Birthday Boy

The day of Jack's birthday dawned chilly and bright, with all of us excited for the day. My parents came up to visit and brought with them my brother, who Jack refers to as "Uncle Woowie" (Louie). We got up, had breakfast, and hit the stores. Jack stayed home with Grandma and Daddy to play and Uncle Louie and Grandpa and I went out shopping for his party. We hit Costco, the mecca of party trays and stocked up on turkey roll-ups, a meat & cheese tray, crackers, spinach dip, tzatziki, veggies, shrimp, and sushi. Our friends laughed at the notion of having sushi and shrimp at two year old's party, but mama's gotta eat and it breaks up the monotony of crackers and dip.

We also picked up Jack's cake, which was a thing of beauty. I basically told the bakery 3 things: 1. Make it a small rectangular cake (we didn't have THAT many people) 2. Make it chocolate with buttercream icing 3. Make it a Thomas the Tank Engine theme.

Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised!



The party went off well... except that the birthday boy was still asleep as the guests started to arrive. He had boycotted his nap until around 2:15 when Kyle wrestled a crying, inconsolable Jack into his crib. Having to go back up and wake him up around 3:30 was unpleasant, but once Jack saw the balloons, presents, and little kids, he perked up. He snacked on some crackers and cheese and meat and then mingled with the kids. Even though he was tired, he was fairly good about letting other kids play with his toys and people generally grabbing and hugging on him since they hadn't seem him in a while. I did get a few shouts of "MINE!" coming out of the living room, but the other kids were so good that they just backed off and let him be bossy. Ellie and Anna really enjoyed the Dora the Explorer kitchen that my parents brought for Jack the day before. When Jack saw the box he screamed "DORYA!" and pleaded with them to open it immediately. He also insisted that we attach the freakishly giant Dora head that Kyle and I would have rather hidden away in a closet somewhere.

Kyle led Jack into the basement where his big present from us waited. A new Thomas train table and "Down by the Docks" set of track (complete with Cranky the Crane!). Jack squealed as he entered the basement and ran over to play:



Unfortunately, this also meant that convincing Jack to do anything else like open presents and pose for pictures was quite difficult. We got him to grudgingly open his presents which included a Mr Potato head (and friends!) with various get-ups from Sara, Mike, and their son Derrick, a Little People schoolhouse from Heather in VA Beach, Thomas & Elmo books from Clay & Heather, a Spiderman food set (plate, bowl, cup) and figurine on a motorcycle from the Pepin family, and the hit of the evening- a Bob the Builder tool set from Ellie and Anna. Jack immediately donned the goggles (which slid up to his forehead after a moment) and walked around sanding, sawing, and vacuuming things all night:



We dragged Jack back upstairs by bringing up the tool set and promising the delectable cake from the Sweet Tooth bakery. He sat patiently while we arranged the candle (a number 2) and lit it and sang Happy Birthday to him. He tried to blow it out, but doesn't have nearly the amount of practice as his buddy Andrew. I helped him and let Tom cut the cake since he isn't afraid to make big pieces so that we could get rid of all of the cake. Smart guy! Here is the boy enjoying his cake:



Everyone headed home and Jack played with all of his new loot until we took him to bed where he crashed hard.