Happy Birthday Amora!

My sweet angel turned 2 recently, and we had a great time celebrating. We had a jungle themed party because she absolutely loves animals (I figure we'll be doing princess parties for the next few years, so I wanted something different). Among our guests were 7 children and 4 adults. Adam's main job was documenting everything on camera, and he did great. Now I have plenty of photos to share with all of my diligent readers (all two of you). :)

I let Amora choose between two cake designs: a tiger or a monkey. She chose the tiger and was quite satisfied with her choice. She is still talking about her tiger cake. I found a picture online and modified it. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out.


Here's the birthday table with her gifts, cake, and decorations. Each child got to take a fake bug home with them at the end of the party. It was an inexpensive party favor but well received by the children.


The first activity was coloring a jungle picture. I tried to keep things fun and simple so it wouldn't be too chaotic. And what two year old doesn't love to color?


Here are a few of her friends enjoying the coloring action as well.


The next activity was a "feed the monkey" bean bag toss. I maxed out my craftiness on this one by making the bean bags and the monkey box. It was a hit! For Amora's first turn, she grabbed a bean bag, walked over to the box, and dropped it in. She then got the hang of throwing it in and loved that as well. The other kids were also very engaged in this activity.


Then it was time to dig into the cake Amora was lusting after all afternoon. She loved getting sung to. I occasionally will hear her singing "Happy birthday dear Amora..." What can I say? It stuck. I made an orange cake with lemon frosting that was delicious. My only regret was that most of it went to waste after the party because we left town again.


And lastly, we opened gifts. This was much more fun than last year because Amora really knew what was going on. I tried to be very conscious of giving her time to open each gift while still maintaining the attention of the other children.


She received many fun gifts: books, puzzles, a FurrReal kitty, a baby doll that cries, hair clips, and a bedding set (and quite a few more). Thanks to friends and family for joining in on this celebration. Amora loved all of her gifts and is so happy to be two!