birthday festivities

we crammed a lot into luke's special day. here we go, in my friend's favorite format, bullet points:


* luke waking up and being so excited about the balloons all over the couch.

*running around hysterical playing with said balloons.

*max waking up and insisting we 'open luke's presents, now.'



*luke opening presents and max being so excited for each one!


*max helping open the present he gave to luke. a bag of skittles bought with his own money. he was beaming with pride.

*the 'thank you' hug.



*a breakfast of donuts and fruit snacks.

*after max went to school, luke and i raced over to target to have his 2 year old pics taken. it was spur of the moment - no time to plan the perfect outfit or make sure he was all smiles. he seemed to do great and had this thing for sticking his tongue out. the pics were cute though.

*after pics we raced home to get max from school, quick stop at arctic circle for a corn dog/french fry lunch and home for max to take a quick potty break, get nana sue, over to jake's school to pick him up in the jr. high chaos of a parking lot and then off to the pumpkin patch!

*heading to day farms pumpkin patch for a hayride in bumper to bumper traffic... (during which luke fell asleep) and finally arriving only to find out hayrides didn't start until 4pm. (this was about 2:30ish)

*pulling into day farms and max having a breakdown because he wanted to go in the maze and this place didn't have a maze. breakdown was complete with big tears and took some serious talking to calm him down. back in the car to pack's pumpkin patch. (they have a maze there.)

*getting to pack's patch and finding the 'perfect' pumpkins! (nana sue - could you send your pics over, please?) and max got to run through the maze, twice.

*jake being the best big brother ever and helping both max and luke with their selections. luke was pretty uninterested, but enjoyed riding in the cart.

*picking up a $5 hot & ready pizza for dinner and eating it in the living room, sitting on the floor around the coffee table, at luke's request. the kid is weird sometimes.

*making cupcakes during all of the festivities (i honestly don't remember when i did that...)

*having luke enjoy a birthday song and candle experience. watch this: (be sure to watch the whole thing...)



man, it was a fun, full day. and at the end of it all, both kids went to bed very late - but happy. i got to go pick up mike from the airport, also late. yay for mike being home! (sidenote: i had given luke a little toy horse in the morning...well, this morning mike got the presents out he bought for the boys while he was gone and voila - the EXACT same horse for luke. what are the chances? our minds must be connected in some way.)

what a good day for luke. and for max. happy day little man. i love you.