A Bubah Pahty

Since he didn't get much of a first birthday celebration since we were moving into the house, I really wanted to do something special for Josh for his second birthday.  When deciding on a theme, I went with his most consistently favorite thing - bubbles.

We had a bubble vortex machine, a bubble maker and about every bubble apparatus that the sell at Target.  Let's just say they were all a big hit with Josh and his friends and even now weeks later, he keeps talking about his "bubah pahty" and keeps saying Wow.

We had bubble wrap for popping, bubbles for blowing and Josh's new birthday play set for keeping the munchkins entertained.

 I had lots of fun coming up with food items and decorations to fit out theme.  With lots of snacks and punch for the adults we were able to spend several hours enjoying the shade in the yard before everyone was worn out enough to need naptime.  First though, we had to make time for cake.

Josh and his friend Michelle capped off the party with the offiicial toddler handshake.

Pound

ET finger

High Five

It seemed like everyone had a great time and Josh says thanks for all the fun.

Happy 2nd Birthday Josh!

Since his party wasn't until Saturday, we had to fill Josh's birthday with some fun even though he was sick with another lung infection.  As usual though, the park was always a welcome distraction. 

After a trip to the pediatrician, yet another round of antibiotics and a three hour nap, the birthday boy was ready for some play time with his new toys.  He loved his new wheel barrow and had to find something to haul around until he could use it out in the yard.  

 

Then it was time for cake, strawberry at his request.

 It was obviously a hit.  

Happy Second Birthday Josh.  We love you so very much. 

Camping fun

For part of Scott's birthday present this year, I took a day off and promised him our first family camping experience.  After much deliberation over all the possibilities over where we should go, we decided on Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.  It's within a reasonable driving distance, offered a lot to do and satisfies checking off another national park on our family bucket list.

After a quick drive down to Kentucky, Josh was super excited to help set up camp.

Once everything was set up, we headed off to explore the cave.  The cave extends more than 390 miles and with my clausterphobia and a wiggly toddler we knew we would be limited in how much we could explore.  Luckily they have a relatively easy trail that was supposed to take less than two hours and still hit the highlights.  While it was a pretty easy trail, it sill had enough ups and downs, small squeezes and places to stoop over to prohibit using either the stroller or the backpack.  Josh did great though with walking on his own although we did have to cave and give him his pacifier because he kept screaming out "Wow!" everytime the ranger would point out a new formation and with the echo it was pretty distracting for the other folks on our tour.

After checking out the historic entrance and practicing our stair climbing, it was back to camp for some brats and camp time.

We were a little worried about keeping Josh entertained but it turned out that two Solo cups and a pile of gravel were plenty to keep him occupied until bedtime.

Once darkness set in, Josh was ready to face the night with his own camping lantern.

We did "cave" to some technology once bedtime rolled around and pulled out the Ipad for some Mickey mouse club (we were car camping after all).  Sleeping in his special new blow up bed in the tent right next to Mama and Papa was quite the novelty and we saw a lot of this.......

Before he finally settled down to sleep.

We were all up the next day with the birds chirping and after a failed attempt at a guided nature hike, we set off on our own into the woods.  Josh had a great time riding in his backpack and stealing Scott's hat.

After a couple of hours of hiking, evidently Josh was worn out from all the effort.

We spent the afternoon bike riding around the park and napping in the tent and wrapped up night two with a campfire and Josh's first smores.

After another great night of tent sleeping, Josh proved that being a good camper is in his genes.

To wear him out for the car ride home, we went on the one hike where he could actually hike since it had a boardwalk (there was a ton of poison ivy everywhere else in the park). 

After all that exploring, we made a quick stop at the park sign to take our family photo for the travel wall and capped off a very successful first family camping trip.