Birthday Splash!

Since the sprayground has become one of the most popular summer attractions for the girls, it was the natural choice for hosting their joint birthday party. Wednesday, the 18th turned out to be the perfect day for playing in the water. Temperatures crept up near 100 degrees (oh, humanity!)and the water spraying down was lukewarm--not goosebumps cold nor sauna hot. While, for some unknown reason, Cara was not that into splashing around, Caitlin had the time of her life and told everyone she ran into that it was her birthday today. In fact, when we first got there, she just had to go around and show the other little girls her birthday dress (a yellow flower print dress with an overlay that my mom made) and twirl around for them.
After Caitlin had enough fun running and splashing (and was chilled to the core), we headed over the our picnic shelter and began to grill hot dogs. There's something about BBQing outdoors that makes everything taste better...maybe it's the grill marks on the dogs but, the hot dogs were awesome along with the salads and chips.
After everyone was full, it was time to open presents. Of course, this was the part that Caitlin had been waiting for, rather impatiently, days. She was jumping up and down and smiling real big with anticipation while her Grandpa and I brought the presents over from our cars. Her enthusiam showed for each and every present she opened--exclaiming over each one.
Cara joined in the festivities from her stroller giving us big grins when we presented her with present upon present. Big sister helped her unwrap them, of course. While she got some great gifts, Cara was much more fasinated by the ribbons on her packages and the bright paper than the gifts themselves, at least until they were out of the boxes and she could play with them.
Both girls were spoiled pretty darn rotten by their parents and grandparents. One of my favorite gifts was a family membership to the Children's Museum of Denver. I love the fact that we can now go whenever we want, for how long we want without spending $14+ each time. We've already been once and both girls had a jolly good time. We even get the scoop on special members-only events and new exhibits. I cannot wait to get our money's worth out of the membership, especially during the winter.
After opening gifts, Mother Nature decided to grace us with her windy presence, blowing everything (including Cara in her stroller) all over the place. We had to quickly pack up and move the celebration back to our loft.
Once there, we lit the candles upon the Dora the Explorer and Care Bears cakes, sang "Happy Birthday" times two and let the girls dig in. Cara had the most fun with her piece, slurping up every last bite. She was quite a mess and promptly got a bath which filled the bottom of the tub with candy confetti. Caitlin's favorite part of the cake was the icing. I was so tempted to just by the kid a tub of whipped frosting, put a candle on top and call it a done deal!
After cake & ice cream was eaten and enjoyed, my parents retired to their hotel room and the girls wound down (or up) by playing with some of their new toys. The popular favorite was Cara's Bounce & Spin Zebra from Mommy & Daddy. Both girls had fun riding on it.
All in all, it was a great day! The girls really had a blast and were so happy to see their grandparents to boot.

**Oh, I wanted to brag, just a bit. Cara's cake was the $6 WalMart special. I had them write on it for me, for free. Then, after searching around the store without success for some Care Bear figurines, I came back to pick up the cake and asked if I could purchase on of the Care Bears cake top decorations that they had. The bakery manager disappeared and then returned with two sets (4 bears total) and asked me which I wanted. Being the budget conscious person that I am, I asked how much they were and she said, "Go on, take them, they're free!" Both of them, all four bears for free! Score! I think Cara's cake looked good, if I do say so myself. FYI--Caitlin's cake was from Target and I think they have the best marble cake with buttercream frosting ever!