Party Time!

I had a pretty awesome party the day after my real birthday. Mommy and Daddy got me a cool tractor cake. I had fun blowing out the candles and then I got to play with all the toys on it. It tasted pretty good too, of course, I only eat the icing part. Mommy ate my cake part for me.
Mommy and Daddy were pretty busy, so I decided to save them the trouble of getting everyone together for opening my presents. I managed to open the one from Mommy and Daddy before anyone noticed. I'm not sure why Mommy seemed to think I should have waited. It's not like I opened some other kid's present! It was for me right? So I opened it.
We banged up my piñata till all the candy fell out. I wore my helmet for safety. And because it looks cool. I'm all about looking cool.
Yup, it was a pretty good time. I had all my best buddies there. It's too bad I can't have a party every day. Good thing I still get one more!

Happy Birthday Sammy!

Saturday was your birthday. I had a hard time convincing you that you are three years old now. You kept insisting that you were just little, and only two. It took a while for you to take hold of the idea that you are getting "bigger and bigger and bigger" just like Benny. It's okay. I can hardly believe that you are three myself, you still seem like my little baby. It helps that you have a new teeny tiny sister though. She makes you seem a lot bigger.
Your Gramma Willems and your Uncle Dale came to visit you. You had fun playing with them in the backyard. Then we let you pick the restaurant we went to for your birthday supper. It was very busy at Boston Pizza and all of us tried to talk you into going somewhere else, but you just love "Bosson Pizza" way too much to settle for anywhere else but the place with your favorite meal... Bugs and Cheese.
It worked out okay anyways. And you even got a fancy free dessert because your Gramma Willems was sure to tell the waitress that you were the birthday boy. You were pretty awed by the sparkler that topped off your giant cookie, a little too awed to smile for a picture anyways, and true to regular Sammy style you only ate the whip cream, but I thought it was a nice end to your birthday dinner. (And your daddy seemed to enjoy finishing off what you left behind.)
After supper we went home and finished off our last-minute jobs that had to get done for your party. We got your "yada" ready. (You picked it yourself at Walmart the day before. Mommy tried to talk you out of the princess yada, but Daddy said we should let you pick the one you liked. So we did. And I have to confess, seeing you so pleased with your pretty pink pinata is pretty adorable in my eyes. And even though I usually like things to be matchy matchy, I can't help but think that a Princess/Transformer/Spiderman/Dora/Tractor birthday party is just perfect for my favorite little fried egg.)
After stuffing your yada with all our leftover parade candy from last summer you opened your birthday present from Mommy and Daddy and then the present from Gramma Willems and Uncle Dale and Uncle Neil. I think you had a pretty good day, and you hadn't even had your party yet! I kind of wish we could do it all over again in a month or two when I have more time and energy to enjoy it with you and make an even bigger fuss over you. You're such a special little guy with such an amazingly fun personality. You make your mommy laugh and smile all the time and so there's a part of me that would like to make sure you get your every little heart's desire, especially on your birthday. You're growing up so fast, when you hug me you feel so big and strong already... Sometimes I wish I could slow things down and keep you as my little baby forever. But I can't, and I have to confess, I'm dying to see what you're going to come up with next... I know it will be 100% original and completely wonderful.

I love you so much Boo Boo. Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Grampa!

My gift to you is that I took out the hairdo Mommy gave Ben. He looks better like this hey? (Not very happy though. Oh well. You can't have everything.)

Birthday Pictures: Part One

Well, here it is. As promised. Finally.

Sam had a mini-pre-party at Gramma and Grampa's a week or so before he actually turned two. I went all out on the cake:
Here he is with his Aunty: (I love this photo.)
Opening presents: (Check out Ben. He was having a hard time that day with waiting and with the fact that Sam had more presents than him. Good thing Gramma always remembers the two non-birthday boys.)
Opening his present from Aunty Melissa and Uncle Johnny and Noah:
Looking at his present from Gramma and Grampa:
I couldn't decide which picture I liked better so you get both:
Watching Aunty open his present:
Making music with his present from Aunty:
Mike and Johnny throwing plastic parachuting men from the garage: (They will use almost any excuse to climb up there.)
Blowing out his candles:
Looks like store bought cake does as good a job at getting the birthday boy dirty as a homemade cake: (And it actually worked out to be cheaper because Gramma bought it!)
Noah chowing down:
Sam cleaning up after the party:
So there it is. Sam's birthday extravaganza. It was nice to have a celebration with the family. Gramma Braun was there too, she brought a train whistle for Sam, which was fab for me because we already had ONE that the boys fought over all the time. Now they can be trains together.

I still have a birthday project in the works for Sam, but that will have to wait for another time, because of something I'm waiting for that should have shown up in the mail almost two months ago. I called to complain and they assured me it would be only five more days, which was Thursday. I'll probably have to phone again. It may be next year when I finally finish up with Sam's birthday!

Birthday Pictures: Part Two

On my actual factual birthday I was a little sick, so we took it easy for most of the day.

In the morning I woke up kind of grumpy:

Ben came and gave me some hugs:

So I cheered up:
After breakfast we went outside and did some swinging on our new swing set:
In the afternoon Mommy took us to playland so I could kick some babies out of the baby swing and do a little more swinging:

Ben and I had some post-bath cuddles with Daddy:

And finally a pre-bedtime movie with Ben:
And that was pretty much it. Turning two takes a lot out of you, so it was nice to have a mostly lazy day just hanging around taking it all in. The world looks pretty different once you've ridden it around the sun two whole times.

Birthday Pictures: Part Three

(It seems easier to work backwards from here, so I'm doing part three first. There may still be a part four, which could make things really confusing, but I'm going with this. And none of you can stop me.)

Since I was sick on my birthday, Mommy and Daddy had to cancel my party the next day. They had a mini-party for me anyways, so I was okay.

First we got some balloons and played with them. I really liked that part. I liked it so much, that this is the best picture Mommy could get of me with my balloons. I wouldn't hold still for a nicer one.
Then we opened my present. It was a bike. Interesting.

Ben was a lot more excited about his present. A Hotwheels car.

We had cake after the presents and before supper. That's what I like about my mommy. She sees no reason to stick to the rules just for the sake of sticking to the rules. I worked pretty hard to blow out my candles, but Mommy and Ben had to help me in the end.

Yay! We did it! (Finally! I thought I was going to pass out for a while there.)

We went to the park after supper. Here I am riding my new... Er...
Here I am walking on people's lawns while Ben rides my new bike to the park.

Here I am trying to kick Mommy every time the swing gets close while she tries to take a nice picture of me:

And again:

And again:

Last time?

Last time:

After the park we came home and Ben and I watched the Bee Movie while with some rootbeer and ketchup chips while Mommy and Daddy had some of my spaghetti birthday supper. (I never did eat any. Just chips, pop, and icecream.)
Ahhh... What a great end to a great day. Mommy and Daddy sure know how to make not having a party a good time!

Sam's Birthday

I know this is all out of order and way behind, but I still couldn't resist showing all of you a bit of Sam's actual birthday, which happened on April 18th. He woke up all adorable, as usual. The night before I put him in my favorite pajamas so he would be ready for a morning photo shoot to start things off right, and he didn't disappoint me. I'm telling you, he's a fried egg, but he's as cute as they come.

We spent the morning playing in my bed. This is one of Sam's favorite things, as he gets to pester Ben and throw himself everywhere without getting hurt. Actually, Ben quite likes the pestering, and giggles like crazy while Sam climbs all over him. Here they are enjoying their morning bottles together. So cute.

We didn't do much else exciting that day. Ben and Sam had their favorite meal, hotdogs and macaroni, for lunch and then it was time for naps. Glen came home early to help Sam open his birthday present and to help me set the thing up. (He had parent teacher interviews all evening, so we had to do all of the fun stuff before supper.) Sammy sure likes his fancy kitchen and so does his big budder. Of course, Sam plays very differently than Ben does. Yesterday I actually caught the little monster ON TOP OF THE COUNTER CLIMBING THROUGH THE LITTLE WINDOW! Here are some pictures of him enjoying his present on his birthday, before he discovered it could be used as a climbing apparatus.

He particularly likes the little phone. He puts it up on his ear and pretends to talk into it. So cute. Did I mention that I think Sam is cute? I did? Did I mention that he is a freaky little fried monster? Well, he is. And most days, I wouldn't have him any other way.