2nd Birthday Party Fun!

Well, we finished up mister mister's birthday week celebration with a party at out local play pool.  Ryder had a fabulous time!  The community pool that we rented is geared towards preschool aged children... shallow water, slides, lots of shooting water everywhere... a kids dream.  No joke, this was one of the easiest, low maintenance, and most fun parties we have thrown.  It was a total success.  The constant smile on Ryder's face the whole time we were there was proof of that.  

I've said it a thousand times before, but OMG, Ryder has no fear.  That kid was all over the place jumping off things, sliding the fast twirly slides by himself even after he flipped over and fell off them.  The other kids there his age either wouldn't go down the slide or they would only go down with an older kid holding them.  Not crazy Ryder... he was all about it.  

Savannah's bright idea: Her and Ryder slide down the super wet and twisty slide together.  Yeah, um... probably not the smartest idea.  They both thought it was greatness... I did not.  Ryder was all contorted and fell off the slide.  Look at the pictures... cracks me up that after that he was begging to go again with sissy.

Oh the big girls at the party... they were inseparable... and constantly up to something.  At one point they were helping each other get into the slide backwards and then they were trying to slide down four at a time.  I'm shocked we walked away without one of them getting hurt.  

The tiny bit of decorating I did for his party... he loved his Jake and the Neverland Pirates cupcakes.  Super cute and super easy.  I also threw some Jake tablecloths down and called it a day... told ya'... it was the easiest party ever.

Singing happy birthday to the birthday boy.  He is such a cutie and loved every minute of the attention being on him.  So opposite of his big sister who hates that kind of attention.

A cupcake, a fistful of cookies, and a mouthful of more cookies... it's good to be two!  Happy birthday sweet boy!

Happy 2nd, Little Man!

Happy 2nd birthday Master Ryder!  We had a lovely day celebrating here at the house... lots and lots of big trucks and big cars were involved.  He was one very happy boy.

Birthday breakfast at the Cracker Barrel... Ryder pretty much thought the singing and cha cha chaing waitresses were crazy.

2 In One Week

It is hard to believe that in just one week from today our little mister will be turning 2!  He is one crazy wild, big truck loving, thrill seeking little boy.  He drives us all a little batty sometimes... especially Savannah.  He wants to be around his big sister constantly.  I can hardly remember what it was like around here before the constant yelling and running and big truck driving.  He sure has added a whole lot of fun to our days.

Road Trippin' Like A Boss

Another road trip to California under our belt... and I have to say, the kids were freaky good in the car.  Like seriously better than they have ever been on a road trip.   The first day we were in the car for 14 plus hours and it wasn't until the last 45 minutes or so of the drive that Ryder started to fuss.  All I can say is "THANK YOU, GOD!!".  Please please please let us have a repeat experience on the drive back to Texas.  It probably helped that we were in no rush.  We stopped several times to stretch and eat and walk the dogs.  I swear that is so crucial when traveling with kids.... even just 15-30 minutes of freedom from the car is a fantastic way for them to recharge their batteries.  One of the rest stops that we stopped at along the way was super nice and even had a playground for the kids.  We ended up staying there for nearly an hour.  Even with all the stopping we still managed to make really good time. We pulled into our hotel in Phoenix around 9pm (PST) and then promptly passed out.  Kids were done, dogs were done, I was done.  The next day we met up with our friends the Reschs for some swimming and grilling.  It's nice to have friends along the way that we can stop and play for a day with.  It really breaks the drive up nicely.

Lunch time at the Pecos rest area... seriously super nice.

Stopped for dinner and to find out what "The Thing" was (spoiler alert: it's just some crusty old mummy... boring), and then Savannah asked if she could wash the windows... Uh, absolutely.  Love having a big kid.

Our day with the Reschs and their new (well, almost a year now) baby boy, Wyatt.  He was absolutely precious and so chill.  I am so glad that we finally got to meet that little man.

No, your eyes do not deceive you.  Yes, that is Ryder jumping into the pool.  I guess that the concern I expressed in my last post about Ryder maybe not being a fan of swimming turned out to be for nothing.  He was all about the water this time around.  I am assuming it was because the water was a heck of a lot warmer then any of the pools we had gone in back in Texas.

She is obsessed with underwater pictures.

I had to take video to prove that Ryder was enjoying himself in the water.  Not only was he enjoying himself, but he was wanting to enjoy himself all by himself.  He finally figured out that his little swim float will keep him above water.  Once he found that out he was all over the pool and would push us away from him.

School Holiday = Zoo Day!

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Savannah had a school holiday scheduled.  I'm not sure what exactly the holiday was for... but whatever, I'll take it.  As soon as I learned about the day off I immediately knew what we were going to do.  I had been trying for several weeks to find a time to take Ryder to the zoo.  Every time that I made plans to do that something came up or someone was sick, so needless to say, it never happened.  So now instead of just getting to take Ryder to the zoo, I was also going to get to bring sister!!  Love going places with my babies... these kids are seriously so much fun.  The three of us had a great time at the zoo.  I'm not exaggerating at all when I say that this was one of the best zoo day I have ever had.  The animals were so social and playful... I'm not sure I have ever seen so many animals so eager to be seen and interact with people.  The monkeys were out acting crazy and even better than that the gorillas were out.  There was one that sat right in front of the kids at one of those huge windows and just played peek-a-boo with them.  It was amazing.  Savannah was totally in awe of how human like the gorilla was.  The absolute best part of the day was the beautiful white tiger that paced back and forth in front of a huge window right in front of us.  Since we were in no rush and it wasn't very crowded when we were there, the three of us sat and watched the tiger for almost an hour.  We just couldn't walk away from him.  I could go on and on about all the cool animals we saw... if only every trip to the zoo was like this.

Savannah is always so eager to learn something new.  She made us stop at every single one of the informational signs at the zoo to listen to the recording.  Then she made me read the sign to her.

Here he is... the beautiful tiger that entertained the kids for a very long time.  Ryder was right up at the glass until the tiger got right in front of him and put his paw on the glass.  That freaked him out a bit... he didn't get quite as close after that.

Thanks to Pinterest, I found a link to a free printable zoo passport.  So I printed out the pages and stapled them together for miss Savannah.  She loved it.  Each page had a different animal on it and once we saw that animal we would stop and sit and she would color it.  There was also a page in the back for her to write about things that she observed.  Girl loves to write sentences, so she quickly filled up that page with animal info she had learned.