Brinley's Birthday Festivities

We had such a fun weekend! We celebrated Brinley's birthday every day that my parents were here and it was so fabulous! Stupid me didn't leave any presents for her actual birthday!! Oops!

To keep this post void of tangents and randomness, I am going to write what happened each day! Remember, this is our family journal first and foremost.

Friday
With two doggies in tow, my parents arrived around 3pm on Friday afternoon. Ryan was due home from work about 4pm, so we just hung around and chatted. During this time, my mother pulled out many random things to pass onto me that she had laying around the house, and she totally included new plates, bowls, cups, spoons and forks from IKEA for Brinley (I love this part of her trips)!!! By the time Ry got home, Brinley was up from her nap, the doggies had been walked, and we were ready to go out for dinner. We had a great time at dinner, and when we got back, Grandpa and Ryan helped with bath while my mom and I jetted off to Target for some retail therapy! Yes please!

meet: Penny (L) and Sophie (R)

Her new baby doll from Auntie Chrissy. She loves it!

screaming with Grandpa!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday
We started off the day by opening some presents from Grandma and Grandpa Steele and Briggs. Brinley was loving the new Duplo she got from Grandma Steele. Brinley has also been picking her new Pillow Pet from Grandma Briggs for bedtime all week! While all this was going on, I was whipping up those fabulous Lemon Poppy seed Pancakes we can't stop making when we have guests. They were delish once again. Ryan was given two incredible season tickets for the game (perfect timing!) and of course he snatched them up and told my dad they had a different man outing besides golf. My mother and I agreed that it was golf OR the football game, not both. They were fine to ditch the golf! The game was a total blow out against NC State (sorry Wolfpack!) so by the 3rd quarter they were ready to go. They definitely ate "stadium food" and loved every second. My dad learned the War Chant and really enjoyed the atmosphere of the wild Seminoles!!

opening Grandma Steele's gifts. She loved the unwrapping process!

Opening Grandma and Grandpa Briggs' gifts! She loved the Pillow Pet Ladybug! 

breakfast. YUM! Her new special plates from the Marcum's!

After the game on Saturday, we headed to our favorite park. We took the doggies because the park has a great dog park section. Brinley had a blast playing around the playground and running around. She rarely gets the opportunity to go to parks because of our schedules and me babysitting during the day, so she was runnnnning around the entire time.

For dinner, Ryan cooked us Spicy Turkey Burgers that were to die for. Of course we had the Sriracha Mayo that we love so much. Grandpa and Brinley were two little peas in a pod. She loved doing tricks with Sophie. She is such a good helper. We ended the night with a movie marathon watching The Good Witch movies on The Hallmark Channel. Totally cheesy, but fun to watch.

Sunday
We had our normal Church routine which consisted of Brinley taking all the contents out of Grandma's purse, a minor meltdown in the foyer, consuming 2 packages of fruit snacks, and all of us stealing her Cheez-its. Thankfully, she took a great Sunday nap while all of us relaxed. The tradition in my house growing up was to have Goulash for dinner on Halloween, but since I wanted Brinley's birthday to be not Halloweenie this year, we made it for Sunday. We cooked it in the crock pot this time, and it turned out great!

before church. 

Of course with Sophie too :) Isn't my mama a hottie? She does NOT look like a Grandma!

Monday

(happy birthday Brin!)

 It was basically back to normal schedule on Monday. Ryan had school all day, my dad had a work thing in the afternoon, and I went back to babysitting. Poor Brinley had her 2 year check up that I had to fit in since my mom was able to watch the baby, but fortunately for her, she is all caught up on her shots! I think she weighs somewhere between 24-26 pounds. She was not happy with the nurse or doctor. We had a great day just lounging and preparing for Brinley's party later. We decided to not Trick or Treat this year and just focus October 31st on Brinley. She is still so small that I think she will really enjoy going next year.

lounging on her birthday. I made that shirt too!! 

Right when Ryan got home from school and work, him, my dad and Brinley headed off to this great park close to our house for a couple hours. While they were gone, my mom and I cleaned the house, prepared dinner, made the ice cream cone cupcakes for Brinley, and got her decorations positioned perfectly!

park time! 

going down the slide with daddy!

The lighting outside was so perfect we had to get pictures taken. So, off we went...outside our front door! I think they turned out really nice.

official pictures

smooches

Cute!

Here are the decorations! I tied balloons to her highchair and we had some hanging from the dining room light fixture. I could tell she loved it because it was all set up when they got back from the park. She really did notice all the decorations! She kept saying, "Happy Birthday to meeee!"

the birthday party set up

The fabulous (and super easy) dinner! The Autumn Chopped Salad I pinned a few weeks ago. We added chicken and cut out the bacon, subbed walnuts for pecans, and only used the creamy poppy seed dressing instead of the vinaigrette.

the spread

She didn't like us singing to her!! She just started saying NO WAY!!!!! This picture makes me laugh!

 Funny!!

enjoying our ice cream cone cupcakes! 

We always have such a fun time with my parents, and I attribute a lot of that with how well Ryan gets along with them. He really is grafted into my family perfectly and my parents treat him just like he was their own son; with Canadian sarcasm and all! Love you Brinley boo!!!

Can you believe this was Brinley a year ago!!!???? She has changed SO much! Plus, on her first birthday she had zero teeth. Now she has 12 teeth!!! and in the process of cutting her 4 canines! Go girl!

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last year birthday weekend