"Deere" Grant's 2nd Birthday Bash

One of Grant's first words other than the obvious, Mama, Dada, byebye, was believe it or not... Tractor.  This kid has been obsessed for some time now with Tractors, particularly the big green and yellow ones, John Deere.  A few months ago I started brainstorming ideas for Grant's second birthday bash and I decided to go with what he loved, a tractor theme.  While in Illinois I snapped a photo of Grant on his Great Grandpa Wendt's 1960's John Deere Tractor and this is the shot I used for his party invitations.

After having his first birthday at our house and our backyard pool party getting rained out we decided we would make it easy on ourselves this year and hold the party at our local park.  Having a birthday party at your house is a ton of work!

I made all of the decorations myself and enjoyed letting my crafty side go to town!

We stuck with a green and yellow theme and offered dishes of green and yellow M&M's on the tables which Grant graciously helped himself to while waiting for his party guests to arrive.

The party kicked off at 9:30am, the weather was wonderful and not too hot.

I decorated with Grant's Tractors he has accumulated in his two years and borrowed some from Luke.

Pineapple, Honeydew and Strawberries skewered into a hay bale.  Gotta love it!

I made Grant's cake with lots of four layered love complete with a surprise inside...

Panera bagels and cream cheese, Yum-O

Ron even drove into Mobile the morning of so we could serve Krispy Kreme donuts.  Delish.

Chocolate covered pretzels made by yours truly

I'd say we were ready for the fun to begin!

Angel and Kimmy's families were the first two to arrive

The kids all loved playing here and all worked up quite a sweat and appetite!

My parents, visiting from NC, dressed in yellow to accompany our theme

Not long after the party started we sang "Happy Birthday to You" to Grant, he shocked me by being very bashful and hid his face the majority of the song in his shirt!

He had plenty of practice earlier in the week blowing out birthday candles so he was ready.  Grant huffed and puffed and nothing happened.

So, he commissioned the help of his buddy Ward.  With Ward's help they were able to blow out both candles!

and I was able to serve this...

Taking refuge in the shade, Allison, Kimmy and Emily

Chloe and Grant loved playing in the drink bucket.  The water and ice was so much fun that Chloe accidentaly fell in head first scaring her Mama to death!

Sweet Hugh

Brooks and Savannah swinging

Grant loved celebrating his birthday in his Daisy Faye Designs T-shirt made by my dear friend Kim

I'd say Gaga and Papa were thrilled to be apart of Grant's big day and he loved having them here!

Sweet Luke coloring on our paper tablecloths.  The coloring proved to be a nice way for the kids to cool down after playing hard!

Olivia and Scarlett had fun playing in the party hats!

Grant had help from Cameron and Camille yelling "hey" to all his party guests from the parks' tower

Cameron and Grant coloring

Emma and Savannah cooling off with Capri Suns

My sweet family celebrating Grant's second birthday!

Ron and his buddies

The party favors, green and yellow crayon books, they were a hit!

Thanks to all who helped celebrate our sweet boys 2nd Birthday, it was a blast!

Grant Turns Two

In other words, the best birthday ever.  Grant's second birthday was amazing! 

He awoke confused because Gaga and I were singing him "Happy Birthday to You."

He received lots of cards in the mail, this one is from Grandma and Grandpa Wendt.

Grant and Mommy before leaving to meet Dada for lunch

Grant had birthday candles in his pizza!

After naps we kidnapped Savannah and went to Kangarooz to jump!

They had a ball!

after playing for an hour or so we decided it was time for cupcakes

Off to Twist we go, Savannah got to have two candles of her own to blow out as well!

Grant devoured his vanilla birthday cupcake and Savannah thought her chocolate birthday cupcake was delicious

After cupcakes we came home and the neighbors came over bearing gifts.  Cameron decorated the gift bag Grant's Cars Movie and Race car was in.  He loved the car as you can tell by his face!

Grant is so fortunate to have so many of his friends help celebrate his second birthday

Can you imagine the chaos that was going on behind me trying to get all the kiddos to look in my direction?  Totally worth it.

After some backyard fun we came inside, had dinner and Savannah showed Grant how to play "ring around the rosies"

"we all fall down!"

Now it's time for presents!  Dada helps open his bubble lawnmower from Gaga

"Oh My Gosh," Grant's new favorite statement.  He picked that one up from his Gaga...

"This lawnmower is awesome!"

Grant adores this firetruck.  I'd say, it's a winner!

Ron and I are truly blessed to have such a loving and sweet little boy as ours and are thankful to have spent two wonderful years with Grant.  He is such a joy and is our best adventure yet.  Happy Birthday Grant!

23 Months

I wanted to document Grant's life at 23 months because it is the last time I will be refering to his age in terms of how many months old he is and I personally want to remember this time in his life.  After next Thursday, I will officially have a two-year-old, in fact, for some time now we have been telling people "He will be two in August." 
Grant is full of life, energy, personality and has recently become quite good at putting sentences together.  Everyone always tells you that when they start talking and actually making sense that it seems to happen overnight!  That's how it's been with Grant.  It seems like he just woke up one morning and was like, "Look Momma, a helicopter!"  "Look Momma, What's This?"  "Ouch Momma, It hurts."  "Dada, Come Play!" 
When we came home from Destin, we took Grant to the doctor because he had been suffering with a deep congested cough for a couple of days and we wanted to make sure it wasn't serious.  When Grant wasn't feeling his best he was overall cranky and whined instead of talking.  I knew within a couple of days that he was feeling like himself again because one particular morning he awoke talking up a storm!  I went to put him in the car that morning and he said, in this particular order:
Beep Beep
Honk Honk
Look a lawnmower!
Water Off
Water Off is one of his favorite sayings.  Don't ask me where he got it from?  The shower?  The faucet?  I don't know he'll randomly tell us that the water is off when we are not even anywhere near running water.
Grant loves his gummy vitamins.  We call them dinosaurs because they are in the shape of dinosaurs.  Grant knows that he gets "one" dinosaur a day.  He will go to the cabinet where they are point and say, "A Dinosaur?" and when you tell him yes, he says, "Yay!" and claps his hands in triumph!  He is so proud of his dinosaur that he won't eat it.  Instead he walks around the house with it, squeezes it between his fingertips, talks to it.  After it's all good and fuzzy from lent and dirt, then he will eat it.  We have used the term "dinosaur" to our advantage recently calling Grant's antibiotic, "dinosaur juice."  We call raisins and craisins dinosaurs and because of this, he can't get enough! 
Grant can count to three and knows (the majority of the time) the colors, yellow, green, red and pink.  I know you are all asking yourselves, pink?  Why not blue?  Answer: He knows I paint my toes pink and it has stuck.
Grant had his first nightmare last night.  At 9:30 he awoke screaming and crying, "Momma, Dada!"  I ran up the stairs, he arose and couldn't tell me fast enough that "a firetruck, a firetruck, it bite me!  It bite me!"  He kept saying it over and over and said it with such conviction there was no denying that this was his first bad dream.
Grant does not like for his hands and feet to be dirty.  He hates to be wet.  He also hates for his feet to get wet and then to have cut grass stick to them.  He says, "Eeewwww" and is overall uncomfortable until the situation is resolved.  He will walk up to me with dirty hands and seek out a napkin to wipe them.  He just recently picked up a dead magnolia bloom off the ground and said "Eeewwww, dirty" and proceeded to throw it over the fence.  He did not want this unattractive thing near him or in his yard.  Grant is a fantastic golfer.  Ron just sawed down his golf clubs and now they are his perfect fit.  He has one heck of a golf swing and spends about an hour every evening hitting golf balls.
He continues to amuse us and amaze us everyday with things he picks up on and says.  I know the fun is just beginning and can't wait to enter the terrible terrific twos!  ;)