Luke's Third Birthday!

As per family tradition, I made breakfast on Luke's birthday!  We had Monkey Bread (his choice) with candles, presents and singing all before 6:30 am!  He went on to have a fabulous day at Kari's where he got to wear his birthday crown, enjoy a chocolate chip cookie cake and presents from her!  That evening we enjoyed a family supper at Newt's.  The big party was the next day!

Luke's two-wheel bike

Luke wanted to be just like his big brother and start riding a two-wheel bike.  Lucky for us, we have several bikes of all sizes.  Luke got right on and after a couple practice tries, he's taken off! Jack never started riding a two-wheel bike when he was two!  I think he was three, and then he was off of training wheels by 4 1/2.  I guess it pays to be the younger brother who's trying to keep up with his big bro!  Go Luke!

Luke's Big Boy Bed...and potty training!

We converted Luke's crib to a big boy bed...finally!  We did it mid-March and it's been going well.  He doesn't ever get out and he waits until we get him in the morning!  Hooray!  This baby boy is well on his way to being a big boy!  He's also POTTY TRAINED!  I wasn't planning to train him until summer when I was off school, but he had other ideas.  He decided he was going to potty train himself!!!  He literally just started whipping off his diaper and would go potty on the potty chair (which I had had out just to get him used to the idea!). It's gone quite well and I suppose that's cause he was totally ready.  I'd say he's been trained since February, when he was only 2 years and 4 months!  Pretty early for a boy if you ask me! (Jack was pretty early too at 2 years 6 months.)

Elf on the Shelf '12

Elfie came back this holiday season.  It was so fun to see Luke get into it this year as well.  "Get into it" is a gross understatement for Jack.  Jack LOVES Elfie.  He loves him so much he actually got teary on Christmas morning when he was gone.  Poor buddy!  Here are some fun pictures of the entertainment Elfie provided us with this year!

Elfie arrive with a little typed letter.  Jack just investigated that thing to death.  "I'm sure he wrote it at the North Pole because we don't have that color and our printer doesn't look like that!"

Jack was questioning all the different Santas this year, so we told him the same "white lie" as last year.  All the Santas ARE different but that's because the real Santa sends them to do all the before Christmas work so he can rest up for his big night!  Jack wanted to know if the REAL Santa wears glasses, so he wrote this note to Santa and Elfie delivered it.  He "sound spelled" it in his best kindergarten penmanship!  "Dyr Santa I was wondering if yuo wear glasses? Jack"

Elfie responded with the big "YES"!  The next night he was relaxing in a marshmellow bubble bath!

Jack and Luke were a bit naughty one day, so Elfie hung from the bathroom mirror with a message in Mommy's lipstick.  "Jack, BE GOOD!  U 2, LUKE! Elfie"

The next night he cleaned the mirror!

This night Elfie left a note for the boys.  "Check your Mommy's email!"  We did so and Santa had left the boys personalized videos from the North Pole!

This was Jack's favorite!

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Luke's 2nd Birthday Party--Construction Zone Theme

Every birthday party has a theme.  I've been known to go overboard on birthdays, but I thoroughly enjoy it!  After Jack's monster birthday party last February, he says to me, "Now we have to start planning Luke's party!"  That's my boy!  Jack actually really likes looking at Pinterest with me and getting ideas. So, we started planning.  Jack picked the theme.  He said we had to have trucks cause Luke "loves trucks."  The construction party is what it turned into because I didn't want to do monster trucks or fire trucks (because that was Jack's 2nd party theme).  I really didn't go overboard planning.  Truth be told, his birthday snuck up on me and the fall has been insanely busy with school starting and all.  I knew what the cake was going to look like, but all the other plans actually came together the few days before the party!

This year the cake needed to be chocolate because of the "dirt" needed for the theme.  I don't like chocolate cake or chocolate frosting, so that's why I normally stay away from it.  I used boxed cake mixes, but made homemade chocolate buttercream frosting.  I'm known for my frosting, so I wanted to have really good chocolate frosting too!  All three boys had to be my taste testers.  Evidently the cake was a hit!  I made yellow cake cupcakes for me and any others that don't like chocolate cake!

As far as other decorations, they weren't hard.  I always get a big balloon bouquet.  That's a must for any party.  Then we bought some CAUTION tape for decorations (and I used it for the cake board).  I then used my Cricut machine for a dump truck die cut for the party favor sacks.  My mom always gives me a piece of fabric for the table to match the theme.  This year trucks, of course!

The birthday boy was so happy and cute!

Happy Birthday to You!

Luke's 2nd Birthday

We've started a family tradition that the morning of the birthday boy, we'd have a special family breakfast with candles!  Then the boy could open presents from mommy and daddy.  This year was no exception.  We had a butterbraid courtesy of a school fundraiser.  It was awesome because I just needed to bake it!  Luke woke up on his birthday saying, "TWO. TWO. TWO."

Such a happy birthday boy!!!