!" She cracks herself and everyone else all the time. lol :) The other day we were talking about Reagan and Kennedy's middle names. Tim asked if they knew my middle name. Kennedy very seriously answered "Mommy Lommy" (we frequently rhyme and warp words in our house and that is something I'm called). We laughed and so Kennedy proceeded with telling everyone their middle names. She was quite certain Daddy's middle name was "Tim" and Reagan's was "Ragle Bagle!" Not too long after that Reagan was talking about what she wanted to be when she grows up and Kennedy annouced she wanted to be "Yellow!"

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While she might be a clown she's not a performer when it comes to demonstrating what she knows. There have been many times when I hear her playing by herself and saying something I didn't realize she knew. She knows her colors, letters, and many of her letter sounds but many times if you ask her something she doesn't even pay attention and you can tell she's just saying the first thing that pops into her head. We have been using the "Your Baby Can Read" program with Kennedy and she can read and recognize a number of basic words and has fun "helping" animals find their words. She can also count to 10 pretty well and most frequently does so while playing Hide and Seek - a favorite game in our house.

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Kennedy is a little talker. Having a big sister who talks a lot hasn't stopped her from contributing her two cents at all! lol :) She narrates everything she does all day long, it is so cute. One of her most frequent phrases is "another one" fill in the blank. For example when she finds more than one paci she'll tell us "Nother one paci, nother one paci!" Or if she's eating something she'll tell us "Nother one piece of cheese" etc.

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I would say Kennedy is the easier of our two girls 95-99% of the time but boy let me tell you that other 1-5% of the time watch out! She is one stubborn and determined little girl and once she has dug in her heals there is absolutely no reasoning with her. One day at the bookstore she was upset about something in the front of the store so I just started to walk away. Even if Reagan would be unhappy with me she would always come running after. Kennedy just stood in the front of the store and screamed. I daresay if I hadn't eventually decided to go back and get her she'd still be standing in the same spot screaming today. lol :)

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Missy K is little miss independence. While she knows her name is Kennedy she most frequently refers to herself as "self." We hear "Self do it" or "Self, self, self" pretty much all day long. And she's right, if given the time "self" can do pretty much anything she sets her mind too. The other night Tim was moving her back on to her bed in the middle of the night and she started exclaiming "self, self, self!" Even in a dead sleep she is determined she can do it all by herself! lol :)

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If anyone has a story they'd like to share about our sweet little girl, I'd love for you to share it with us in the comments. I love to hear from you in general and especially on their birthdays it would be awesome to hear your favotite stories!

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We love you Missy K, and can't wait to see how you grow over the next year! :)