Mira Turns Two

She's not a baby any longer -- Mira is now two years old.  Melissa is following the family tradition that she grew up with of making birthdays into rather low-key family get-togethers.  We started off at Chuck E. Cheese's to let the girls enjoy some simple rides and games.  Mira hadn't wanted to get up from her nap to come, so she was a bit quieter than usual.

The carousel was cute but not too exciting.

Race car driving with Daddy.

Going up.

Going down.

Melissa was very competitive that night.  There was basketball against Rob...

....Water guns against Danica.....

...and Skee ball against Danica and Clay.

We thought the simulator was one of the better deals because it was one of the longer "rides" -- but not terribly scary (it didn't even have seatbelts).

Mira took the opportunity to do a little relaxing.

Despite the strange expression on her face in this picture, this actually was one of her favorite rides.

Just before leaving, they checked out the blue screen (to pretend they were on television).

Danica looks pretty scary with the green pointy teeth she chose with the points she won on the games.

Then we headed back to their apartment to open gifts and eat pizza.

The chalkboard is also one of her gifts, but it was too big to wrap.

She's really into monkeys right now, so we got her some Curious George coloring books and stickers, to go along with the big Curious George she got from her family.

Anything in there?

She loved all her presents, including this Elmo DVD.

Now that she has her own Curious George, hopefully she won't keep trying to steal Grandma's.

Mira is happy to share with her sister.

This "quiet book" will be very helpful at church.

Her Rice Krispies Treats "cake".

Danica appointed herself as the official cake cutter.

George is borrowing Mira's highchair and hat.

Danica (the artist in the family) made a birthday card for her Uncle Neil.

Here's the inside, which she thought up and wrote all by herself.

Since we had to wait for the pizza to cook, we ate dessert first -- the birthday "cake" and a very yummy dessert that Mandi made.  I was almost too full to eat the pizza by the time it was done, but I'll never turn down a piece of pizza!