Evan's 2nd Birthday Party

Evan loved his cake-notice the frosting on his face

Birthday Boy!

Make a wish

As they are singing Happy Birthday to Evan (his favorite part)

The cake I stressed about for days-thanks for your help Jen!

He loves his fire truck, thanks Garr's!

These are MY cars

Saturday was Evan's 2nd birthday party. We had it at a local park and made it train-themed. Evan had a wonderful time and it seemed like all of his friends did too. The weather was a bit chilly for FL, but it warmed up to about 60 and was sunny. It was actually perfect weather for me! Here are a few pictures I have from the party and then later that night opening his gifts at home with Aunt Shannon, Uncle Charlie, Maxwell and Ms. Carol. Evan was very spoiled and got wonderful gifts from all of his friends and family. He loved every single one of them wanting us to open the packaging immediately, so much that he hoarded them from Maxwell so he couldn't touch them. This was especially funny because Maxwell did the same thing to Evan on his birthday. Eventually we got Evan to share and both boys were happy. It was great that Evan was into the present thing, he really seemed to like to open the gifts. Good thing, since Christmas is just a week plus away. Evan's actual birthday is on the 18th, we just celebrated a bit early since we are headed to MD on Wednesday.

Santa!

He got the Moose from Santa, and now wants outta there!

Last year Evan was petrified of Santa, but I hoped that this year would be different. I prepped him on how great Santa Clause is and that he brings good little boys & girls presents on Christmas Eve. He loves to point him out where ever we see him (which is about every 2 feet these days). So, we stood in line and waited our turn. As we got closer and closer I thought, this is going to be the year, he is going to sit on Santa's lap. No go..... Mom got to sit on Santa's lap with Evan on try #1, you can see for yourself what happened on try #2. However, on the 1st try with me, Evan was able to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas. He asked for a basketball hoop, a train and an orange truck. He remembers that he told him that and has reminded us over and over again what he asked for from Santa. On try #2, he really just wanted a little Santa moose that Santa was passing out. As soon as he got that toy, he wanted out of there. He keeps telling us that Santa is scary. I know soon enough he'll learn to love the big guy!

Snow, in Florida?

We went to the town of Celebration to watch it "snow" on Tuesday night with Anne & Brian. They came to visit us from Baltimore. It was so nice getting to see them, I can't believe that they drove here from MD. I'm happy we'll get to see them again next week, when we are back in MD for Christmas. The "snow" that they have in Celebration is crazy, it's super sudsy soap bubbles that seems like real snow on the ground. Kids were actually scooping it up and making "snow balls". They also had train & carriage rides and Santa was there.

Disney's Hollywood Studios Lights!!

Last Friday we went to the most spectacular light show. Through the Avenue of Americas, which is a street in Hollywood Studios, there are 5 million lights. Every so often they dance to the music. These lights actually belonged to a family in Little Rock, AR, but they got to be too much for the neighbors, so Disney decided to display them for the Osborne family. It was really cool. They even made it snow, so despite it being about 65 degrees, it kind of felt like Christmas.

O Christmas Tree

It's only December 10, how many Christmas trees do you think I can get him to stand in front of before Christmas??? Thankfully he loves to pose in front of them and say "cheese"!

Too cute for words

I can't get this picture to rotate, but it's too cute to leave out. They are reading The Polar Express, they both LOVE trains.

They love to hug each other

Christmas in Florida

As you can see, Shannon & I bought Evan & Maxwell matching Christmas outfits and then Charlie & I took the boys to get their pictures taken. "Adorable" doesn't even come close to describing how cute these two are together.

The Zamorano's Visit

Our good friends from San Diego, Joe, Marylou & Danielle came to visit us over Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time with them, going to Disney, Univ. of Maryland basketball games (they were in town for a tournament), playing some American Idol Wii, and just hanging out. Their daughter, Danielle, is 7 years old and was Evan's BFF that week. They played together so well, she was great with Evan. It was a nice little break for me & Joe too! We were so sad to have them go back to CA! Apparently during their visit, I didn't really take too many pictures, but here are some of the cute ones I did take. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving as well. Ours was great, Charlie & Shannon had it and they made a fabulous dinner. The food was excellent, decorations beautiful and the fact that I didn't have to host it or cook too much was priceless!!

Park Day

Here's Evan with his friends Wilson & Evan at the park on Friday. They took a short break from playing to have a snack and a drink. They are too cute!

Hanging out with Trevor

Evan hung out with his buddy Trevor the other day after Ms. Kerri's house, where they play all day together. Trevor & Evan played with chalk, which Evan had never done before. I have a big box of chalk, I've just never pulled it out. Evan really seemed to like it though, so I guess I found a new thing to do outside! 

Disney Parade

I think we've (meaning I) have become Disney addicts. We went back again this weekend to take Evan on some rides and to see the night time parade and fireworks. We didn't last for the fireworks, but did see them on our drive home. Evan has been singing "It's a Small World" the last few weeks, so we took him on that ride again (as corny as it is, it's still my favorite ride). We also went on Dumbo, the carousel and the race car ride. Evan had a great time on the rides and loved seeing all the characters in the parade. We'll be back to Disney next week with the Zamorano's, can't wait for their visit!

As a side note-notice Evan in his PJs. He got sick at the park and so thankfully I had his pjs for later, he just got to wear them a little longer than I intended. He seemed fine as soon as he finished throwing up all over the restaurant. My little puker had taken a bit of a sabbatical, but he reminded me how lucky I've been the last few months. Ah....the humbling experience that parenting is :)

Chillin

Such a big boy, drinking out of a bottle of water all by himself! Wish I could say this ended up as successful as it looks. But I turned my head and he purposely dumped it all out on the carpet and chair and then proudly told me all about it!

Recent pics

Some pictures from Evan's buddy Kaila's birthday party. Evan's 2 year old molars, which have been "coming in" for 4 months now, obviously still bother him. No sign of the teeth yet, poor guy!

Horsey Rides

This is Evan's new favorite thing to do. I think Joe loves it as well!

Disney

We took Evan to Disney yesterday morning and had a great time. The park was pretty empty and it was already decorated for Christmas. Since I'm pretty much obsessed with Christmas, I was in heaven, even if it felt like summer. Since it was so empty, we were able to walk onto the 3 rides we went on-Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise & Aladdin. We also hung out in Mickey's Toon Town where we got to walk through Mickey & Minnie's homes and play at some playgrounds. Getting into the park is a bit of a production, you take a tram from your car to the main transportation center. Then, you either take the monorail or a boat to the park. Evan chose the boat both times. I think that just ridding the boat would have probably been good enough for him, he was so excited about it. He had a lot of fun on all of the rides and also got to see Pooh, Tigger, Daisy & Pluto. I'm sure we'll be back soon!

Election Time

Just had to put in a funny cartoon I saw. I haven't gotten political on this blog at all, but since election day is just a few days away, I HAD to make some comment, even if it's not my own thought. Regardless of who you support, remember to VOTE on Tuesday. 

Catch

He can catch, he can catch, he can catch!! What an exciting milestone in our world!! Evan loves to throw balls and although I am very biased, has a pretty great arm. He's got good aim and is very strong. However, he couldn't catch until this weekend. Joe and Evan love to "play catch" and Joe has really been working with Evan on his catching skills. It all of a sudden clicked and he is a catching machine! It's so fun!

Happy Halloween

We had a wonderful action-packed Halloween day. We hosted a Halloween party at our house for a bunch of Evan's friends (and some people we didn't really know). It was a tad bit chaotic, but I think that everyone had a great time. The kids looked adorable all dressed up. We hired a photographer to take pics, so I didn't take any during the party. It was pretty nice just hosting and spending time with our guests. Joe was there too, which was really nice. Later that day, we went to a party at a friend's neighborhood. They had a DJ, costume contest, food & drinks. It was really nice. The kids enjoyed running all over the grass. Finally, Evan & I went trick or treating in our neighborhood, while Joe passed out the candy. We were only going to go to about 5 houses (b/c we do NOT need the candy), but we met up with our next door neighbors and ended up going to quite a few homes with them. Their son, who is 10, was quite a good sport taking Evan along with him to each house. Evan, who normally likes to exclaim things, was very quiet when he said "trick or treat", but that was the only thing he was subdued about in the whole process. He loved, loved, loved getting the candy. He didn't want it to go into his bag, he preferred to carry each piece to the next house, then deposit the old stuff in his bag and carry the new stuff. His favorite candy was the lollipops, and he's eaten quite a few. Evan made out and we now have more candy that we could eat in a year. We really had such a great day!