a berry special party for Karina

On Saturday (December 28) Karina turned TWO!!!! We had a big day of celebrating our berry special little girl with a strawberry party.

Karina LOVES strawberries. They have been one of her very favorite foods since we brought her home (which was on December 28, 2012 so we were also celebrating one awesome year at home with our sweet little girl). And strawberries are one of the main things painted in traditional Russian khokhloma painting so it seemed like the perfect theme for her birthday party!!!

We started the morning with blowing out candles on her donut "cake."

And plenty of hugs from her brother and sister . . . and lots of squeezes and kisses from mama and daddy too.

Some were not appreciated as much as others . . . but that's what brothers are for, right? :)

At lunchtime we headed to McDonald's for Karina's first Happy Meal. She really likes French fries and burgers.

We finished decorating. Here are some of the decorations. I'm not super crafty but thanks to Pinterest I have a lot of fun crafting and figuring out ways to celebrate the kids' birthdays and Karina's was pretty fun. I could be as girly as I wanted for once!!!

 

 

strawberry bunting from scrapbook paper (Addyson and Braden had fun helping with this and I was so glad to see them want to help love on their sister and work with me - added bonus for sure!!)

 

 

You can't have a party without cake!! And cupcakes!!!

 

 

The cake looked and tasted like a strawberry!! Yum-yum as Karina would say!!

 

 

 

 

 

Garland on the stairs made out of burlap, fabric, pom-poms, lace, and ribbons. Ryan may or may not have had to help me craft. He can tie a mean knot and I was slow to learn. Apparently I need help on all of my crafting. Thankfully my family likes to pitch in.

 

 

happy birthday banner made with burlap and paint and some of the scrapbook paper strawberries

 

These are kind of hard to see in the picture but they are red balloons made to look like strawberries (green tissue paper leaves and drawn on with black sharpie for the seeds)

 

Fun vintage trays from my Grandma Dyck and her green mason jar. It was fun to pull out some of her stuff to use for the party. It fit so perfectly!!!

 

 

We opened up Karina's gift from Russia - we picked up things when we were there so she could have something each birthday until she is 18. Nothing huge but just something. At this point it means more to us than to her but hopefully someday she will be glad to have them. And if not that's ok too.

 

It was definitely an emotional day. We wondered how Karina might do - having spent 6 days in a row celebrating Christmas with family and then right into her birthday. But as I suspected she rocked it. She was in awe of everything on her birthday from the streamers daddy had on her door first thing in the morning until she got tucked in late at night.

Karina really is awesome and loves to be around people and celebrate and she hardly skipped a beat. In the morning she seemed a little sad and distant. But I have to say my heart felt the same. I thought of her birth mama and family a lot that day. Even more than usual. So thankful for a mama that gave her life. But I can only imagine what she is feeling today. And many times as we marveled at the sweet little girl God has allowed us to call ours I just ached for all that her birth family has missed out on . . . and what Karina lost too. It's a whole big mix of very sad and very happy and wanting to celebrate our wonderful blessing all wrapped up in one big package of mixed up emotions. Knowing that our blessing only came because of so much hurt. Something I can't really put into words but a feeling that I know all my adoptive mama friends feel over and over again (and I'm so thankful for their understanding the things I can't even explain!!)

Soon it was party time and guests started arriving for supper! We were so thankful for those that showed up - we know having a Christmasy birthday makes birthday party planning hard. There will most likely always be those that can't come even though they wish they could.

We had some of Karina's favorites for supper.

Strawberry kool-aid to drink from mason jars and fun straws -

 

Barbecue meatballs, green bean casserole, all her favorite fruits (strawberries, blueberries, and grapes), bread and strawberry jam, and strawberry jigglers.

 

Here she is showing you she is TWO. She uses her thumb and pointer finger so it looks like she's shooting you. Nice. We tried to do it the "correct way" but this is her go to instead. Man I love her :)

 

 

Then it was time for presents!!! She was definitely practiced up from all the Christmas presents!!

 

And Addyson and Braden were having a tough time not being in the spotlight. Sharing the same birthday with your twin is apparently much more fun than being in the background for your little sister's birthday which she gets all to herself. Oh my. Addyson was pretty much on her lap opening all her presents. And she helped her figure out how to use them too - especially the piano from her friend Mika. It's all of the kids' favorite at the moment :)

 

 

She loved the puppy purse I found for her. Even more than I expected. I was so thrilled that I have learned to really know my little girl over the last year. Because for her birthday last year I didn't have a clue what she liked to eat or play with or pretty much anything important about her. Amazing how far we've come in a year. Oh the little things that are important to a mama's heart . . . . like girly sequiny puppy purses.

 

She hugged her matryoshka bank.

 

She really loved all her gifts. So wonderful to watch her have fun. And be loved on.

 

Then it was time for cake and ice cream!!!

 

 

She blew those candles right out!!

And dug right in to that yum-yum ice cream!!!

Happy birthday (or happy day as Karina told us over and over that day) Karina Nichole. We love you more than words can say and we can't imagine our lives without you. You have made our family so, so much more awesome. We are so glad that God made you. And we were privileged to get to celebrate your birthday with you. Thanks for making life so fun.