REESE & ROWAN: 2009

I've Been a Good Boy!

On Sunday afternoon I combed Rowan's hair and put a nice cardigan on him and we headed out on our latest adventure down to Crown Center. Rowan LOVED it! He and Josh played for an hour and a half around the shopping center while I held our spot in line to see Santa (yes, an hour and a half)! I will say it was worth it once we got inside. We still had to wait but Rowan was able to play in the Santa's Crayola Christmas Land. He had a blast on the slides and tunnels-but I couldn't get any good pictures because he was always in motion!! I could've saved the time I'd spent combing his hair- he played so hard that his hair that was once combed straight and to the side in the front was now curled up everywhere! Oh well!

We were finally able to get him over to the side and get his shoes back on him so we could meet the big guy. I was surprised to see how authentic he looked. I thought for sure Rowan would either 1). cry (images of last year danced through my head) or 2). not say a word (he usually gets pretty shy around strangers). To our surprise he did neither! I sat him on Santa's lap and he greeted Rowan by name. The elf tried her hardest to get a good picture- she snapped this one just as he was beginning to smile. I wish we would've noticed his jeans had turned into capris BEFORE the picture! When Santa asked Rowan what he wanted for Christmas, he very confidently replied "A jeep!" Then corrected himself and said "A jeep and cars!" Santa said that was easy enough and that he could probably do that, to which Rowan replied "Okay. Thank you!" It was hilarious! As we walked over to the side to purchase the picture, Rowan told us "I like Santa. He a nice guy!" Priceless. Well worth the wait-next time I will hopefully remember the video camera!

Afterwards I was sad to see that Fritz's was closed. Before heading to McDonald's to get Rowan some dinner, we checked out the fountains (Rowan was mesmerized by them), then drove through the Plaza. Rowan thought the lights were so "neat" and especially loved seeing the horses pull the carriages. We drove around to find a few more carriages as Rowan begged for more horses. He was not happy when we left the Plaza- he was not finished looking at the horses! I told him we'd try really hard to get back down there to see them again. It was another successful adventure!

I'm 2!

Rowan, Josh, and I celebrated on Rowan's actual birthday Thursday night. Josh took off early and we opened presents before heading out to the TRex Cafe. Rowan insisted we take the time to read each of the 5 books he received before moving on to the next gift!

Each year I try to get him at least one ornament. He helped me decorate the tree this year, so he was excited to find the perfect place for his new knit dog!

Rowan's big gift from Mom and Dad this year was an activity table filled with his finger paints, Tadoodles, crayons, sidewalk chalk, and Play Doh. He LOVES all things art, so this was the perfect gift. We also figured he could play with his blocks or the train set he's getting for Christmas on it too. We loved this one because of the rolling storage bins (we always need storage- especially space-saving storage) and the paper roll. He also got a big pad of paper. And yes, I was being proactive by going ahead and ordering the splat mat to protect the floors! Hopefully this will go in the basement next summer after its finished, but for now this space works. It was a hit!

After gifts and pictures, we headed out to T Rex Cafe. Rowan loves dinos and all animals really, but we weren't sure whether he would be scared of their loud roars. He hates loud noises! He was frightened for a while so he ventured off away from the noise to dig for dinosaur bones.

Fortunately our seat was away from the larger dinosaur, although we could still hear him! We sat underneath a huge octopus and directly behind our booth was a large aquarium.

During dessert, Rowan and Josh left me to play in the sandbox again, so I happily worked on the "Chocolate Extinction" by myself! Before we left, we went and checked out the upstairs. Even more aquariums and creatures. By this time, Rowan was no longer scared and didn't want to leave. Go figure! Even if he was scared in the beginning, this ended up being a great adventure for him AND Josh and I enjoyed all that T Rex had to occupy us during down time!

Rowan thought blowing out the candles on his giant Hot Cocoa Cupcake was so fun! So much so that we kept re-lighting them until they wouldn't light anymore!

The next day he got to enjoy his new tent. LOVE IKEA! This was the best $10 I've ever spent! And check out that static electricity!

Winter Wonderland 2nd Birthday Party

Rowan's 2nd Birthday Party was Sun., Nov. 29th. Because I liked the colors and knew that we would have holiday decorations up, a Winter Wonderland theme seemed like an obvious choice! Everyone seemed to have a great time- but most importantly Rowan had a ball! He loved dancing with his Matchbox Rocky the Robot Truck!

I went with aqua, gray/silver & white for the colors. I decided to make a photo banner of his last 12 months for the mantle. It was a lot of work, but I was so happy with how it turned out that I plan to hang it in his bedroom. I hung silver glitter snowflakes from the ceiling and spread snow on the table, which Rowan just couldn't understand! He pointed to it and told me "snow on the table, that silly mommy!" I purchased a few snowglobes and put some favorite pictures in them. I decided not to do a full spread of food like I did for his last party because I felt like I missed out on a lot due to spending so much time in the kitchen. So instead, we had hot cocoa cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, puppy chow, hot cocoa with marshmallows, and Berry Lemonade Jones Soda. I was very excited that my ornament tree worked with the theme! BTW, I LOVE etsy!!! It was there that I was able to order custom Jones Soda labels, the party invites that I adored, the recipe cards, AND Rowan's shirt. This site was by far my best discovery of the year!