Birthday Celebrations...

 The morning of Atticus' 2nd birthday we went into his room singing our hearts out to the birthday boy and he greeted us back with a huge smile and a "morning!"  He then proceeded to hang like a monkey on his crib - not exactly a surprise.

We had set up his new art easel the night before so that he could play with it in the morning and he opened the presents that were art-easel-related.  He was very concerned with making sure that the wrapping paper made it's way into the recycling as he was unwrapping the gifts. Drawing with different mediums on his art easel was all he wanted to do that morning.

 Lucky for all of us, Daddy was able to come home from work early and made it home shortly after nap time to go out for Atticus' birthday photos at Vlietland. When he arrived home it was pouring rain, however we trekked off to the Vlietland in hopes that by the time we arrived the rain would stop. To our definite pleasure the rain not only stopped, but the sun came out for a small window of time; just enough time to get some photos of our newly 2-year-old boy (the photos were even taken around the same time of day that he was born at...that was just coincidence though). The official birthday photos that we took will be posted soon!

As soon as the sky began darkening again we raced back to the car while the rain came down and headed home for dinner. While dinner cooked, Atticus got to open up the rest of his presents. He was also showered with many thoughtful emails, facebook messages and birthday phonecalls complete with songs from family and friends. We cannot even begin to describe how lucky we are to have family who do so much to make sure that we feel close to them. And we are very blessed to have great friends here who love Atticus so much.

Dinner certainly wasn't fancy with Spinach and Garlic Mashed Potatoes, steamed broccoli and cubes of Gouda, but they are unmistakably some of Atticus' favorite foods. No matter how much he gets, he always asks for more. Although, there are very few foods that Atticus won't eat. Of course, he was certainly excited about his cake, decorated with a lion to look like his favorite toy.

Hopped up on sugar we all sat down to watch Atticus' favorite movie, Cars. Granted, 20 minutes worth was the max of his attention span before he would rather be playing with his new puzzle (there are only a few things that he cares to watch and we're quite okay with that).

We had plenty of cake left over so we made sure to share with our neighbors one of which even shares a birthday with Atticus.

And the birthday boy was then tucked into bed still buzzing with sugar...


The Saturday before Atticus' birthday we met up with some friends (the Prins Family) for a special birthday outing at a nearby indoor play place. Atticus was a little overwhelmed at first but that changed once he started exploring all the neat things there.

Atticus in the foreground on a giant air mattress. Evia is the little girl in the background dangling off a giant ball.

Taking a break.

We made sure to bring along some birthday cupcakes to share; Banana Cupcakes with cream cheese icing. The kids sure seemed to love them. Atticus attempted to lick off the icing as though it were an icecream cone. For a little boy who does not usually get sugary treats, he sure had his fill for his birthday!

smiling for the camera

assessing how much icing he has left

Evia enjoying her cupcake.

Family photo. Milayla is behind Atticus' head and Atticus was too busy licking his cupcake to worry about smiling for the photo but least we are all present!

Prins Family photo; Leah, Evia and Jan.

Atticus giving Evia a goodbye hug!

We all had such a fun time celebrating Atticus' birthday. We really are so fortunate to have him in our family. He is one very wonderful kid and we sure do love him.