Our Birthdays: And now he is two...

April 12th rolls around again, and just like that, Luke has turned two.

He has definitely grown and turned into a happy little kid!

His favorite thing in life is "Hom-as", as in Thomas the Tank Train.

So naturally his birthday party theme had to be Thomas the Tank!

His great grandfather's name is Harold soooo....of course Luke now has the Harold toy.

(His first train was the one named "Luke"; that little train is rarely out of his hand even when he sleeps.)

Enclosed with the toy was a sheet with a thumbnail photo of EVERY train "friend" of Thomas.

The menfolk went over them carefully.

Luke could say almost all their names and pointed them out to us too.

Good heaven.

Too much Thomas time in his life?

(His Thomas viewing is restricted to about an hour over all a day...)

Papa walks around the house singing the Thomas theme song all the time.

It is a catchy tune that gets stuck in one's head very easily.

Harold was held most of the party day.

Cute aren't they?

Just for the record...Luke's cat Cheeto attended the party and let all the children pet him as much as they wanted to.

Amazing don't you think, knowing how cats usually feel about small children?

When Luke also received Tonka truck toys he suddenly had a need for much larger hands.

I was glad to play trucks with him.

 

(Oh and the day before his birthday he got a Strider style bike. He is still just getting his balance!)

 

His baby brother Calvin was attending the party while still tucked away inside his stylish mom.

Two and a half months to go.

Dad Jeff prepared salads for the adult party guests and ordered pizza.

I was a bit amazed that Luke had at least five childless adults attending his party, including 5 PhDs who are huge Luke fans.

There were plenty of children in attendance too.

A stuffed bed buddy style Thomas was a big hit.

I remembered how sweet his tiny fingers were the day he was born.

Now he has boy hands, complete with scratches and a scraggly fingernail or two.

Diggers and bulldozers are fascinating, in real life and pretend, when one is just two years old.

(Well, let's tell the truth....I think great big grown up boys of all ages secretly are still fascinated by heavy construction equipment!)

"May I have a kiss?"

He gives wonderful kisses!

And notice that Harold was carefully held during that kiss!

(Jeff's childhood best friend Luke is a Black Hawk helicopter pilot.  There is something sweet about seeing this Luke clinging to a helicopter toy.)

Rachel's mom used to always make strawberry shortcake for Rachel's childhood birthdays.

Luke will be having the exact same treat for his birthday too.

While we wait for guests to arrive a bit of floor wrestling goes on.

Play fighting with grandpa is FUN!

Even when Papa winds up just hugging and kissing you in the end.

The baking short cake smelled wonderful...

Eventually friends arrived and the weather was perfect to be outside.

So many cute kids...

I didn't ask if I could use their photos which is too bad as they were all adorable.

Bernie and I had to leave without eating pizza OR having any short cake (it was still being baked) because we had reservations for dinner at a very special Bed and Breakfast up in Midway Utah.

We did a terrible time keeping track of time....suddenly it was 5 and our reservations were at 5:30!

And we still needed to pack!

It was hard to leave that sweet little birthday boy with his party in full swing.

Luke protested our departure but we had to run.

We gave lots of hugs and kisses and reminded him that he would see me/us soon, on Monday, when he would get to come to MY birthday party!

(to be continued!)