Aurora's Totally Awesome Birthday Carnival Party!!

So, I may have gone a little overboard on Aurora's birthday party this year. I had a little extra money coming in and it seemed like every time I thought about what I was going to do, I had yet another idea that I thought would be fun. The party was carnival themed and I had a bunch of activities planned for the little ones... unfortunately most of them couldn't make it. Oh well, Aurora had enough fun for everyone! Next year I may have to tone it down a bit, but I have to admit I really liked putting everything together. It was exhausting but super fun.
As usual, the pictures speak for themselves...
Enjoy!

Presents for the birthday girl from mama.

Treat Boxes!

Decorations!

Duck Pond! (I was pretty proud of this idea!)

"Concession Stand!"

A few more highlights of my handy work and Aurora enjoying the results.

She wouldn't even keep the clown nose on long enough for a picture!

Woo-hoo, presents!!

Aura's Build-a-Bear Snowman from Auntie Rachel!

Happy Biiiiirthdaaaaay!

Mmmm.

Hanging out IN the duck pond post-party, of course.

Oh, and also.... We. Are. Dorks.

Aurora is TWO years old!!!!

My, how time has flown. I feel like just yesterday Aurora was a teeny little bean who couldn't even lift her head. Today it's hard to imagine that she's the same girl. Last week was Aurora's 2nd birthday!! We celebrated on her actual birthday (Friday) by going to the Children's Museum and then we had her carnival themed birthday party on Sunday. I'll have to make a separate post later for the party since there are a TON of pictures to sort through first. Here's a peek at our trip to the museum for now:

Still loves the giant Lite Brite!!

Our visit with Estrella the chair lady went much better this time haha!

Thanksgiving!

We went to Nana Poo's for Thanksgiving again this year. We had a blast as usual, but it was crazy to see Aurora running all over the house and playing with things, making fish faces and pointing at their big fish tanks and sitting in a big chair eating with a fork. What a difference one year makes!!

Last Year...

This Year!

Thanksgiving then and now:

2011

2012 - What a difference one year makes!!!

Halloween!!!!! (Sorry so late!)

Oh boy has it been a busy few weeks. Halloween and my birthday are so close together that it always takes me awhile to recover. This year I had an amazing idea for Aurora and I to dress up together but I couldn't make it happen in time, so I'm gonna hold onto it for next year. Get ready to be blown away though! This year, I went with something a little simpler. Aurora still doesn't eat candy or sweets so trick or treating is still a long way off. I knew that our only chance to show off her costume would be our neighborhood party, so spending a ton seemed silly. Plus I wanted something I could recycle for another idea I had. Soooo..... Aurora was a rag doll this year, she was still a huge hit!!

The party we went to had a trebuchet to launch pumpkins in the air!

Ready... Set....

GO!!

Aurora saw her first police horses up close!

So curious about everyone...

Clapping for the ladies who were playing music!!

Costume parade around the park!

The one and only time I got her to sit still for a picture.

Silly face!

Oh, did I mention I was a doll too? Yeah, that happened.

Hope everyone else had a great Halloween!! <3 p="p">

What we've been up to lately....

Aurora is getting so big and is really becoming her own little person these days. It's beautiful and exhausting at the same time! So, what's new? Aurora dances... all the time. She sings little gibberish tunes. She's obsessed with the video of the baby who dances to Beyonce and yells "Baby, Uh-Oh-Oh-Oh" every time she's near a computer. She likes water beads and 'coloring' and play dough. She loves to point at cars and yell "Vrooooom!". She gets excited for rides on the 'bus-bus'. She can drink out of an open cup (in small amounts), she eats with a fork (when she has the patience), she brushes her teeth almost all by herself. She knows when her diaper is dirty and she understands what the potty is (thought we haven't officially tried it yet). She knows SO many words, even if she says them silly. It's baffling to me when I think about what she could do just a short year ago... which was none of those things. When people say 'It goes fast', they mean it. I have no idea where the time went. We're already planning for birthday number two, it's mind-blowing.

Painting with water at Hasboro's Big Backyard!

Fishin'!!

Getting a closer look...

She loved this giant wooden xylophone!

Check out this awesome treehouse they have for the kids to explore!

Aurora tried pizza for the first time, she'll get the hang of it eventually...

All dressed up for brunch with her grandparents.

Coloring!!!

My teeny little bean has officially sprouted into a big bean stalk!

Dating, and Why I Suck at It, Pt. 2

Oh hey there, you may remember my original Dating and Why I Suck at It post from earlier this year. Well, things didn't work out with that guy, after all. No hard feelings, at all, he's a great guy. We were just two very different people and I think we both wanted different things. As far as breakups go, it was probably my easiest and least traumatic. Anyway, single Angela has a whole different set of issues.
Like last time, I totally understand if you're just here to see cute pictures of Aurora, here are a few to tide you over until my next family-related update. This is Aurora playing with water beads. She's obsessed. I actually bought them in bulk, so if you're in the market for some, I'm your girl.

Um... then this happened.

Hi there. I'm ridiculous.

Ok, still with me? Last chance, this is about to venture into rant territory.
So, I've been officially single again for a couple months now. I've been attempting to go out more often and reconnect with some people, but between mom life, school life and social life I'm starting to feel like three separate people lately. I'm not looking to dive into another relationship right away, I think I'm probably too busy to juggle one right now anyway. I would like to date more, though. For the first time in a LONG time, I'm totally 100% available, and not by choice. Usually, if I'm single it's on purpose, because I need to be and if I'm not, there's at least someone for me to spend time with, unofficially. I guess, what I'm trying to say is, I'm starting to feel a little lonely. During the day, I don't notice it because I have Aurora and tons of things to do. Nighttime is a different story, especially when I finish my schoolwork and my roommate is out or busy. I miss having someone around.
So anyway,  I've been trying to get back out there. Not looking for anything in particular, just seeing what's out there. The answer is: NObody. I think I forgot that this town is horrible for dating in. Everyone knows each other and everyone's business and I've already dated most of the people I've ever cared to. I also seemed to have forgotten that Single Angela is kind of an idiot. I have this bad habit of developing crushes on multiple people at the same time. I think I'm juggling like, six, at the moment. Ok, it's not really a bad thing, and they're mostly harmless. However, the bad part is, these crushes are almost without exception completely unavailable. For instance, at the moment two are in relationships, one married and one is... well, I don't know what that one is yet, but he's certainly not available. The others are pretty half-hearted and probably won't amount to much.
So, here's where I tell you another reason to add to the list of why Angela sucks at dating. Last night, I had a date. Well, I should have had a date. However... I didn't go and I told him we would have to reschedule (but I probably won't). Why, you ask? Because this guy doesn't drink and before the date I was stupid and decided to hang out at my favorite bar with one of my unavailable crushes.
I had a date.
I blew him off.
I.  AM.  AN.  IDIOT.
I didn't blow off the date to stay at the bar, at least I can feel good about that, I guess? I left with every intention of meeting up with this guy. But when I got halfway there I started re-evaluating things, mainly the fact that I had like 5 drinks and that's not the best first impression on a sober guy. Two, this guy is super sweet and very good looking... but I don't think there's much of a spark there. We don't really have very good conversations, I like to laugh, it's not too hard to make me laugh, and I don't think that's happened once with him. The last time I tried to make something like that work anyway, it didn't. I was having more fun at the bar and as the time to leave got closer, I realized that I wasn't looking forward to the date at all. Maybe it was just crush-proximity, but that's probably a bad sign, right? At the same time, should I really be passing up dates with nice, handsome men when I just clearly stated a few paragraphs ago that I've been feeling lonely?
See? Single Angela is a mess.
Please help.