Two Year Portraits (Readers Digest Version)

For Rories two year pictures we decided to step outside of the box a little. Instead of doing the traditional portraits I had my friend Amber (who is an amazing photographer) go with us to McCartys Cove to take some more candid shots. Here are a couple of the over two hundred shots (!) we ended up with. We had a ton of fun and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do! If you want the rest of them you can check out my facebook page.

I got a little creative with the editing of this one...I love it!

The water was freezing but Rorie could not get enough. All three of us were soaked by the end of the shoot.

A silly shot

I love Rories Suprised face!

Smile

The only slide shot that wasnt a grimace. I really think that Rorie is an adrenaline junkie. She is fearless!

A Little Taste of Chicago Life

I am going to keep this short and sweet. I just wanted to let everyone know that we made it safe and sound to Chicago and are loving spending time with Jake. Hotel life has its drawbacks but on a whole it has been a great couple of weeks. Here are a couple of pictures:

Cookie Monster!

Handsome Boy!

Daddy is not feeling the love.

Rorie sliding at a park on base.

Swing!

Rorie Turns Two!

As hard as it is to believe this month marked Rories 2nd birthday! Since the weekend before her birthday also happened to be our last weekend in Marquette before we left for Chicago, we decided to have a big party with all of Rories friends at a local park.

The party was fish themed to honor Rories love of all things aquatic. A couple of weeks before her party I found an adorable goldfish table cloth while shopping at Target (I just love that store!) and the whole party grew from there. We had fish placemats, plates and cupcakes. We even had a fish bowl cake!

The weather couldnt have been better...except for the gail strength winds that kicked up shortly after the party started. One particularly strong gust kidnapped all 48 hand decorated cupcakes and proceeded to smash them to bits on the ground. I was disapointed to say the least, but my dad saved the day by running to the store for replacements. Other than a few other minor wind related incidents, the party was a great success. Rorie had a fun evening at the park with her friends and she got some amazingly thoughtful gifts.

Here are a few pictures of the big day:

My sister Ashley with her boyfriend Joe

Rorie in her Birthday outfit opening a present from Sammy.

Rorie's friend Eliza and her Dad, enjoying some Pizza.

Logan was pretty serious about his pizza consumption!

Sammy supporting a frosting mustache.

SLIIIIDDE!

Rorie really wanted to climb with the big kids.

The sad cupcakes...if you look closely you can see the dirt on them.

A "before" picture of the cupcakes...so cute...sigh.

The fish bowl cake. I was pretty proud of myself. The top started to melt a little but overall I thought it was a pretty good. Teva thought it was pretty cool too (note the dog nose in the bottom left corner).

I am so lucky to have such an amazing daughter and it was a blast helping her celebrate her special day. I hope that all of her birthdays can be this much fun!