June's 2nd Birthday Party

I'm only two months late posting about June's birthday party! Really, it was pretty low-key, we had Rebecca and Brandon over and the Thalmans. Though, whenever you add a few extra people to our small house it quickly feels very boisterous. June loved the attention and having other kids to play with. She really loves Abby Thalman, who's seven and the perfect age to give June absolute attention and control and enjoy herself while doing it.

We had spaghetti for dinner because it's easy to make, a pretty standard crowd pleaser, and I can't remember what else. I made this amazing chocolate cake that my friend introduced me to. It is definitely the best chocolate cake in the history of chocolate cakes. She brought it over to our house when Willa had surgery and I got the recipe and have been making it ever since. The density, the moisture, the chocolate-yness. It's perfection. It's also super easy. It's a Betty Crocker cake mix that contains pudding in the mix, an additional box of chocolate pudding mix, 1 1/2 c sour cream, four eggs, 1/2 c oil and 1/2 c water, and 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I do half semi-sweet and half milk). It's sooo easy and it's extremely delicious. For the frosting, I use the recipe on the back of the Hershey's cocoa powder box, which is so fudgy and good. I made it for a baby shower at Ryan's work and it's been the talk of the office ever since.

So, the cake was delicious and June knew just when to blow out the candles. She's such a different personality from Willa and not shy at all! In this picture, she's wearing a dress-up dress because all the girls were doing it and she wanted to too, which explains most of her life (wanting to do what the older kids are doing).

I should add that we already had a little mini-birthday for her at my mom's house the week before. We flew to Utah to take advantage one last time of the under two years old lap sitting policy. My mom made a cute butterfly cake.

Here's a short little clip of June getting into her new rocking chair. It's super short because I actually meant to be taking a picture, but it shows her exuberance for life!

Here's another short video of her singing "Happy Birthday" the next week in the car. She's pretty good at singing it now after her birthday and watching the Elmo's World birthday episode over and over.