party like a two-year-old

A few weeks ago we celebrated Lexi’s 2nd birthday.  If you couldn’t tell, it was a sailboat themed party.

Lexi’s other Aunt and I helped her mom plan this shin dig…and I must say we did a pretty darn good job!

We had quite a spread of food… and of course everything had to fit in with the theme. :)

   

The sweets table was a big hit too…surprise, surprise.  I took it as an excuse to make some sugar cookies with royal icing. :)

 

The birthday girl had a blast…which of course is the most important part!

 

As you can see, she dressed appropriately for the event (as did her teddy bear!).  I certainly learned my lesson – next year a photo session with the birthday girl needs to happen before the party begins…and before she gets into the cupcakes :)

But don’t worry, I’m planning a 2-year session with her soon, and I’m sure the sailor dress will make an appearance.

   

And I’m sure no one will be surprised at the gift Aunt Brooke gave Lexi…

  

Every 2 year-old needs their own camera! (and this Aunt clearly needed a higher shutter speed for this picture…)

I learned more than one lesson from this party…

I thought I would try putting my camera on aperture priority for this (since it was indoors, a cloudy day, so pretty low light, and being a party rather than a portrait session I thought having my settings at least somewhat on auto would help), but unfortunately being as low-light as it was, that meant my shutter speed was pretty low the whole time (which = camera shake, which = blur).  In-camera I couldn’t see the blur very well (I noticed it on some shots, but most of them looked ok), so I didn’t realize that I wasn’t getting sharp images until too late.  It’s not like all of the pictures are completely blurry, so of course it could have been much worse, but for an OCD photographer like myself, I always strive for sharp images.  Lesson learned!

Either way it was a great party, celebrating an awesome 2 year-old!