Our little one is officially 2 years old as of yesterday! How time flies.
We drove up to Sewickley, Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh) on Saturday to spend a week with Matt’s family for the Thanksgiving holiday, and it was fun to celebrate Riese’s birthday with them yesterday, too!
We hosted a birthday party at Matt’s parents place and invited a bunch of our friends (and their kids) who live in the area (or who were already in town for the holidays like we were).
Matt’s mom came up with this cute turkey craft for the kids:
And Matt made this fun “make a paper airplane and try to fly it through the holes” game, which Riese quickly figured out how to work around. 😉
We also had a ton of balloons, which are always a hit among kids of all ages!
For food, Matt’s dad made this awesome veggie turkey:
And we ordered pizza, and had two salads (green + fruit), plus some delicious lasagna Matt’s mom made. I ended up going back for more lasagna – it was so good!
For “dessert”, I kept it low key and made Riese’s favorite muffins (Simple Mills banana muffins + pumpkin muffins // affiliate links), and we put a “2” candle in one.
When she saw it she yelled “MUFFINNNN!!!” so I’d say it was a hit. 🙂
It was a fun night, although Riese was a little overwhelmed especially early on since there were suddenly so many people and lots of bigger kids running all over the place. I was a little overwhelmed, too, to be honest. 😉 Maybe I’m more introverted than I realize, ha!
Anyway, let’s rewind to Saturday!
Before we left DC, I met my friend Karen for an early run to shake out the legs – I was glad to get in some movement before sitting in the car forever! We did a hilly loop in northwest DC near her place – always fun to mix up the routes!
Matt and I decided to leave around 11 so that way we could get a bit of a drive in before stopping for lunch – we hit up a Panera along the way.
Riese did well in the car – she napped for awhile after lunch, and then was awake for a bit but in relatively good spirits with some snacks.
We arrived at Matt’s parents house around 5, which was nice so we had some time to relax and hang out before dinner, which was a delicious cedar plank salmon! The salmon was coated in a bit of maple syrup, whole grain mustard, and dill.
So good. It came out super tender, like my favorite Easy Baked Salmon recipe!
On Sunday morning, I met a couple friends who live in the area for a hot power yoga class at Salt in Sewickley.
The instructor wasn’t my fave (very monotone instructions and no music), but it was a quite challenging and sweaty class and it felt great to stretch after the long car ride the day before!
I had some leftover salmon and rice/veggies for lunch, and then we got ready for Riese’s shindig!
Matt is taking the week off work and we have some fun stuff lined up with family and friends. I’m planning to pop back in again on Wednesday with another update, and then on Friday with my Thanksgiving recap.
Have a great day, friends! And stay tuned for the 2 year toddler/mama update I mentioned – I’ll plan to share that next week when it’s ready. 🙂
And if you need some last minute inspiration… don’t forget to bookmark my Best Healthy Thanksgiving recipes post!
