PARTY!!!

I spent two weeks stressing myself out about this party, but in the end it was so so so much fun!

All set up and ready to go! Our dinning room turned into party central with green fruits and green veggies, cookies, green M & Ms skittles and green Peeps! UMMMM

As our friends and family started to arrive everyone settled in nicely and just started to play.

The Roller Coaster in our hallway was a great point of interest and all ages loved it. Here Ella was playing with her new friend, our neighbor Aidan.

Uncle Tommy got a chance to show Sammi Godzilla and dinosaurs and she was very interested. Godzilla's tail was very yummy.

Once everyone was in Mommy tried to follow her organized schedule of party fun and do our craft, decorating liners that fit into travel mugs (that actually where not dishwasher or microwave safe) The kids liked it, but the call of such a beautiful day outside and all the great toys around ment Mommy should not have bothered with a craft, but it was still lots of fun!


Yes that is Johnny in a full tux for his special day! SO adorable! But we are doing pictures in this tux on Monday, so Mommy wanted to get it off of him before the real playing began.

While Mommy got Johnny changed Daddy brought out the bubbles (which where not in Mommy's schedule of party fun, but it was so beautiful outside) and this ended up being the main event of the day!

Johnny knew what was going on while Mommy dragged him around the house getting his cloths and diaper changed, he was yelling out "BUBBLES, BUBBLES, BUBBLES!" so finally he got to join the fun, in an outfit he was free to get as messy as he wanted.

and oh did they have fun, for over an hour this entertained them!

Even when the older kids lost interest, Johnny and Wyatt could not be deterred.

He just gets cuter!

With the older kids outside, our youngest guest was inside enjoying some pretzels and yogurt, but I couldn't help myself, this picture is too adorable.

Grams and Pops and their grandsons. I have three good shots of this pose and in each one Johnny is looking a different way, none of those ways are forward!

Then the silly string came out and that was great fun!!

Somehow Papa found himself as the center of the attacks, poor Papa!

So while the big kids where attacking Papa, Johnny and Wyatt where just running, and Wyatt had his first big spill right onto the concrete, he was a very good boy about it and got some ice and some Tylenol and was as good as new, mostly.

Some love from Mommy and Daddy always helps, and by the way Wyatt will be a big brother at the end of October! How exciting!! A sixth grandchild and a 4th cousin for Johnny!!!

So then we headed inside for some cake! Johnny helped Mommy decorate, at first, then Mommy tried to cover up mistakes with the little sugar pieces. I think it looks great, even the cake itself was green.

Johnny loved it when everyone was singing to him, he laughed and bounced in his seat and then blew out the 2 candles all by himself!

Johnny certainly thought it was yummy.

He is not a big fan of his hands being dirty..."hands wash"

Whatever pain was left, was gone with the addition of cafe, isn't he cute?

As the party whined down we decided to open presents. Uncle Chuckles, Aunt Chel and Wyatt got him this the official Toy Story Bucket O Soldiers and these are great! Very sturdy and just a little bigger then off brand soldiers Johnny loves them!

Next was a special present from the Hart Family who live across the street.

A golf set!!!!!! Daddy was very excited though Johnny wasn't sure what it was, we know he will love it when he learns he can hit a ball with a club.

Then a special present from Aunt Natalie, Uncle Tommy, Ella and Sammi, a Sesame Street book of echo friendly crafts to do with Mommy and a gift certificate to the Bouncy Place!!! yeah he gets to go to a super fun place and bounce around in really big bouncy houses! FIVE TIMES!!! Thomas and Nat always find these great things!!

Now on to a big bag from the Fox family who live right next door. I love that Sara got this green bag and green paper and so did Johnny.

and Johnny was super excited about this dump truck and sand toys!! "open, open, OPEN!" Now Mommy and Daddy need to get him some sand for his sand box.

Daddy teaching Johnny how exciting golf is, Look at my little man !

After everyone went home we laid down and relaxed for a few minutes before the cleaning began. We all had such a good time!! The house was crazy with kids and Mommy got to sit and talk to other Mommas and Johnny was surrounded by friends and people who love him, again it was a perfect day!!! Though we didn't do the sundae bar Mommy had planned or the story time, or the video games, the kids just didn't need those things, they had each other. Johnny is so lucky to have all these loving people in his life, thank you to everyone who came and we hoped you enjoyed it as much as we did!

A Busy Busy Birthday!

Wow what a day!

We started with a drive to the Green Belt Station to ride the train! Johnny loves these piggy back rides from Daddy but hasn't gotten very many of them lately because of Daddy's knee...so this was an extra treat!

However Johnny hasn't learned how to hold on very well!

Waiting for the train, with his balloons, birthday ribbon and St Patty's day hat...oh and his dinosaur shoes.

Getting very anxious to see the "inosaur train"

Riding the train really was one of the most exciting parts of the day. He was an angel for the entire trip! On the seat and off and looking out the window and getting excited every time we went through a tunnel, calling in a "time tunnel." (from his new fav show Dinosaur Train) He also loved when people got on and off the train and said hello and good bye to everybody!

Once we got into the museum he saw the elephants immediately! It was very exciting! I don't think he has ever seen one so close.

We went right into the dino area. It really took him a few minutes to take it all in, he was quite and just looked around. There was just so much going on and dinosaurs everywhere. I was so proud of him, immediately he started asking us "what's that?" He wanted to know about everything. Daddy explained about bones and that these bones where once dinosaurs, he really picked up on it. (in fact all bones in the museum he then thought where dinosaurs)

"what's that?"
"Look Daddy INOSAUR!"

Next we went up to the Butterfly pavilion so Johnny could see some real butterflies flying all around! It wasn't as exciting as we thought it would be, but he did love the really big ones.

Coming out of the butterflies we went into the insect zoo. There where scientist carts out letting people touch and see insects up close. Here a scientist is trying to show Johnny a really big caterpillar, Johnny wasn't so sure he wanted to have anything to do with it. Later Daddy let a hissing cockroach walk on his hand, Mommy stood far enough away to not get a picture of that.

He did like the rest of the insect zoo where there insects where in habitats all around.

"What's that?" MONKEYS!

Johnny loved this mammoth skeleton which combines two of his favorite animals...dinosaur and elephant! (yes that is a third change of cloths, it got hot later in the day so Johnny went down in layers)

Here we found a discovery room where kids could touch and play with everything to learn, he loved his real alligator head.


A new exciting exhibit was "Origins of Mankind" Mommy and Daddy wanted to read and look at it, but it did not really interest Johnny, so on we went.

So we went into the Mammal Hall, where you can explore stuffed mammals and exhibits. This monkey skeleton was very interesting.

I was surprised at how many of the animals he really knew and he was so excited to see them all here up close and personal.

After nearly 4 hours walking around the Smithsonian answering Johnny's questions about everything, we went down to the gift shop to let him pick out a toy to spend his money that Papa has slipped into his pocket. He settled on his very large T-Rex. It is actually really great since it is spongy and not too hard. He carried it around and would not let go. (he slept with it in his crib that night)

Even cuddling with it on the train ride back to the car.

Then falling asleep with it, happily!

We made a point of going to Towson Town Center on our way home to take Johnny to Rain Forest Cafe for dinner, to discover it was closed, actually fully removed from the mall...I should have know that. So we went up to TGI Fridays since Johnny loves the Mac and Cheese there.

After dinner we meet up with Grams, Papa, Ella, Sammy, Uncle Tommy and Aunt Natalie for some birthday ice cream at Dairy Queen.

Everyone wore green for him!

Isn't it nice? But we did miss Uncle Chuckles, Aunt Chel and Wyatt, who drove in late Thursday night for Johnny's party this week end!

So that little sunday Mommy order apparently was not enough ice cream, he began "sharing" with Ella. But she is a great big cousin and shared freely.

Johnny how old are you? You are TWO!

I really love this picture of Johnny with his Papa because Papa is smiling and you can tell they have been playing. Also it is very similar to this picture of Papa and Johnny the day Johnny was born, all curled up together in the hospital.

WOW! What happened to that 8 pound baby?

And that was our day! Johnny had a blast you could tell each step of the day he was just so happy and well behaved, inquisitive and sweet! I could not ask for a better day or more perfect memories! Honestly Mommy had to stop herself from crying more then once, just watching how smart and wonderful and old and remembering each moment of that day 2 years ago as that moment passed in this day. Though I would love to live in those moments holding his tiny body forever, I love watching him grow up and wouldn't give it up for anything.