Papa, Mama, Greta and Therese: Greta Turns Two!

Yesterday Greta got an early birthday present from Grandpa Paul: a red wagon! She was also pretty distracted by the balloons I put in it...

It's been a rainy couple of days here...but we did manage to go on a wagon ride to pick up cinnamon rolls for breakfast yesterday, and then this afternoon we got all dressed for the rain and went around the neighborhood in the wagon. She LOVES it! Today she even laid down in it as the rain fell on her :-)

Greta is really into the alphabet and can name the majority of the letters as well as come up with words that start with particular letters (yes, her parents think she's a real smarty!) So...we got her some magnetic letters for the fridge and spelled out Happy Birthday Greta Bess with them yesterday--which is when we first began celebrating her birthday. At this point I still consider April 3rd and April 4th as her special days, since she spent much of April 3rd trying to come out 2 years ago :-)

In the afternoon yesterday Adda (Grandpa) Dan and Grandma Linda arrived for a visit. They brought with them many presents from Great Grandma Hope and Great Grandpa Harry, as well as from Nana Judy and Grandpa Hans. It was like Christmas! There were so many gifts for Greta to open, as well as presents for her baby sister who will soon be here. I had to wake Greta up from her nap for this because she fell asleep SUPER late after playing in her bed for over 2 hours (she fell asleep at 4:30!!!) but she soon cheered up when she saw her special visitors and all the presents they had brought.

Hanging out in the wagon.
Fortunately we have a large laundry room in our building where we are allowed to store our stroller...so the wagon will go in there as well!

Last night we went to the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company for a pizza dinner. On Sunday nights children can go back in the kitchen and make their own pizzas! This was Greta's first time trying this.

Putting mango on...I've never tried this on pizza but Greta was sure grateful for it. Once her pizza was cooked she ONLY ate the mango!

Today was her actual birthday, and she woke up to ANOTHER big present out in the living room (she may be a little disappointed tomorrow morning!) Matthew and I got her a balance bike. She has been a little tentative on it so far, but by the end of the day was gutsy enough to do a lot of practicing with getting on and off of it and even pushing herself around on it a tiny bit.

She saw Papa using a wrench to lower the seat and awhile after he was done she picked it up and decided to do a little handiwork on her bike as well.

Dancing while Adda Dan sings! And playing her bells from Nana Judy--she loves her new bells!

The blanket on the floor was a gift for baby sister...Greta LOVES how soft it is and spent a lot of time covering Matthew up in it today :-)

She likes wearing her helmet!
Greta had a blast playing with Adda Dan and Grandma Linda. They even joined her for Gym and Sing--and everyone at Gym and Sing sang Happy Birthday to her too! She has grown to really love that song today :-)

Dad and Linda left when Greta went down for a nap today.
Our friends were going to come over this afternoon, and they have a little girl a little older than Greta, as well as a baby. Greta and the little girl, Lilly, are good friends. Unfortunately, Lilly got sick and they couldn't come over. We'll have her over later this week to celebrate with Greta--but for today the cake was just for the enjoyment of the 3 of us! (I think I enjoyed it the most...applesauce cake with butterscotch meringue frosting...YUM!!)