and so to bed. Talk about being dog-tired!

My party is over and I had the best time. I didnt cry once and I played so hard that I don't believe I've ever had a more fun time ever! I am one lucky little girl.

Being two is terrrrrific!

OLIVE! C'mon down and help us play! Hmmm...I think Ollie is getting tired. She was such a good puppy all day. I think that she deserves to be the Station Master on the Island of Sodor. She is very good at directing the trains...I know this because she has a train bandana on.

My very own train table!!! Holey cow! This is the best! How did you know that I loved trains so much?

I have Emily and Lady and Henry and Gordon and Annie and Clarabel...oh my gosh. This is supercalifragilistic....you know the rest!

I could play and play and play for hours! C'mon guys, help me make the island of Sodor. My table has a roundhouse, and power station (Mummy says it's geothernmal because it's safer energy), a crane, trees...oh wow!

C is for cakey, that's good enough for me
C is for cakey, that's good enough for me
C is for cakey, that's good enough for me
Cakey cakey cakey cakey cakey!
(sung to the tunes of the cookie monster song)

I got to blow out my candles...there were more than two but thats okay...Daddy said it was for dramatic effect...okay Daddy didnt say that, Mummy did. Daddy just went along with Mummy. That's how it works in our house sometimes.

AND CAKE THERE WAS!

Mummy wanted to make a Thomas cake but she knew her cake making abilities were...how should we say, limited. So she took an idea from my cousin Rhys's cake (a caterpillar) and turned it into the Chinese Dragon from Thomas the Tank Engine. I think it is quite wonderful! All that icing...mmmmmm.

I had sparkler candles too.

The table was set with lots of goodies. Mini hotdogs on a stick, pirate booty, grapes, chocolate fingers, carrots(yeah like they saw any action!)..and juice & milk boxes a plenty. It was a grand feast. We had pizza too. The grown ups had boring grown up food like spanakopita...what-the-kopita?? There were a lot of sticky hands...Mummy was definitely a bit paranoid. She made wipes, napkins and tissues available to all! Mummy is a 'bit like that'

There was so much food! I couldn't imagine eating anything else for days and days.

Unless of course there was CAKE!

I got dressed up in my engineer overalls & hat. I even had my own thomas the tank engine overalls and bandana. Call me stylish! I did draw the line at Thomas socks, as I thought it was important to wear my buzzy bee socks for good luck. Forget coordination, this is all about fun! Are they casting for Punky Brewster II?

Nana makes me laugh!

Well, On Saturday Nana Pam & Papa David came! They arrived at 2am! I was sleeping but Mummy & Daddy were awake. In the morning I got a huge surprise when Nana & Papa were at my house! They bought me some cool presents, I espcially love my new Dora umbrella! I feel like Mary Poppins. Mummy thought it was funny because when I opened the umbrella I said "Mary Poppins!", and then said "it's raining"

We spent most of the morning playing, Daddy was doing something 'fishy' in the playroom downstairs, and Mummy was at the store picking up things for my party. I didn't care because I got to play with my Super-grandparents!

Nana & Papa are so much fun. I went down for my nap like such a good girl. I knew I had to keep my energy up for the party. There was a rumor that there would be CAKE...do you realize how much I love that gooey stuff! Not to mention ICING...now thats like crazy awesome sugar!

This was my birthday when I was ONE, hmmmm...I got a Percy train on my first birthday, weird that I still like trains! There seems to be a theme going on. Maybe next year I'll be into fairies!

When you eat too much cake and cream you have what Mummy calls the 'night fidgets'...I guess I had them...I don't know why my jammies are unzipped and my pullup is opened?

Thankfully I was dry that morning, or things could have been a bit crazy!

I am what Mummy & Daddy call a 'messy sleeper', apparently Mummy is just the same way...we wake up in the morning and our bed and jammies are completely messed up. Thats why I like like the song about my hair having a party last night....

oh, my hair had a party last night
it must have got into a terrible fight
when my head hit the pillow it was lookin' alright
my hair had a party last night...
started out friendly but there must've been a fight
my hair had a party last night!

Thank goodness Piper is only two! Yesterday was her birthday, and thankfully she didnt really know that Mummy was feeling guilty because I had to leave at 6.50am to go to work, only seeing her for 5 minutes before jumping into the car!

As usual Daddy dropped Miss P off at school by 7.15am. Piper took her birthday CD to play in class, and a book to share - 8 animales bake a cake...they are doing Spanish at school!

I picked Piper up at 4.45 with an elmo balloon and a pretty card. She did not care for either.

When we got home we unwrapped one present...a pink leopardskin purse. After that no other present would suffice so we will wait until Saturday morning so that we can open all her Thomas stuff together.

We decided that despite a runny nose we would take Piper to the Cheesecake factory for dinner. We met up with Matt & Rachel and had a lovely dinner, although Piper had mostly bread and a large quantity of cake and whipped cream!!! She sang her songs all the way home, even though it was way past her bedtime!

It was a very regular, almost non-birthdayish day.

SATURDAY will be the BIG day. Hope the snotties have gone by then or I will have to put a kleenex in everyones favor bag!

Why was Mummy up until 12.30am? Making CD's for my party! Navigating her way through cd labeling programs and learning to download (with lots of help from Daddy)

I asked for all my very special favorite songs to be on my birthday cd. I am going to ask Mummy very nicely if she will make one to send out to my friends!

I had to make sure that out of 20 songs...8 were by my bestest most favorite artist...Justin Roberts! If I had it my way it would be 'All Justin, ALL THE TIME!"

When Mummy took the tree down I knew what I had to do...I ran and got my vacuum cleaner and turned it on and sucked up all the pine needles! There were a lot of them, Mummy helped me sweep most of them up and we vacuumed the straglers. I am a very good vacuumer! I do my chores every day! Mummy said I can start learning how to do windows next!

I cant believe it, we're getting ready for another birthday! This picture was taken last year on Piper's first birthday. On Thursday our little princess will turn two! Amazing! This year we are having a wee bit of a party.

What can I say...I'm all cowgirl!

You cant be serious! You want me to come down the stairs BY MYSELF! I absolutely can do no such thing! I will guilt you into coming to get me with my terrible two year old behaviour!

Piper...you aren't two until Thursday...please come down the stairs.

Auntie Tara, how does my 'seat' look? Do you think I should consider dressage or eventing?

This is the most fun I've had in about 15 minutes. I spent a good hour being towed around on this horse. Big Minnesotan kids are strong! Giddyup!

If you can't tell, I'm the little one in the purple dress at the front. Yep, good one Mummy and Daddy, move a teeny weeny little Chinese girl to Minnesota where the kids are 80 feet tall! Nice one!

Okay, so it might need a little bit of an explanation. Our neighbors are an Italian New Yorker/Nowegian Minnesotan blend...very very interesting and exciting! On the one side you have the culinary delights that come along with being Italian...lasagne, pastas, 'sauwces', you know...yummo! Then, the Minnesotan Norwegians become the 'entertainment' part of the night...right down to REAL viking history from Grandad Forseth! Funny, that looks just like my woolly around his waist...HEY..that is my woolly!

Grandad Forseth even plays the 'saw' with a violin bow...who do you know that can do that!

Okay, I'm ready to go visit the neighbors!

We were all invited to our friends accross the street for Christmas lunch. YAY! I just love it there! I love playing with the girls and their cousins.

I had a nap, I changed into my clothes...I'm ready for action.

...will there be candy there?

Olive got a Sally the Sheep toy to destroy.

Poor Sally, she really doesnt have much of a chance of survival. At least it will be swift.

DONE.

Seriously. Enough. Can't talk...sugar, excitement, toys...

DONE.

Ladies and Gentlemen, AKA Mummy & Daddy, "Chef Piper will be serving brunch in the conservatory in 20 minutes"

uh, we dont have a conservatory...

"Chef Piper will be serving brunch in the basement in 20 minutes"

When will those muffins be ready?

NO WAY!

YES WAY!

Grandad Pete and Nana Jocelyn gave me my very own retro pink kitchen! Now I know why I got all the cooking stuff! Nana Rosemary gave me an apron and chefs hat and lots of utensils to cook with. I also got an apron from Auntie Phyllis...so I can use one for cooking on the weekdays and one for the weekends.

So so so lucky.

Wow. I am officially spoilt.

Mummy and Daddy got me a dolly called Penny. She is very nice, she has striped orange and pink tights. I put her in my new shopping cart that I got from Nana Pam. My shopping cart goes really fast. Santa gave me a Dora tent, Olive and I love to go and hide in it! Penny is my new best non-canine friend.

Mummy showed me how to turn on my new vacuum cleaner, so now I can help her clean up! Auntie Tracey and Uncle Andrew sent it to me all the way from New Zealand! I got a toaster and a mixer and more jammies and books and an apron and hat and, and, and....pink cowgirl boots! I got the coolest puzzle with my very own name!

I'm very lucky. Daddy says it is important to give back as well, we made sure that we helped 'toys for tots' this year. We did 'toys for teens' too.

How did you know I wanted a fairy wand! B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T!

Can you guess what my very first wish will be?

I'll tell you on my birthday...it's a very very special wish...I need all the wish dust I can muster, my fairy wand and my birthday candle wish might just power up enough steam to make it come true.

Santa left me something....

I wonder what it is?

Stocking time!

I really do think I absolutely love Christmas.

My favoritey favorite new shoes! Purple is my very best color, if you didnt already know!

Cheers to the big guy in red.

Forget the presents...have you tried candy cane? It's amazing...aparently it's just sugar, I saw at least 12 canes on the tree but when I looked later they were all gone???? Curiously suspicious.
p.s. this is the first 'new camera' shot. Thanks to the generous gifts that made it possible to buy a new SLR camera! Now Mummy can actually get full shots of me before I flee!

On Christmas morn I awoke to such a surprise, Santa left a present for me!

Daddy & I snuggled under the blanket and watched TV. We played with all my old toys, because Daddy said I'd probably get some new ones in the morning. It was so exhausting that Olive & I had to lie down in the middle of playing. Christmas Eve is fun, but really tiring. I dont know how Santa does it! I was wiped out at 8pm and went to bed...and slept, and slept and slept.

On Christmas Eve we all opened one gift, as is tradition on Daddy's side of the family. Mummy & I got matching pajamas. We read 'the night before Christmas' thats a really good book to read on Christmas Eve. Well chosen Mummy. I got pretty excited because Santa was going to come down our chimney and deliver a toy. The upside is that I didnt have to sit on his lap!

TA DA

So Daddy and I decorated the tree. I was very careful with the ornaments. I especially liked the buzzy bee ones. They are from New Zealand. I loved the Dora the Explorer ones as well. My favorite Christmas decoration is the snow globe Aunt Phyllis sent me.