Luke's Birthday Festivities

We kicked off Luke's Birthday festivities Saturday night
with a small family party.

One of Luke's favorite morning rituals in sitting in his chair, drinking milk and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so we decided to have his party centered around Mickey Mouse.

Birthday boy in his Mickey hoodie

Luke was beyond excited to have so many people he loves there to celebrate with him
Cheese!
My attempt at a Mickey cake, didn't turn out too terrible...
all that mattered was that Luke was able
to tell that it was Mickey

Luke wasn't quite sure about everyone
singing Happy Birthday to him

But he really got into the clapping after the song
He had a little trouble figuring out
how to blow out the candles

I think all that was coming out of his mouth was spit...
don't worry no one ate the contaminated Mickey ears
After many unsuccessful attempts to blow out the candles, Ryan and I decided that we should have had him practice blowing beforehand...there are so many things that you just assume your toddler knows how to do.

No practicing was necessary for unwrapping the presents, he's become a pro at that
Luke was thrilled to get Mack (from the Cars movie)

Aubrey wasn't quite sure what was going on, but I know she wanted to wish her big brother a very Happy Birthday

Luke's actual birthday was Monday and since it was FREEZING we couldn't do anything outside, so we loaded up and headed to the mall to ride the carousel, eat some Chick-fil-a,
and play on the hot dog truck.

While we were waiting for Aunt Kat and Ty to meet us,
I was playing around with the settings on my camera,
trying to get some cool shots of the kids

After some yummy Chick-fil-a (I will never get tired
of that place!), we went to take a ride on
the Christmas-themed carousel

Apparently for the Christmas season they remove all the normal animals and replace them with reindeer.

I really tried to get Luke excited about riding a reindeer, because our first (and last) trip to the carousel was a disaster.

It was just a few weeks before Aubrey was born and my sister-in-law and niece were in town, so we thought it would be fun to take the kids to the mall to ride the carousel.

Luke was beyond terrified of the entire carousel,
I tried to sit him on several different animals,
but he kept whining "nooo" and clung to me.

I even tried to get him to sit in my lap on one of the bench seats on the carousel, but he started to cry, so we just watched and waved to a beaming Parker
as she rode around and around.

Back to Monday, we get on the carousel and as soon as I place him on a reindeer he starts to whine and say he wanted off, but I was determined that he was going to enjoy the carousel this time, so I suggested to him that he wear the seat belt and assured him that I would hold onto him.

As you can see from the picture,
he wasn't completely thrilled to begin with
The riding part was ok, but he really got into waving to Ty who was sitting at the table watching Aubrey

Next, it was on to his favorite thing to do at the mall...
ride the Hot Dog Truck
He drove for a bit,
and then went to the back to take our orders
Two fries, three hot dogs, and two cokes, Comin' Up
Hot dogs, for me?!?
Yes, she REALLY does get that excited about food,
but No, we did not feed her any hot dogs

We had a wonderful time celebrating Luke turning 2!

Here's to the TERRIFIC TWOS! :)