birthday bear

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated Jake's second birthday with a low key party at home. We invited a couple of friends, the Bowmans and the Bentons, over for dinner and dessert and just let the kiddos play.

 

Earlier in the day, Jake received this digger in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa.  It happens to be from the same set as the bulldozer Charlotte and Toby picked out for him, so he has been having a lot of fun with the two of them together.  (He even tried to sleep with them in his bed the first few nights.)

 

I tried to keep the menu simple and in line with Jake's favorite things, so we had BBQ chicken, sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli, grapes, and raspberry lemonade.  And there were chips and snacky things too, of course.  Since diggers and dirt are Jake's favorite things right now, I made a "dirt cake" for the kids' dessert and a "mud pie" for the adults' dessert. 

 

Mmmm...  crushed Oreos, pudding, Cool Whip and gummy worms.  :P

The adult version was a pudding deesert as well, but with a pecan crust and cream cheese and no Oreos.  :)

 

It was a rainy day out, so we had the kids all roll this ice cream ball around the living room to make a quart of ice cream as well.  It was our first time using it, and the ice cream was pretty good, considering it was made by little kids playing for 30 minutes.  We tried it again another night since then, and the ice cream came out much firmer with Rob and I rolling and shaking the ball around.

 

 

Jake received such perfect gifts from his friends!  A piggy bank (which he had been just recently asking for- since both Charlotte and Toby have ones.) And a punching balloon, which was a stroke of genius!  All three of our kids have loved playing with that.

 

His own soccer ball and cones! 

He knew immediately what these were, as again he has had the little brother torture of having to watch Charlotte and Toby play on teams, while he is still too young to join in.  And a fun sprinkler, which we will for sure be making use of in our new backyard (which is large and grassy but boring.)

 

We just adore Jacob. 

He is so loving and cuddly.  He watches everything that we do, and tries his best to be "big" and keep up.  He is another chatterbox in this already talkative household.  He worries when someone cries, but would rather sit in time out than say "I'm sorry" when he has done something wrong.  He loves music and drawing as well as dirt and diggers.  He is easygoing and kind to other children and animals.  He eats everything.  (Which is perhaps why he was 37 inches tall (98th%) and 32 pounds (90th%) at his 2 year old check-up.)

 

Happy second birthday Little Bear!