Happy Birthday Ryan

Ryan turned two this week and we celebrated with the four days of Ryan's birthday.

On the first day of Ryan's birthday his parents gave to him...

A Mater and Lightning McQueen Blanket

(I forgot to put it away after finishing it and he fell in love)

On the second day of Ryan's birthday his parents gave to him

Two Thomas Toys and a Lightning McQueen Blanket
(and a birthday party)

I take credit for coloring the icing and baking the cake and the words/dots. Jesse did the main decorating. This cake is milk free as is the store bought icing :)

What do toddler's and preschoolers love? Balloons!!!

Cakes is also popular

Ryan couldn't quite figure out that he needed to blow out the candles

Cake, berries and ice cream. The berries were very popular.

Yum

Birthday boy eating his "i' ceam"

He understood present opening much better than at his last birthday.

Toy car

What could be in here?

A Liger that makes noises when you move his limbs etc.

Opening a birthday card. It had a picture of Ryan and his friend playing together with happy faces drawn on the people.

I was told they were playing on the playground and happy together.

Present from Grandpa S
A king and a Pegasus

And two Thomas toys from mom and dad.
We finished off the birthday party with bubbles and stickers. All in all it was a good and enjoyable 2 year old party.

Days 3 and 4 to come ;)

More Birthday

On the third day of Ryan's birthday his Grandma gave to him...

Three toy trains (and a train table)
This one makes "nooes" and it goes, but the battery doesn't last long so it has to take naps.

We set the train table up on Saturday. It was the only toy he played with for two days.

On the fourth (and actual birthday)
Ryan's parents gave to him four waffle pieces (with ice cream, sprinkles and dipper (syrup))

The assembly of beloved trains and whistle

Anxiously waiting for the waffles to be done

Did I mention these were also chocolate chip waffles? Ryan had his share of chocolate chips pre-waffle eating

Trying to sneak a bite before I put the sprinkles on

Yum... he asked for "i ceem" when we ate the leftover waffles too.

Sprinkles first

The soon to be birthday boy

Happy Birthday Ryan!!!

What do tigers say?

This last Sunday Ryan was eating some cereal for breakfast and the box was still sitting on the the table. He pointed to it and made the sign/noise for elephant. (Take one arm and raise it up like an elephant's trunk while making a bruurah noise)

I corrected him and said, "no, that's a tiger". Then he would say "tieger" and then make the sign for elephant. I corrected him again and said tigers roar. It was at that moment I realized that Tony the Tiger is indeed saying elephant because he has one arm up in the air. I'm glad Ryan can communicate with his cereal boxes.

Baby Girl!

It is much easier to find little girl clothes. My friend and I went to a few garage sales and these are some of my finds.

Total cost: 9 dollars

Shoes included (50 cents a pair)

Our complex has a place to donate and find used clothing.

Not pictured above: clothing "purchased" using an amazing program here in South Bend called the B.A.B.E. program. A person attends community and/or WIC classes, goes to prenatal check-ups, well baby appointments and/or immunizations. For each class or event you get one coupon. A coupon is good for 12 diapers, or an article of clothing, or two onsies etc. The stores have everything from strollers and cribs to wipes and pacifiers to shoes and potty chairs. Clothing and other items are donated (except the diapers). This added quite a few more pieces to our little girl's wardrobe.
Needless to say, I think she is set until the 12 month size.

Sewing for baby

I did still feel the need to make her a church dress. The fabric was $1.50 a yard from Wal*Mart. The pattern was on sale at Jo-Ann's for 99 cents (Butterick 5624).
Total cost: about $3.00 including the buttons and the pattern.

Now I'm just showing off. Here are my first button holes.

And the hem.

Easter Part 2

Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma's

On Your mark, get set...

Go!!!

This egg hunt had better organization and a higher egg to child ratio. Thanks to Jared and Marie (and others?) for stuffing and hiding the eggs.

So this is what is suppose to be in an egg!

What?

Is this above or below my knees?
(if you are older than four you can only get eggs above your knees)

Peggy and her mom.
Peggy made sure that the adults were not left out. We all got cups full of the "good" candy. Yum!

Ashton enjoying his spoils.

Lucas has learned to eat his quickly.

After the candy, Ryan and Lucas decided to venture after the dog.

Ashton still enjoying his spoils.

Ryan came back for more "memes" or "cho 'c lit"

Helping unpack after a fun weekend

A toddler post gggg vnn bbgfhghghg

bb ,mjczb yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuy4 vcxcioliiii
vvbbbbbbvxxzAQ

I guess this is what I get for leaving the window open.

Easter Part 1

Easter
We did Easter baskets at home the week before Easter, mostly for the safety of that little critter in the front of Jesse's basket.

Jesse's basket. That is a Hex crab in the front, they move when you make a loud noise and they also scuttle away from bright lights.

Dad I want to play with that toy!

An attempt at hiding an Easter basket. Plain sight would have worked just as well. He really wanted that Hex bug. In an attempt to distract Ryan I asked him if he liked trains. That is what he is saying "whoo whoo"

Bear and Ryan discover the train. Bear has become Ryan's new best friend. It gets complicated when Bear needs to do everything Ryan can do. Like thread beads onto a pipe cleaner. I only have so many hands.

Playing with his new train

Mom, in case there was any doubt that Ryan doesn't like trains... I think you're safe. Again he is saying "whoo, whoo"

Easter Take 2
Wabash Indiana, Honeywell Center

Making a little paper basket.

I want this sticker here, please.

Ryan decided that he really wanted to see the Easter Bunny. Luckily Aunt Marie and Cousin Ashton had patiently waited in line and we maybe cut to go with them. Thank you to the man behind them :) Ashton is demonstrating the proper attitude one should take toward the Easter Bunny.

Once Ryan got closer he decided that Easter Bunny's are not such a good idea after all. The Easter Bunny settled for a high five.

On to the crazy egg hunt.

Grandpa look, a helicopter!

Dropping Eggs from the helicopter. They said that there were 10,000 eggs between the ground and dropping them. Later they told me there were about 1,800 kids there. Do the math on that one.

Note; we are near the front of the toddler section and Ryan is pretty much the only one under three...A few seconds after this picture was taken all chaos broke loose. Ok not that bad, but Jesse said it looked like a bunch of locust eating across a field. Ryan and I got to the front. I set him down and he managed to get two eggs before the swarms came and took the rest.
As a consolation, a guy with a kid who may have been too old for that section came running up behind me. Then he tried to stop and he slid and became covered in mud. And missed the eggs he was going for. All that for a few plastic eggs and pieces of paper for free goldfish or a small wrapped chocolate. It was a little scary out there, some parents are crazy, me thinks.

Ryan did learn a new word "eeegs" He was perfectly happy picking up discarded halves of Easter Eggs. He would even pick them out of puddles and pour the water out. At this point he didn't know eeegs can have "cho colat" or "treeeets" in them.

The staff did a wonderful job and even offered eggs to kids who didn't find any. They had no idea that so many people would come. Some kids had grocery bags half full of eggs. That is a lot more than the 5-6 eggs per child you should have calculated early. Next year perhaps we will try a smaller egg hunt.