The day started when I came across two awesome wheeled vehicles in my living room! One was a cool big wheel type of thing, and the other was my first big-boy bicycle. I was completely unaware that Grammy & Grampy had flown down last night, dropped off an awesome bike for me and flown back to Boston all while I was sleeping! Thanks Grammy & Grampy.

My birthday party was a really big deal. Mom and dad had been planning it for the last few weeks and yesterday was the big moment. We all met at the picnic are next to the pool. Thankfully there’s a roof to keep the sun off of the old people, because they can’t take the 90 degree weather at 10am anymore.

Cassidy & Me

I was dropped off at my bff Cassidy’s house so mom and dad could set up. By the time I arrived, there were balloons and fruit and drinks everywhere! Did I mention that there were a couple boxes of donuts? Yea, there were, and I love chocolate donuts.

There was also some watermelon, cantaloupe and other stuff that seemed silly to bring along when there was donuts, but there’s no talking to mom when she’s on a role.

All the cool kids alternated between playing in the little play area and running back to the shade for water and Capri Sun juice boxes. When we were just getting to maximum sweatiness Dad yells out “Who wants to open presents?”

MEEEEEEEE!

I look over and notice that there is an entire table filled with boxes wrapped in shiny foil, colorful ribbons and big bags of awesomeness. Where the heck did all that come from? Who cares, lets tear into it!

I was amazed at all the really cool Toy Story 3 stuff I got. I love Buzz and Woody. Thomas the train stuff, pool stuff, dvds, a memory game, squirt guns, a train table and so much more.

Then it’s cake time! Dad brings out an enormous sheet cake that has dog designs on it. I have no idea why there’s a giant blue dog bone on my cake, but who cares… I have a giant cake!

There’s singing and candles and then we cut into it. CHOCOLATE CAKE!!

The ration of cake to frosting is a just about right, 50/50.

By this time, the heat and heavy partying is starting to get to us all. Luckily my friends Ashley and Jon gave me a water shooter thingy and Dad uses the ice water from the cooler to fill it up. We use that a little to shock us back to reality. It’s like a water filled defibrillator for 3 year olds.

Most of my friends are starting to disappear now, the heat, cake, juice and fun has taken their toll.

This has been the best birthday ever. Thanks everyone!

Yoda with his mouth full

OMG!  I don’t know who’s idea Halloween is, but I need to meet him and give him a knuckle bump.  Heck, I might even give him a hug.  The only problem I can see with this day is, why in the world don’t we do it every day.  I’d even suffer the humiliation of these big ears again if it means I’d get another big pumpkin full of candy.

I knew something was up when Mom woke me up early from my nap.  We headed down to the end of our cul-de-sac, where I could see all my friends running around, and their Mom’s setting up snacks and goodies on the table.  Woohoo!  This is bound to be good!  A few minutes later Dad and Mr. John pulled up in our truck with a big bouncy house in the back.  I nearly passed out right then and there.

So while my friends and I spent the next few hours jumping around in the bouncy house, and eating cupcakes, Mom and Dad hung out with our neighbors doing ol’ people stuff.  Whatever that might be….  All I know is that if it doesn’t involve cupcakes and bouncy houses then it’s probably not worth my time.

Around 6:30 or so we started seeing trick-or-treaters wandering towards us so everyone started packing things up and shuffling off.  You know what that means don’t you?!  It means it’s time for CANDY!!!!!  I even made a deal with Mom….I told her I’d put on that silly costume if I could have a lollipop.  It took me a few houses to actually figure out how this all worked but once I figured it out there was no stopping me.  I could’ve gone all night, I tell ya!  At first I thought the objective was to ring the doorbell, wait for the person to come outside with a bucket in their hands, and then get some candy out of my bucket and put it into theirs.  But Daddy told me that I didn’t have to do that.  I should just pick out a piece of candy and then put it into my bucket.  Aahhhhh…..SO much better!  Why didn’t you just say so in the first place?

When we finished going to all the houses on our street Mommy took me over to Auntie Brett’s house to say Hi to Bubbie (Cali) and Bubba (McKenna).  That was totally awesome because Bubbie took me trick-or-treating at some of her friends houses.  Then we went back home to our neighborhood because our Morena Dr Block Party was still going full force.  Everyone had finished trick-or-treating and they were hanging outside together and cooking up hotdogs.  That made for a very long day, but a REALLY fun one!  Now the countdown starts for next year.

When we got to the playground everything was soaking wet, since it had rained the night before.  Mom went and got a blanket out of the car, and while she tried to dry off all the equipment (more like, swirled the water around on it actually), me and Isaac ran our trucks up and down the bleachers.  And actually, Isaac did a better job of drying everything off than Mom did because he got to the slide before she did and his pants soaked up most of the water.  Hey, thanks Dude!  He didn’t seem to mind one bit.

After a little while my neighbor Sean, and his Mom showed up.  They didn’t have anything to do this morning so they decided to join us.  We all did some swinging, went up the rock climbing wall, ran around on the soccer field, and went down the slide a bunch of times.  One time, when we were racing our cars along the bleachers, Isaac wiped out on the wet bench and fell down.  But he popped right back up and started yelling “Kiss It, Kiss It” at the top of his lungs.  I felt bad, but it was so funny that I couldn’t stop laughing.  Mom went running over, gave him a kiss and he was good as new.  That was certainly an easy fix.

So when we were done here, we went over to Chick-Fil-A which was right down the street.  We had a little lunch and ran around in the play area for a bit.  Man, Isaac’s the fastest dude I know.  He’s like lightning.  It wears me out just watching him.

Now comes the cooties part of the day.  That night, after I went to bed, Mom got a call from Sean’s Mommy saying that both Sean and his older brother Logan have the swine flu.  Oy.  Not good news.  Especially since we spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with them.  Now I guess we just sit and wait and see what happens.

Sudsy mohawk

Me and Mom went to Auntie Brett’s house last night after dinner.  Dad was giving a speech at the Cameron Village library and wouldn’t be home until late, and Uncle Jamie was out of town too.  So we went to hang out with Auntie Brett, Cali (Buh-bee) an McKenna (Bubba) for a while.

And as luck would have it, McKenna had to take a tubbie, and she asked if I wanted to join her.  Well, yes, yes I would.  I love tubbie time.  And I love it even more when I have company.  So we got into Auntie Brett’s tub and had lots of fun dumping buckets of water over each other’s heads.  Then Buh-bee got in too, because she didn’t want to miss out on all the fun we were having.

Auntie Brett came in and told Buh-bee that she had to get in the shower, and actually get cleaned up, rather than just playing all night.  That was an opportunity I just could not pass up.  Standing up and getting clean simultaneously!!!!  Wow!  She gave me the squeegee and let me squeegee the glass while she washed up.  I made little windows that I waved at Bubba through, while she was still in the bathtub.

After bathtime was over we all brushed our teeth together.  I’m a good tooth brusher.  Mommy let’s me do it all the time.

Then we got under the covers in Buh-bee’s bed.  She’s got a really big bed, like Mommy & Daddy.  I was all ready to go to sleep but Auntie Brett said Buh-bee and Bubba had school tomorrow and so I couldn’t sleep over tonight.  But she said we could do it on Friday night if I wanted to.  Hooray!!!!  Only 3 more nights to go!

When we got to the party everyone was in the backyard.  All the adults were sitting around talking and the kids were playing on the swingset.  Clara’s mom brought out a pumpkin for me to decorate, and I got to do it all by myself.  Because now that I’m 2, I don’t need any help.  First I had to show everyone my “buh boo” though.  I held it up for everyone to see so they would know why I was using my left hand to paint my pumpkin, instead of my right one.  If you ask me though, it still came out pretty awesome!  See for yourself.

My masterpiece

After the pumpkin decorating was over we moved on to the really important stuff – cupcakes!  The cupcakes were decorated like brains and mummies…..so spoooooky.  And yummy too.  The eyeball donut holes were pretty good too, for that matter.  Don’t you just love parties.

We went and got the MDF for my bed on Saturday night and then Dad sanded and routed all the edges.   Next up Mom got all the pieces painted on Sunday afternoon when Dad and I were napping.  So when we got home from Noah and Truman’s house, later that night, Dad just nailed it all together and we’re good to go!

Now I’ve got an awesome bed, and a cool place to store my toys and books.  Check it out for yourself.

So, on another note, while we were driving to the party, an off-duty Holly Springs fireman pulled over to say ‘hi.’  He told Mom to bring me down to the fire station this week to check out the real fire trucks!!!!!!!  OMG!  And it’s not even my birthday!

We ended up checking out of the party early, so that we could head home for nap time.  Mom said it was important to go down for our nap on time time today because we had to head to Noah and Truman’s house after nap.  We were going for a cookout, and Mom made brownies to bring along.  Mmmmm….brownies.

Pumpkins

Today was big.  And when I say big, I means BIG.  We started with dad’s homemade blueberry pancakes, and ended by watching the end of Season 1 of The Office.  Now I’ll fill in the blanks for you.

After breakfast we got dressed and headed out to Ken’s Korny Corn Maze in Garner.  They had a totally awesome Monster Truck & Tractor wooden play structure, a rope maze, a straw maze, a gourd checkerboard and mini golf.   But the best part of all was the jumpy zone.  They gave me a smiley face hand stamp……Oooooo……that meant I could jump all day long if I wanted too.  See?

My smiley faces

We even got take a hayride through the farm.  We rounded the corn field, went way out back and saw the creepy Corn Maze Crypt that they use at Halloween, then rounded by the goats.  Really cool.

After the hayride we went back to play on the Monster Truck again for a while.   I know there’s got to be a way to get Daddy to make one of these in our back yard.  Hmmm…will have to give that idea some serious thought.

The only thing we didn’t do while we were there was the Corn Maze.  Apparently it takes quite a while to get through it and Mom and Dad didn’t think I was old enough to enjoy it.  So I guess we’ll just save that for next year!

Next we went home, had some lunch and took a nap.  Dad was the winner of the nap time award today, so he got to sleep with me.  Yeah Dad!

After we woke up we all took a ride to Home Depot to get some MDF to make my new bed.  Dad’s going to make me a platform bed with storage cubbies underneath, for all my toys and books.  Mom’s excited because she said she’s too old and creaky to be laying down on a mattress on the floor, when she lays down to snuggle me.

Dad started working on it as soon as we got home.  I thought this would be a good opportunity to take my Fire Truck out for a ride.  I hopped in, turned on the ignition and rammed it straight into the house.  Did I mention that this was my first solo driving expedition?  Mmmm….Dad started shrieking and grabbed the plant stand that was tipping over, with one hand, and grabbed the front end of the truck with the other hand.  All while I kept the gas pedal floored.   He kept screaming “Stop! Stop! Stop!”  No hablo Ingles.  Sorry dude.

That’s when Mom stepped in and steered me off toward the end of the cul-de-sac.  All my friends were out playing down there.  I swung by Sean’s house to pick him up and we cruised the loop for a while, waving at all the kids on the sidewalk who were watching with envy.

When it started to get dark we finally cruised on home for dinner.  Dad was still out sanding the edges of the pieces of my bed so me and Mom went inside and had dinner.  After dinner I snuck outside for one last, quick ride……Right Through Mom’s Garden.  This driving and steering stuff is much trickier than it looks.