More Birthday Goodness

[NOTE: Yes, I'm lame and I haven't posted in, oh.... a month and a half. My job has been out of control and selfishly I have chosen direct one-on-one interaction with my child over spending that same time writing about him on this blog. Choices. Choices. Hopefully you'll all hang with me as I try over the next week or so to catch up. And by catch up, I mean post-dating entries so that it doesn't look like I completely missed the ENTIRE month of June!!]

Just as most children wish for (but very few get), Dashell didn't have as much a birthDAY as a birthMONTH. (Actually he's still trying to drag it out, now that he completely understands the concept of presents and parties!! He LOOOOOVES parties!!)

First we celebrated his actual birthday at home with just the three of us. Here's Dash blowing out his candles...


Yes, I forgot that you get one more candle each year. But, hey, isn't it more fun to get two wishes??!

Where presents were concerned we were a little stumped. The boy truly doesn't NEED more toys. But that morning he gave us a clue as to what might be good a gift...


Yep, if your child has an interest in music and all he has at his disposal is a train whistle, a bridge and a piece of track you have to accept the fact that maybe he might be indicating that a few real instruments could be in order. So, although he has become quite proficient over last few months on air guitar, we broke down and got a few instruments he could really make some "music" with...


I'm not sure he's going to be giving Mozart or even the Jonas Brothers a run for their money any time soon, but I'm all for encouraging exploration of the arts!

And for the final present, we took Dash to a very small local toy store and let him pick out one gift. The minute he rounded the first corner in the store, he spied it and it was love at first sight!

Dash dragged that dinosaur all around the store showing him everything from dollhouses to train sets to puzzles. And although Dashy was sure to check out just about every item offered for sale (and not for sale) at the store, in the end when we asked him what he wanted for his present he simply said "Dinosaur".  And that was how we came to add a new member to our family.

In the car on the way home, Dave and I told Dashell that he need to name his new friend and we threw out a bunch of options. From the moment Dash heard the name "Dennis" he was sold. And from that moment on all the chatter from the backseat was "Dennis look at mountains!" "Dennis see truck." "Dennis want to eat snacks." Ah, friends forever. They were a very hard couple to break up at dinner, which had to be done since neither Dave nor I had any desire to explain to the restaurant staff why we had a 3 foot stuffed dinosaur with us. But eventually Dash acquiesced and Dennis waited patiently in the car for our return.

Here's a little video of Dash and Dennis playing together later in the day. (A little note: Dash had a doctor's appointment earlier in the week and it obviously made quite an impression. Oh, and here's a nifty little bit of trivia from that appointment. Our doctor is estimating that he will be about 6'1" when fully grown. I guess you can take children's two year old height and double it and come pretty darn close to their eventual adult height.)


[NOTE: These videos are from about 2 months ago. I'm going to try and get more up very soon, because Dashy's imaginary play has become so much more elaborate and I really need to document it.]

All and all it was a pretty darn good birthday, but being a party freak that I am I couldn't stop there. Soooo... a month later we threw a big party for Dash and invited all his friends.

I decided on a race car theme since although he LOVES garbage trucks right now I just couldn't think of an activity to engage the kids in that involved garbage trucks that didn't seem like they should be wearing orange jumpsuits and have a State Penitentiary bus waiting nearby! So race cars it was.

We blew up a bunch of HUGE balloons and Dash helped decorate the yard...

They were so big in fact (and filled with so much helium) that Dash had trouble pulling his arm down and basically had to run around with his arm in the air!

I worked hard to pull together a properly themed dessert table...

Dash was talking about the race cars and flags on the cookies several days later. (I felt like a success!)

And Dave, sweetly, designed and built a race car track!!

All the kids has a blast!!

Dash even got another cupcake...

...which he loved!

A lovely woman I found on Etsy (Melissa from Beau Melange) sewed up these wonderful favors at the last minute for me...

They're crayon caddies. How cute (and "green"), right?! We made sure that everyone left with plenty of bubbles too...

It was a fantastic time (especially watching all the kids play together this year) and the birthday boy definitely enjoyed being prince for a day!

And to finish the day off right, Dash and Dave jumped in the pool...

Actually, to be more accurate... Dave waded in slowly (since our pool has been ridiculously cold!) and Dash jumped off the diving board 4 times!!

What a birthday (month)!! I definitely don't think I'm going to try to top it next year.