Birthdays

After my last birthday, I really thought about how we celebrate birthdays, why we celebrate birthdays and who exactly this celebration is for.  My first conclusion was that birthdays should be for the mom, the person who birthed you.  Deciding this was a little selfish and a touch on the macabre side, I shifted my thinking.  I concluded that I would like for our family to take birthdays as an opportunity to celebrate and appreciate an individual.  Newsflash: this doesn't mean flashy parties (unless the birthday person enjoys flashy parties), this doesn't mean presents galore just for the sake of presents, and it doesn't even mean that there must be cake (but who doesn't like cake?!).  It means creating a unique opportunity to celebrate what makes someone an individual.   This is why we did the stuff we did for Ryan's birthday.

The morning of Ryan's birthday, Nana and I took two little blueberry monsters to a mom and pop blueberry farm in the middle of nowhere NY.  Despite their cry that their fields were decimated by hail, we had a blast picking our own berries!

We could have gotten them cheaper at the grocery store.  They probably would have been bigger and sweeter than our self-picked booty, but you cannot buy the kind of fun we had in the produce section of Hannaford.  Celebrating our Ryan Man's love of "boo beeries" was a fabulous way to spend the morning of his second birthday.

We hit the park, which was one of Ryan's favorite things we did while we were in Lake George.  We did it pretty much 3/4 of the days we were there, but since Ryan (and Thomas) love it, we did it again as a family!

We chose the menu based on what Ryan likes when we go out to eat.  Very non-traditional for a two year old.  Whenever we go somewhere that has a choice like a mall foodcourt or a foodcourt at an airport, given the choice, Ryan picks Chinese food.

Our special cake from Lori is always a highlight of mine on trips back home.  This time, we chose a favorite Sesame Street character.  We loved the cake...and what the blue frosting did to our tongues.

We ballooned Nan and Papa's house right up.  Mylar balloons are not the quietest of balloons, but again, it was Ryan and his loves we celebrated that day, not our own.

We even had a dance party in the rain!  After dinner, we all convened on the front porch.  I had the bright idea to dance with the boys in the rain.  We normally dance in my bedroom at home, but this just seemed like the right thing to do with Ryan on his special day.  Much to everyone's excitement, Aunt Erica joined us! 

Ryan is a special little guy.  We had a great day tailored to him.  If there were more than 12 wakeful hours in the day, we might also:

Bring him to Chili's for lunch and feed him nothing but "chips and sauce."

Play baseball, tennis, hockey, golf, boxing, football, swimming and every other sport known to man.  Of course, we'd be amazed at how good he is at each and every one of these things.

Let him "jump high" from every piece of furniture in the house without warning him about the danger of him getting hurt or scolding him about it.

And for bedtime, read him the Lowe's Outdoor Power catalogue over and over and over and over,  then have Mama rock him, sing "Farmer in Dell" and put him in his crib for a sound sleep from 8pm until 7am.

Happy 2nd Birthday to our little one, Ryan.  Your fearlessness will take you far...and probably get you into trouble, but Thomas will always be there to catch and support you (and lecture you about it aterward).  Your strong will is another great asset...and will probably get you into trouble at school, but your dad will bail you out (and you guys will laugh about it together despite the evil eye your mother gives you).  Your subtle thoughtfulness should never go unnoticed...but it probably will, except for by your mother (who is already proud of your actions). 

Excuses, excuses

I seem to have a run on excuses.  I have excuses for why I haven't started exercising more.  I have excuses for why I didn't cook a proper dinner.  I have numerous excuses as to why I haven't posted in two months.  Here are a few:

We have been settling into our new house in our new neighborhood in a new town in a new state which is in a new time zone.

Frisco is full of neighborhoods.  We love ours.  We've met awesome neighbors and as much time as we can playing with them.  We made sure to be around for the neighborhood 4th of July parade.  Kids decorated wagons and bikes to be festive and celebrated at the pool with sno cones.  Someone in our family had four of them.

We chose our neighborhood, Heather Ridge Estates, in part because it had a community pool.  The boys and I love to spend the hot, hot mornings there.

Because it's over 100 degrees in Frisco now, we headed back to New York for three weeks.  This gives me the excuse of being way too busy and having way too much fun to post.  Seriously.  I have mentioned it no less than 10 times over 20 days.  My sister, who also visited Lake George mentioned it at least twice.  My mother was almost too busy having a blast with the boys to mention it, but she did manage to find time to bring it to my attention that it's been over two months since giving her new reading material.  Fortunately for her and for our boys, she  has the luxury of living it rather than reading about it.

We had a week of bonding time with cousin Elizabeth.  She loved Thomas and Thomas loved her.  He was an ideal baby distractor.  While Erica was away for a quick weekend getaway, I managed to teach Baby Elizabeth a thing or two too.

Most important lesson: how to make s'mores

We hit up all the hot spots.  We did a kid's theme park called Magic Forest, ponied up and hit up Six Flags' Great Escape, had a VIP ride on the Minnie Ha Ha, visited the local park at least four times a week, took a scenic ride with Nan and Pop's friends Kevin and Rose, and had a blast playing in the lake at Nana's beach.

Loving the train with Aunt Barb

Basketball at the park was a favorite past time

We celebrated Ryan's 2nd birthday while in Lake George.  He loves everything.  Tractors, Bob the Builder,  baseball, Sesame Street characters, tennis, and anything Thomas does.  After much deliberation, we settled on a Cookie Monster cake and Sesame theme.

Of course, while we have been in LG, we miss our friends from Texas.  Carter and Hazel from down the street, Hayden and Grayson from the pool, Aariv and Mary from our days at the apartment.

Excuse after excuse after excuse.  You'll have to pardon me, as we've been busy enjoying this wonderful ride of life with children.