Collin's 2nd Birthday

I have six pictures of Collin's second birthday party, and one of them is of the desserts. We probably took 600 his first Easter, and then just six for the first birthday he has some awareness of being about him!

I sat back and relaxed most of his birthday party - quite literally because I had overdone it post miscarriage surgery the weekend before and knew being on my feet just slowed my recovery. So Cas, my parents, Libero and Elida got everything ready from cleaning the house to preparing the food while I sat around delegating.

We hosted our first kid party and it was more fun than I expected. The only cute factor came from decorations my mom bought, but it was low-key with good burgers, great guacamole, delicious petit fours and a huge bounce house to burn some energy. It had been a drizzly morning and we were concerned we'd have 12 kids and their parents stuck in our home, but it dried up enough to be outside for all but the cake.

Do you notice the three candles below? I caught it right before we started singing. In my defense, my family always does three candles no matter the age for yesterday, today and tomorrow - but that mostly applies to the 30+ candles needed to represent our ages!
Enjoying the icing -
Sugar rush in full effect. We had a week's worth of petit fours leftover, and pretty much gave Collin one each night as dessert. Then we'd enjoy listening to his sugar-crazed babbling when he was supposed to be sleeping.
Some of Collin's friend chowing down -
Cutie Caraline with her mom Jill. We've know Jill and her husband Luke since high school, Cas was roommates with Luke at A&M, now they work in the same industry, and our firstborns are 3 months apart.
Picture number 6 of the petit fours. I would like to say they were so rich, you could only handle one, but I'm pretty sure I ate at least 10 in the week following his birthday. Luckily, my boys are vanilla fans and I got sole claim to the chocolate ones.

Wrapping up 2011

We enjoyed time with Alex and Coady after Christmas, dragging them once again to one of Collin's favorite spots, the Children's Museum.

As soon as we make it to the Tot Spot, Collin makes a bee-line to milk the cow and imitate its sound:

Alex, Collin and Coady read some books and explored all the sections of the museum. While Collin napped, they went to Jewell Rae's for a lunchtime visit -

Then Bob, Carla, Daniel and Jackson joined us for dinner. Collin loved playing with puzzles and trains with his second cousins -

And delayed his bedtime with hugs for everyone -

A few days later, we met my mom, Amber and her 3 kids at the Houston zoo. Her boys are so sweet, playing along with Collin on the drums -

Holden takes Collin's hand after we leave the very busy sea lion show, and all four check out the monkeys. Since the kids outnumbered the adults, my hands were normally too busy to take photos, but we had a great time.

Back home, as I cleaned up one area of the kitchen, Collin was busy creating an even bigger mess, emptying out our spice drawer and proudly stacking the bottles on top of each other -

Later that night, our super hero posed for a few last pictures in 2011 and headed to bed for his beauty rest before another day saving the planet -

Christmas Day 2011

Christmas Day started off with pajamas and the Luke 2 Christmas story, with some creative positioning at the manger thanks to our block-loving child -
After we opened a few presents (like a wrapped up coloring book since he was inundated with gifts from family) and ate a huge, wonderful breakfast Cas prepared, we went to Grammy and Brownie's. Collin was shouting at full volume, "Merry Christmas" as we approached the house, but had a bit of stage fright when asked to repeat his line on cue. It didn't take him too long to warm up, and he was ready to greet the rest of the family when they arrived for lunch.
Cas, in non-Christmas colors, and me -
Because he clashed, Cas was delegated to the photographer role (Collin was napping here). Here's our small, relaxed Christmas crowd - my parents, brother and sister-in-law, me, my grandma and uncle all in holiday red -
Alex and Grandma Betty -
My mom, grandma and uncle -
The newlyweds celebrating their first Christmas as husband and wife -
Collin had plenty of attention and games while we attempted a very distracted lunch -
Feeling victorious with the promise of four layer delight dessert on the way -
Playing the "uh oh" kiss game my dad accidentally started ages ago. And how can you resist giving your grandson a kiss on request -

Hope your Christmas celebrations were filled with love and joy!

Christmas Eve 2011

Six weeks and a working hard drive later, I'll try to remember what happened over Christmas. We started out Christmas Eve at B's house for her birthday lunch, Alex and Coady having just arrived from the airport.

Collin hugging the birthday girl -
Then that afternoon, we went to Grandma Libia's house to celebrate with Libero, Elida, Lita and Libia. Collin with his grandma -
Hurry up with my Christmas present construction, Dad, I've got places to go -
Happy boy on his new trike -
For the last two years, we've given the grandparents photo books of Collin. After last year's reactions, I now expect tears of joy every Christmas!