Ivan's 2nd Birthday!

Today Ivan turns 2. I can't believe this little guy has been around for 2 years already! Time sure flies by too fast. Over the weekend we were able to have a fun little party for Ivan.

We had grapes on skewers, chocolate covered oreos, jello jigglers, juice boxes for the kids, old fashioned sodas for the big kids, mini cupcakes, and a bunch of other snack foods. I found the cutest mold for the jello, it's zoo animals! There's a giraffe, monkey, elephant, lion, and hippo. All the kids loved the jello. And it was really nice to have it be handheld.

Probably my favorite picture from the whole party. This is Kristen with her daughter Ember, Ivan's future wife... that is if Ellie Romero won't have him. 

For activities, we kept it simple. The kids love our long hallway, so we let them run up and down the halls. Then we had coloring. And Michael let Ivan pop balloons. They both really enjoyed that one.

Apparently coloring was too complicated? In the pink is Abby and the other girl is Savannah, Abby's cousin.

His eyes are already closed cuz he's prepared for it to pop. Yep, that's a skewer he's holding. 

A lot of people showed up to give some love to Ivan. Some of his friends there were Ember Sellers, Abby Blackwell, Savanna Burns, and Beckham Ward. He loved seeing all of them! And all his friends went home with awesome part favors. Foam stickers, sun glasses, marshmallows, an on the go applesauce, and a little recorder. 

Light pink is Abby, dark pink is Ember, Ivan is superman, and in the back is Beckham.

We seriously had so much fun at his party! His grandparents (on Michael's side) were able to make it, plus a billion of Ivan's old baby sitters and friends from church.

The Wampler grandparents

When it came time for singing happy birthday, Ivan didn't know what to do. He kinda stood there like he was in shock and he got really shy. He was excited for blowing out the candle though. I told him to blow out the candle and through the corners of his little smile he actually blew it out! (With only a little help from mom) He was so funny to watch eat his cupcake too. I think it's been a while since that kid has had cake! He licked the frosting off the top then made this super sour face and kept eating it! He did have a couple more cupcakes after that but managed to only eat the icing off the last ones.

Blowing out the candle. 

Licking off all the frosting. 

Yum. 

This kid cracks me up! He does this happy dance of stomping his feet really fast in the same spot when he's excited. He has this excited giggle when he gets to have or do something that he really really wants. It's like a hehehehehehehehe really fast and in a low voice with his head tilted down. He likes to be tickled. He likes to scare people. He'll get his deepest roar and come up behind you and try to scare you. And he says scare mom, then he roars at me. Lately he's been saying "cow coming" and getting excited and scared at the same time. I have no idea what it means. He relives Balto every day. That movie must have made an impression. Randomly he starts to talk about Balto, then says "oh no" and "bear coming" and gets really concerned. He loves his fish tank, but gets sad when fish die. We bought some older fish from someone and one of the sword tails died. Every day since then Ivan gets really sad and says "swordtail died" with his lip pouted and his head down and the saddest voice I've ever heard. Then the next second he's fine. Ivan also really likes to be swung. Michael swings Ivan from his feet, ankles, hands, one foot and one hand, pretty much anyway you can imagine (except for his head cuz that's too much even for us!). And Ivan loves it! He also really likes to take toys from Charlotte, go figure. So we have a rule of if you take a toy, you need to give her a new one. It works pretty good and Ivan likes it enough that I don't have to tell him to do it anymore. Lately, the toys he chooses for Charlotte to have are not what she wants, so he gives her a stern little lecture about liking what she has and trying to convince her that she doesn't want what Ivan wants. Ivan loves horseback rides, the kind where mom and dad are the horses, but regular horses too. Any time we're on the floor, Ivan will try to climb up on our backs then hunker down, grab onto our armpits, and hug us for dear life just hoping for a ride. And if he doesn't want a horsey ride, he wants a hug. So instead of climbing on us, he gets a head start and runs full speed to slam into us for a hug. He thinks it's best if we fall over. One of the toys he got at his party was a nerf gun. Man does he love that thing! He'll play with it all day and sleep with it at night. He is also really fascinated with puzzles. He is learning the alphabet by playing with his foam puzzles. He thinks it's hilarious if he sees anyone do Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. Ivan is really tuned in to people's emotions. Any time anybody around him is sad, Ivan says he's sad or Dad sad or Mom sad. He is also like a parrot. I say, you're driving me crazy. Ivan says "drive me crazy." I say, you're killing me. Ivan says "kill me." He likes to talk about his britches, but leaves out a significant consonant in that word.

Opening presents! He got a puzzle, stuffed animals, nerf guns, books, shirts, and lots of other fun things. 

Playing under the table, cuz that's the place to be.