the birthday, the blanket, and the bowling alley

What a great day!
The real birthday. Yeah, we've been celebrating for over a week now, between surprise parties and houseguests... but today was finally the real deal. I didn't even make Ryan a cake though. I was all ready to make one of our standard favorite (good ol' yellow cake with chocolate frosting) but with all the good (sweets galore!) around here leftover from parties and guests we're a little sugared out. So the cake'll wait till it sounds really good!

The kids and I took Jenn to Tilles Park this morning to run and climb and play in the sprinklers. Very cool park! Ryan met us there for a picnic lunch and then came home with us having decided to take the afternoon off for his birthday. I mean, how often is a sister here from across the country to celebrate with us?We came home and Savannah and I worked on her present for her Daddy. She came up with the idea by herself... I asked her what she wanted to give for a present and she immediately pulled out the answer of "I think Daddy would like a green and yellow blanket. You know he likes green and yellow; those are his favorite colors because he loves the Ducks." Yes I know.

I thought it was a great idea and especially impressed that she had come up with a real and practical idea by herself that Ryan really would like. Then I proceeded to space actually finding a blanket to get him. So when I realized we were down to the wire, I decided we would take matters into our own hands. Savannah and I spent naptime today making her Daddy his new favorite blanket. She was super excited to give it to him... it turned out to be perfect because not only had she come up with the idea herself, but then we actually made it from scratch which was so much more exciting for her! Ta-da!
oops! I was thinking I had snapped a pic of the birthday boy and his blanket today, but I don't think I actually did. I'll get one tomorrow!

Ryan decided that he wanted to go out bowling for his birthday. Originally when he mentioned that idea I assumed we would find a babysitter, get a group of friends together and go. But he decided it would be fun to go just us as a family. I wasn't too sure about taking the kids bowling, but we did and they -we all- had a blast!! We played the little ones vs. the adults and honestly they were beating us for much of the first game! (Sawyer's score after the first game was 86!!) Of course we were all a little distracted helping them and watching them and they were just so stinkin' cute and excited, how could we not?! Savannah loved it and announced that she wanted to go bowling for her birthday too. Sawyer is a natural and Ryan's quite proud. Have you known any other not quite 2-year-olds to not only demand they (and succeed in) carrying their own 9 lb bowling ball, but to rack up a few spares and believe it or not a strike?!! Honestly, Sawyer and Savannah were beating Jenn and I in their scores for much of the first game. Sorry these pics are so dark, grainy and blurry, but we were after all in a dim bowling alley...It was so fun. I really wish we would have brought the video camera. At first, when Sawyer would roll his ball down the lane, he panicked when it knocked pins over and then he ball disappeared. He was quite worried about the whole process. But after he realized he could count on his ball returning and he got the hang of how the whole thing worked, whenever anyone, including himself, would throw (roll) a ball, Sawyer would start clapping and jumping and shouting "yay!". He was in awe when his Daddy would roll a "fast ball" and knock the pins down so loudly!





Savannah just loved the whole thing and even experimented with different ways to roll the ball.


















Here's Sawyer watching his last ball roll down the lane... and watching... and watching... and watching... and watching...
each of their rolls took forever!












Great choice for a great birthday Ryan!
I hope you had a great day... and a great couple of weeks with friends and family celebrating this milestone in your life. I'm glad you're almost as old as me now!!
Happy Birthday my love!