Ethan's (John Deere) Birthday Weekend

Things for Ethan's birthday pretty much started Friday evening. We had dinner at home as a family and then headed out to get last minute groceries for the party. Ethan likes to go grocery shopping because we get to see the fish in the pet aisle of Wal-Mart. :) When we got back from the store, Dave took care of bedtime with Ethan while I started multi-tasking. I was able to start laundry while I made the pasta, baked, shaped and frosted the cake, and clean up the mound of dishes! Pictures below of my creation of a tractor cake for Ethan. (Note: I did this while he slept Friday night and I debated about waiting to unveil the masterpiece at his party for a surprise, but my excitement got the better of me and I showed him Saturday morning when he woke up. As soon as I tried to put the cake back in the fridge, he freaked on me and instantly started crying that he wanted it!! Luckily I assured him that we WOULD in fact see the cake again and he calmed down after a few minutes).

Saturday morning he decided to sleep in until almost 7:45!! When he wakes up I usually give him a few options for breakfast; we talk about these while we have our diaper change and then he tells me which item he wants. Well, he declared that he wanted banana bread and he wanted to share with Doggy. After breakfast, we took Daddy with us to story time at the Oswego Library and then checked out a few new books. Once back at home, Ethan decided that he wanted to ride his bike and low & behold, he can now pedal a bike on his own!!! So, we bundled up to ride our bike around the block a few times before lunch. So proud of our little man, big boy bike is on the list for next summer for sure now!! After lunch was his usual nap while I did final preparation on food/decorations. As you'll see below, Ethan had a great time at his party. We had all grandparents and uncles as well as some good friends over to help us celebrate. Ethan got some great new clothes, tractor items, puzzles, snow gear, etc.

Riding the bike around the house

Opening presents

Time to sing Happy Birthday!

A few funny pictures before bedtime..

Uncle Patrick hung around a little longer..

Bedtime story from Uncle Patrick

Sunday was his actual birthday. I originally had big plans to take him to the Children's Museum, but didn't realize they had shortened hours, so we'll save that for another weekend. We ended up bundling up for the cold weather and going to a Pumpkin Farm in Aurora. We each picked out a pumpkin, saw some of the farm animals and then took a tractor ride thru the corn maze. Sunday afternoon was spent getting his pictures taken (post below) and shopping at Target for a few extra birthday gifts courtesy of the Great-grandparents who sent money for Ethan to pick out his own gifts (play-doh was the theme - a good indoor, winter activity that should entertain him!)

On the tractor ride

That's the birthday weekend wrap-up!! 2 years of many great memories, and MANY, MANY more to make!