Jake's 2nd Birthday!

posing with the birthday boy on his big day

mommy, Jakey and a truck

on the train!

checking out the empty train car

peek a boo

Jake and Joe on the train

not sure what he loved more - the rocks or the trains!

hurry up daddy!

birthday cupcake

he wanted a fork for the frosting :)

playing with his huge birthday balloon!

 Jake had a very eventful birthday week! Wednesday was his actual birthday, and Joe took the day off so we could celebrate as a family. We drove down to "Travel Town" to check out the trains. Jake loved the train ride, and he had a blast checking out the real train cars. He was having so much fun that it was hard to get him to leave. Eventually, we made our way back to the car and drove back to have lunch at our local Red Robin. Jakey had a yummy lunch, and then they brought him an ice cream sundae for dessert. It was really cute to see his reaction as the wait staff sang "Happy Birthday" to him :)

For dinner that night we BBQed hot dogs (Jake's fave) and had my parents, Nana and Joe's mom (who was in town for Jake's birthday) over for dinner. My parents brought us cupcakes for dessert, and we put a candle in Jake's and sang to him again. He had a great time opening presents and running around the house with his ginormous birthday balloon!

On Saturday, we had a birthday party for Jake at the zoo! It was monkey/banana themed, and as usual, I went a little nuts with the party decorations. Although I couldn't go too crazy, because we only had an hour to decorate before the guests arrived! The first part of the party was the animal show, and Jake would not sit still for longer than 30 seconds! He just wanted to roam around which would have been ok, except for the fact that the animal trainers didn't want him to get too close to the animals, and so we were constantly trying to get him to step away from the stage. Many tantrums, and many tears later, the animal show was over :) There were 2 monkeys in the show, along with a variety of other animals including a beaver and a goat. (Feel free to insert your own jokes here.) After the show, it was lunch time, and then cake time! Jake loved his monkey cake although I think he liked looking at it more than actually eating it! A few forkfulls of frosting and a bite or two of the cake and he was "all done." Then it was time to run around the zoo with daddy, while I stayed behind at the party area to say to play hostess.

All in all, it was a great birthday celebration. Despite Jake's crankiness during the animal show, the rest of the day went smoothly, and it seemed like all of the guests had a good time monkeying around at the zoo! We didn't take too many photos because I had hired my friend who just launched her photography business to take photos - check out her blog here: http://miggyhood.blogspot.com/   Can't wait to see her photos soon!


the beaver



the goat

all smiles before cake time

cake time



singing to our 2 year old!



Happy Birthday Jake!

This year it was so much more fun for Jake to have a birthday! We prepared him in advance and he knew that his birthday meant cake and "hesents" (presents) :) He could say "Happy Birthday" and he said it all weekend long! He loved his monkey cake and he loved checking out all his birthday cards and "opening" (watching me open) his presents. He kept wanting us to "open" each present so he could play with the new toy, read the new book, etc. Our friends and family were too generous and Jakey aquired way too many gifts! Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate our little man's 2nd birthday! It was so great to have all of Jake's buddies there to celebrate with him! This year he actually had friends to invite! We can't believe our cool little dude is now 2. No more counting months! And now it's time to start thinking about next year's party theme :)