An Exciting Day

It was a very eventful day at our house today.  First on the agenda...celebrating Austin's second birthday!  Technically he turned two yesterday, but today it was time to party!

I don't go all out on second birthdays but we had family here and Steven cooked out on his grill and we had perfect weather.  Austin enjoyed his dinner.  He didn't eat too much because he'd already filled up on chips and queso but since it's his birthday that's okay.

The guys ate outside on our beautiful patio furniture complete with kiddie table.  And why is it the kiddies have a table when the grown ups do not?  Something about that doesn't seem quite right but anyway, I digress.

Did I mention Austin enjoyed his food?

Then it was time for the main event...the cake!  Austin had seen the cake when he got up this morning and was very upset he couldn't have it for breakfast.  He blew out his candles with just a little help. (And yes I realize that sticking toy farm animals on top of a cake is lazy decorating but Austin's two and he liked it!)

And he finally got a taste!  I made a chocolate Italian cream cake.

And then he picked up his spoon and decided to help himself.

The cake was yummy!

And the ice cream was cold!

Then it was time to open presents.   He got lots of nice things.

He doesn't quite have the idea of ripping the paper off yet.

Gavin very helpfully looked over his shoulder just in case he needed help at any point.

At think at any age, when your sitting on the floor surrounded by tissue paper you know it's been a good day!

One of the first things he wanted to try out was his new giant coloring pad!

After the party we went to Gavin's soccer game and then we went down to take a walk on the trail and Gavin rode his bike with no training wheels!  He's been asking me to take the training wheels off his bike since last summer but I thought he was way too young.  Today he proved me wrong!

Here he is getting ready to set off....

Receiving a few last minute instructions....

Starting to pedal....

And he's off!!!!

And he needs to work on his dismount!

So he tried again.  And he's off!

Still a little wobbly...

So it went pretty much like this.  Dad or I helped him get pushed off, he ride a little bit and then stop.  By the end he was going a good distance and getting much steadier on the bike.  He's not using his brakes yet but he learned to put his foot down to catch himself without falling (most of the time).  The bike is just a little big so it's hard for him to reach the ground but he was doing a great job.  And then...it happened...

We had gotten to our halfway point and had turned back towards home.  We were about halfway back to the path that takes us back up into our neighborhood when Gavin, who had gotten quite a bit ahead of us and was doing great, all the sudden veered off the path and into the grass.  Unfortunately, the grass was covering a big muddy puddle of stagnant water that did not smell great and was very squishy.

Dad and I were very supportive and sympathetic, meaning we did our best not to let him see us laughing at him.  Anyway, here he is, not too happy!

I should have taken a picture of his back because his back and pants were caked in mud.  Here was his bike, surprisingly not too muddy.

Well, it took a bit of coaxing but he finally got back on his bike and rode the rest of the way home.  Apparently it's not comfortable to sit on a bike when mud is squishing under you...and again, we were very good not to laugh - audibly at least!

So that was our day!