Planes, Trains and Automobiles

With Owen's love of all things that go, we decided that for his 2nd birthday we would have a Planes, Trains, and Automobile themed party. The invitations and some of the decorations were ordered from Nounces Design. The invitations were made to look like a boarding pass, complete with tear-off sides. For the envelopes, we made map envelops centered on Tallahassee.

At the Filling Station we had mostly plane, train, and car themed food including Choo Choo Chips, Southwest Airlines pretzels, Go Fast Pasta Salad with wheel pasta, and Cloud Parfaits. We also had turkey, ham, and roast beef sandwiches and chocolate cake.

We were very fortunate again this year to have a wonderful day outside so we kept the food inside to keep the bugs away and the kids outside to keep the house standing.

The Birthday Boy "helping" set-up

For the decorations outside we had a Happy Birthday banner, some road signs, and paper airplanes and cloud hanging from the pergola. We also had lots of balloons and a bubble machine. The tables were covered with brown paper with roads and railroad tracks drawn on them and matchbox cars on the roads.

For the activities for the kids to play with we had them play on Owen's new swingset and we had bubbles set out. We also had some planes, trains, and cars made out of cardboard boxes for them to play in. As an activity and party favor, we had foam planes set out with markers for them to color on. The markers were washable since we did have a bunch of two-year olds running around, but as it turns out, the birthday boy was the only one who managed to get most of the color on him instead of the airplane.

We had a great crowd, several of our friends here in town and in the neighborhood along with all but one of Owen's classmates (she woke up sick that morning). Jed's parents were also here for the party and were a great help.

After plenty of play we opened up the sandwiches, followed by the cake. We brought the whole cake out for Owen to blow out the candles and take it back inside to cut it. Owen was so excited to see the cake and couldn't figure out why we were taking it right back away.

At the Railway Station (the front door bench) we had goodie bags set up for the kids to take home with them. For the bags we made suitcases out of brown paper bags. In them were suckers in the shape of a plane, train or car,  cotton candy "clouds," Happy Birthday Owen M&Ms and plane, train, and automobile crayons and coloring pages.

At the Baggage Check-In we had guests leave their gifts and we opened them later that afternoon. The party took a lot out of our little two-year old so we laid him down for a nap shortly after cake.

Owen had a great time opening presents and it didn't take him too long at all to get into the groove. He was very excited about his toys and wanted to play with everything right after we opened it. We took our time and let him enjoy it.

We all had a great time at the party and were so glad everyone was able to come celebrate Owen's special day with us.

Happy 2nd Birthday Owen

Owen's birthday was a busy day. That morning we met Terri at a local state park to take his 2 year photos. He wasn't in the greatest spirits because he had a touch of a bug, woke up the night before with a fever. She was great as usual though and did her best to get a smile, and she did. After pictures we dropped Owen off at school, where they celebrated his birthday, and his classmates birthday, which are on the same day, with cupcakes and crowns. After afternoon nap we picked up Owen with a special surprise, Grumpa and Grandmama came for a birthday visit. At home that evening we unwrapped presents. Owen was so funny each time he would rip off a piece about the size of his hand and hand it to Grumpa to hold. Not too long and he had the hang of opening presents down. After dinner, since we thought he wasn't going to have enough cake that weekend, we had cupcakes and Owen got to blow out his candle.

Owen having fun opening presents

Owen blowing out his candle so he can devour the cupcake

We had a good time celebrating our birthday boy and were looking forward to more celebration with friends that weekend.

Owen at 13 months

Having just had his 1st Birthday, Owen was ready to do and learn so many new things.  He is anxious to be near both mom and dad and see what we are doing.

Owen wanting to cuddle with a sick dad (thus the covered face).

Owen has a pretty solid routine at this point, not only for eating and napping but also nighttime activities.  (Almost) every night, Owen gets a bath, which is one of his favorite things.  After he has had his fill of bathtime, he gets out, gets dried off and goes streaking through the house.  He goes running out the the bathroom into the living room and gets the biggest smile on his face.  A few pictures from his streaking adventures one night...

Shortly after Owen's birthday we celebrated Thanksgiving.  We had a very nice long weekend.  Our friend from Jacksonville came over Wednesday night to to visit, spend Thanksgiving Day with us, and to meet Owen.  On Thursday we got up and drove across town to participate in the Turkey Trot 5K.  Jed and I jogged and walked it while Owen cheered on from the stroller.  Jed pushed him the whole way and when Jed slowed down Owen got fussy but when he sped up Owen laughed and got excited.  After the race we came home and cooked a turkey and all our usual side dishes.  It was time for Owen's Thanksgiving Dinner: Round 2 (if you'll remember he had some mashed potatoes and cranberry salad at a mere two and a half weeks old last year).  He loved it!  The cranberry salad was his favorite and the mashed potatoes and stuffing came in close second.

Owen's walking is really improving, right after his 1st Birthday he started walking backwards (just 2-3 steps) but loved his new talent.  Then shortly before his 13-month birthday he got to practice steps when we took him to get his hair cut.  He was quite the champ but wasn't completely confident on the way down.

Owen is such a big, strong, smart boy.  His favorite song is "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and loves it when his singing puppy sing it for him.  With the help of the song he has now knows where his head is.  He has also learned where his tummy is and can show you where they both are when asked.

Owen hanging out with daddy on the couch before bed.  He has moved more from momma's boy to daddy's little buddy.

Owen's feet must have been cold (despite the footie jammies) because in the morning we found him with feet tucked under the sheet saver.

Owen has learned to not only imitate us but also his friends from school.  We picked him up one afternoon and his teacher told us that one of his friends screams a very shrill scream when she gets upset or frustrated.  She then proceeded to tell us that our sweet little boy will lay on her to make her scream, just so he can imitate her with the biggest grin on his face.  We wondered why he was all of a sudden letting out the most ear-piercing screams.

 

Owen imitating Dad and trying to carry his backpack one morning.

Owen loves his food and usually lets none of it go to waste... however, one afternoon, we found him in the kitchen with a trail of goldfish behind him leading to the living room.  Not sure what happened that day.