Sunday was a wonderful day for the Rubin family as we celebrated Faye’s 2nd birthday.  Grandma Cathy drove all the way from Georgia after only 2 short weeks away, and Grandpa Jerry drove in from Philly because he just couldn’t miss another birthday.

After such a long and difficult few months, we really wanted to make this birthday fun and exciting for all.  We ordered a castle shaped moon-bounce which provided lots of entertainment for Faye’s friends.  Unfortunately, Faye preferred watching from outside the castle to actually going in it.  In fact, she was terrified of the thing.  Fortunately we had lots of other activities for her to enjoy, like giant bubble wands and decorating sugar cookies with colored icing and sprinkles.  With all of these activities in her back yard, we had to laugh when Faye still preferred sitting in her good ol’ swing.  What can we say, she’s a girl who enjoys the simple things in life.

I had to back out of making a huge cake this year, and decided on Elmo cupcakes instead.  I think Faye got her fill of sweets with her sugar cookie and the spoonfuls of icing she ate while decorating it.  I will put lots of captions on the photos so be sure to take a look at the album.

Faye woke up to a big surprise this morning.  Since she has been such a trooper through everything with Sonia, we really wanted to make her second birthday a big deal.  Her party is still to come, but soon after we returned from Philadelphia, I started construction on the ultimate kitchen set for Faye.  Shannon added some nice finishing touches with her stamping supplies.  We finished it up last night and set it all up in her play area so she would be surprised when she got up.

Shannon got her up and I was ready and waiting with the full gamut of cameras (video and still).  As we had hoped, Faye was thrilled.  You can see all the pictures in the photo gallery.  Her big birthday blast will be this Sunday and we are all looking forward to it.

We’re really missing Sonia these days, so it is really good for us to put our energy into something positive.  Faye has been so wonderful through all this and whether she knows it or not she has helped us through the tough times.  Making this birthday special for her is also our way of saying thanks to our little sweetie.

Where has the time gone?  Faye turned one this month.  It doesn’t seem all that long ago that we were heading to the hospital.

We had a wonderful celebration for her birthday.  Friends and family came from near and far to celebrate with us.  The highlight of the day was the cake eating (and particularly the pudding that went along with it).  Faye has been on a very nutritious diet until now, so this was her first real exposure to sweets.  While we didn’t get quite the reaction we had expected from her first taste of pure sugar, she did manage to have her way with all the mushy substances.

One of her playmates, Ava, is only a few days apart in age, so she got into some of the pudding action.  You really have to see the pictures to appreciate the event.  Check out the album here.  We had over 200 photos from the party.  Narrowing down the very best for the website was a difficult task.  Enjoy!