Birthday Fiesta!

It happened, yes its true... My little baby boy has now officially hit the big number 2!!!! 

For me It doesn't feel much different then when he turned 23 months, but it feels WAY WAY different then when he turned a Year old!  He's SOOO BIG NOW!  So many changes happened over these last 12 months... We moved from Walking to RUNNING, babbles to simple SENTENCES, and tears to Full blown TEMPER TANTRUMS! 

Like a true eccentric TYPE A personality that I am I went totally wild with the party planning for my baby's 2nd birthday.  And because of logistics opted for 3 different parties on 2 different weekends...

A friend 'Explorer' party, Clays side and My side party.  This past Sunday we held a Casual 'EXPLORER' friend's party and Clay's Family party at our place in Whitecourt.

However the party's were not the only celebrating we did this weekend, as William's actual birthday was on Friday. 

The morning of William's Birthday He woke at 7am(ish) to a whole lot of BALLOONS!
which didn't leave his hot little hands until bedtime that night.

Goofing around on the day of his birthday with an Early birthday present he received the day before... This is Williams "House"  a good place for 2 year old to hide balloons and other contraband.

The infamous BALL PIT! This MAGICALLY appeared on William's Birthday.



Birthday Gifts from Mommy and Daddy- Picnic table and Dora of course!



I had to work the Friday evening of William's actual birthday so we did CAKE on Saturday for William.  His reaction to the sparkler. 

Friday and Saturday was pretty low key and William enjoyed the simple pleasures of a birthday, a few gifts, cake and lots of singing "HAPPY BIRFDAY!!!"


But on Sunday William Woke to a DORA The EXPLORER WONDERLAND!
(Dont judge... Yes I know that Dora is mostly considered a 'Girls' thing, but my Son ADORES her, and watches her show everyday.)

The Theme was an EXPLORER PARTY

MAP- First you go through the Jungle, then Across Crocodile Lake to get to William's Birthday FIESTA!

 The Jungle with the Swinging Vines

Crocodile Lake with Dora's Pirate Ship

 The Birthday Fiesta!!!

 Swiper made it too...

And Tico and Benny!

More Balloons and a Happy little boy!

 Went Big on Decorations this year and Opted for an easier cupcake option.

The birthday craft- Decorating a "Back Pack".  Even the big kids like it! 

A couple of "back packs"

 Birthday Cake #2.

 William and His best Friend Joey... can you tell they hang out together a lot? lol!

William and Joey opening gifts

Awww, Look what you got Clay! 

Kaidyn and Tristian playing with the cool Diego gift they got William!

After this awesome fun morning William had a good nap and Clay's Family Arrived for the 2nd party.  All Clay's Grandparents made it out along with his Mom and Dad and Auntie Meagan and Uncle Matt.  We had a great visit, some supper and of course more CAKE and Presents!

 Opening Gifts with Baba

He totally Knows what cake is now! And Even Blew out his Candle by HIMSELF!


A long and fun day!  The only draw back is that I'm pretty sure William now thinks that his birthday will always be 3 days long, as he has had special things each day this weekend, and continues to sing the Happy Birthday song each day to us.  Teaching him birthday celebration limits will be difficult as we still have one more celebration to do next weekend... Oh well!

 Playing with his train set at the end of the long day!

NOW HOW AM I GOING TO TOP THIS NEXT YEAR?!?!?  LOL! 

Jumping on the Band Wagon

I have never been the person who jumps on each new trend as soon as it surfaces.  I tend to follow things for a year or two and once the hype has came down I will acquire said trend.  For example when growing up, Doc Marten shoes where totally IN when I was in middle school; I didn't acquire these until early in High school (they weren't really trendy (or brand name) at that point, but I liked them!);  My love for designer purses came after many years of watching and waiting for the "perfect" one; My 'trendy' hair cuts are often mirror images of styles popular a year before, I'm just starting to get the "buy for quality not quantity" when choosing new clothes.  And I have only recently started texting.

Often the delay in jumping on the figurative bandwagon is because of expense.  If I'm going to spend "THAT MUCH" money I better really really like it!  Plus I like to shop around for the best deal, and/or I am not totally trusting of my style choices so I need to "see it" to believe it! 

The reason for this reflection is due to Clayton and my most recent extravagance.  Yes everyone, the time has came... I am now a proud owner of an iPhone!  Although we bought a iPod a couple years ago, it has became Clayton's more or less so this iPhone is my very FIRST endeavour in to the Apple family! 

I have been pretty please with myself.  My new phone doesn't leave my side,  I have downloaded many free "apps", including a pocket mirror app, ibooks, and a handy little flashlight!  I primarily have been using the iPhone to feed my FACEBOOK addiction and have been texting, oh have I been texting!  I also have just finished reading Pride and Prejudice on it.  I heart my new iPhone!  It is so fun, and I feel so amazing for having one! HAHAHA!

Clay also got a new phone, his is not the coveted iPhone but is a Smart phone and he really loves it too.  You can find us spending quality time with each other checking facebook on the couch or exploring new features at the supper table.

Although I my dear iPhone can do no wrong in my eyes, it cannot be deemed "perfect".  I seem to be having technical difficulties using it as an actual "phone".  It seems to drop calls often.   However I will not let these blemishes tarnish my good opinion.  I am quite content with my decision on this purchase and will continue to savior my iPhone relationship!


Due to the excitement of the new addition to my life I have not been taking many pictures.  So I don't have a picture for this week's "Cant turn your Back for a Minute" segment.  However I do have a story....

Last night Clayton and I were catching up on our favorite TV show "How I met Your Mother" down stairs.  William was hanging around with us when we heard him go upstairs.  As it is not unusual for him to go up stairs and get some toy he needs or item he wants, we didn't think much of it.  Sure enough as we expected we heard him coming back down the stairs minutes later and he ran right to us with a pudding in his hand.  He handed us the pudding and just as we were about to say "sorry buddy, can't have this until snack" he revealed to us what was in his other hand... A steak KNIFE!!!! The shocked look and gasps of horror that escaped Clayton and my lips were soon echoed by hysterical laughter that is only appropriate after such a horrifying scary experience!  William had obviously attempted to reach in to the utensil drawer for a spoon to eat the pudding he desired. He grew allot taller then we had realized!
Just as you think you have finished baby proofing the house, you are once again amazed at the things that an Active almost-2year old can find!!

Cabin Fever

Its been only a couple short weeks since we returned from our trip and we have more then once wished for the warm sun and sandy beaches of California or anywhere for that matter!

More snow than I have ever seen has graced our part of the world!  We have been scraping, shovelling and cursing the fluffy white stuff.  Which is not as light and fluffy as it appears to be!  Snow piles over 8 feet tall skirt our front yard thanks to the town's snowplows.  Our back yard is impassable, the meter guy made the perilous trek once and our dog has packed down a couple tracks to make backyard play almost possible.

William venturing out in to the snow covered back yard.

Our "Volcano", named by William, Our very own sledding hill!

Winter-y Fun!

Scary Sight!  Clayton out our front window,  He is face to face to me, approx 6 feet from the ground.

The snow and lack of sun has limited our energy levels and in turn our activities have moved indoors.  We have been using the Library card and checking out lots of DVDs, spending our days keeping warm in the house.  Not all has been idle, we have kept busy-

 William has taken up writing.  Unfortunately not always on paper.  And sometimes the crayons are more snacks then writing utensils.

 William has also taken up music... He enjoys rocking out with his Guitar...

 And exploring the creative world of fashion.

 Clayton has been trying to keep the Disney Magic alive...

And I finished decorating/designing Williams big boy room.  And have completely moved William into it.  William hasn't slept in his crib since we returned from our trip and although some nights we are chasing him back to bed for 2hours he is sleeping all night in his room and really loves it!  ( I love it too!!!!)

The Weather man seems to think that we wont be seeing the grass anytime soon, so we will continue to plug along.  Trying to stay warm and keep our sanity as we find ways of curing our cabin fever!

Californication

At the beginning of January we Jetted off to California for a week full of sun, fun and Mickey Mouse!

Bye Bye REALITY!

We left just in time, as the day after we left winter reared it ugly head and Alberta turned in to a giant snow globe.

Dora, our airplane life saver!

We started our journey in San Diego.  After a fairly uneventful flight (William fell a sleep 10minutes before we landed); we had an eventful experience picking up our rental car.  We will not get in to specifics but we learnt some valuable lessons!  Finally we headed to our hotel (after a quick trip to Burger King-- West jet only gives you cookies and juice for snack!).   We stayed right in OLD TOWN SAN DIEGO, the first settlement in California.  It was a great area, close to pretty much everything we wanted to do.

Interesting Church name.

So happy!  Watch out for Cactus's!

Anything in there William?

The first night we toured around the historical Old Town settlement; and when I say toured, I mean chased after our child and tried to make sure he didn't fall in to a cactus, unfortunately i should have been watching Clayton closer, because not two minutes after I stated " CLAY, watch that he doesn't touch one of those cactus's!"  Clay ran his shoulder into one... Thank god to long sleeve shirts!  

Our list of things to do in San Diego included; Sea World, The San Diego Zoo, Coronado Island and a harbor cruise were we got to see Sea Lions and Some army Navy ships.  I would suggest all of these adventures in San Diego and we had a great time!  A word of advice would be to invest in a good map or have GPS handy... Usually we are very good at navigating in strange city's however in San Diego we got to 'experience' many out of the way areas of San Diego.  The Free maps they give you ARE NOT sufficient!

Shamu

Beauty shot of the Harness

the "leash"  Doesn't really work for William, he tends to pull to the end and fall down in a hissy.

Playing with Sting rays

The Killer Whale

Sesame Park at Sea World... William playing with the foam blocks... Wondering where he gets this organization impulse?

First Ride ever




We didn't realize how bad this looked until after!

Sea Lion male on the Harbor cruise... He's saying..."that's right I'm Awesome!"

 


Building a New navy Ship from the hull up... Pretty neat!  Lots of cool Ships to look at on the Harbor cruise... We did a 2hr cruise, because William fell asleep!



The Famous Sailor kissing a Nurse from Times Magazine...  Our take on it...However Clay sucks and only pretended to kiss me... Nice huh!









Playing on the Beach at Coronado Island






William and Frank the Gorilla playing tag... So cute! Frank would tap on the glass and run then William would chase him.



William was AMAZING.... Take that anyway you want! 
He slept, ate nothing but french fries, cookies and apple juice, ran away from us in large groups, enjoyed lots of kids rides,laughed and smiled allot!  Totally worth it!

After 4 days in San Diego we loaded up the Ford Focus and drove 3hrs to  LA.  We got to experience LA traffic which is wonderfully frustrating.  An impromptu decision to go to Universal Studios gave us this amazing experience!  Clayton and I discussed what we wanted for this trip.  And both accepted the fact that travelling with a Toddler means that we will not see EVERYTHING.  The most important thing was too make sure we all enjoyed the trip.  Translation=  Make sure William has fun!  So at Universal we did what was fun for William.  We met Dora, Curious George, Shrek and SpongeBob!  Then we played for over an hour in this place that was like a GIANT ball popper room!  It was like a dream come true for William!  LOL!

The ball popper room!  Tonnes of little foam balls and air popper guns, vacuum's and other things that shoot balls everywhere!

After our wonderful 1/2 day at Universal we did the hour trek back thru LA to Anaheim and DISNEYLAND!  Our hotel was about a 10minute walk from our room to inside the park, it was awesome!
Disneyland was a blast!  We spend 3 days exploring the park, meeting Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Chip and Dale!  There was lots of rides that William could go on!  We even went on Pirates of the Caribbean, which I was afraid would be too intense but he just sat there, held my hand and absorbed all the 'YO-HO HO, its a Pirates life for me!'.

Welcome To Disneyland!!!

The Tea cups!  We were spinning pretty fast!

Mickeys house... and Chair!

Pluto's bed



William's First roller Coaster ride!



Tea at Minnie's house

Caged animal!

The Jungle cruise!

Have a MICKY  DAY!

California Adventure park had a great night time show called "World of Color".  It was an amazing fountain, light and laser show!  It really helped make our experience MAGICAL!!! 

A ride at California Adventure's Its a Bug's life.

The Ferris wheel

Climbing about in the Forest adventure area!






I got stuck



Another interesting tunnel!



Watching the World of Color show

A small clip from the show

Cars!

William LOVED the Merry go Round!

Reactions to Its a Small World!  yeah....

William really checking out the Its a Small world Ride

Drives like his Mommy!

So many amazing moments were had during our trip! There was several interesting challenges travelling with a toddler.  And Clayton and I made some changes to the way we think when we travel.  We really don't have to see and do EVERYTHING, we just have to ENJOY EVERYTHING we do and see!


What we came home too! 

LA +27c

  



-25 in Whitecourt with 4ft of snow!

Sindy Travelled with us this time!