Brecken's 2nd Birthday Party (in pictures)

I meant to post these a long time ago! Here are the pictures from Brecken's Noah's Ark Themed 2nd Birthday! I went with rainbows, animals and tools as a lot of the decorations. Dinner consisted of burgers, hot dogs, chips, Oriental Salad, and Rainbow fruit. Then there were rainbow cupcakes for dessert. He had a blast and it was such a fun night with family! 

33 & 34 weeks

I had a minor freak out on yesterday afternoon, thinking Sweet P was deciding to make her appearance. I had been outside for Todd's work party for a good two hours in the 85 - 90 degree heat earlier in the afternoon. I don't think I drank enough water while I was there or when I got home. When I got home, I spent a few hours in my air conditioned basement cleaning... but my lower back was hurting and I was getting cramps/contractions that seemed like they were getting more painful. I went upstairs and tried to lay down and drink some water but they didn't seem like they were getting better. I of course read things online and thought that I was going into labor and started freaking out in my mind a little bit because I am NOT ready to have this baby yet!  I called the hospital, they told me to come in but after drinking more water and trying to relax, the back pain went away and the contractions seemed like they weren't getting worse but better. I called back and they said it was most likely the fact that I had not drank enough and it made me feel that way. Thank goodness. Baby needs to stay put for a few more weeks, then she can come! Note to self: drink enough water, otherwise you will freak out thinking you are having a baby before you are suppose to.

Anyways, onto the photos... And I just realized I wore the same shorts for both photos. They are one of my go-to pair right now! I promise these were taken a week apart even though there is barely any difference!

(No idea what a durian fruit is...) 

Photo bombed by a sweet little toddler that has been trying to sneak his paci all the time! 

Rainbow Ribbon Banner

I wanted to make something special for Brecken's Noah's Ark birthday table display. Since rainbows are part of the Noah's Ark theme, I decided I wanted to make a rainbow ribbon banner. 

I had a box of ribbons that I wasn't really using so I tried to use as many of those ribbons as possible. I picked up a few more spools of cheap ribbon from Walmart to supplement what I already had. 

I found long strong string and cut the ribbons, varying the length a bit to give the banner some interest. I then simply tied the ribbon onto the string and did this many times over in each color. 

 It is starting to look a bit better. 

 Here is the end result! It added alot to the Noah's Ark table and I think I may make it into a fun skirt for Baby girl at some point! 

24 months

Of course I am behind on posting this seeing that he is now 25 months. This was the last set of "monthly photo shoots" I will do. It got harder each month to photograph him and started getting less photos each time. It is so amazing to see the difference from 13 months to 24 months - he certainly has grown up a lot! 

Learning to do: He is starting to know alot of his colors and is SUPER chatty. He remembers things and I am always surprised when he later brings things up. I have learned that if I tell him something, he will remind me about it later. This month he has been obsessed with his duplo legos and Thomas the Tank Engine wooden track. He really enjoys building things, but always wants help - "Build it, Mommy" is what I hear a lot!

Talking: I am starting to realize that he will copy anything I say... which is scary. He says so many words and talks so much that I don't even remember what new words he said this month. All I know is that recently, I am not only physically tired at the end of the day, but I have started to become mentally drained as well which I think is from all this questions. He asks "What is this, Mommy?" or "Who is this, Mommy?"a lot! Most of the time, he will keep asking his question until he gets an answer.
 Some of my favorites phrases are still "Oh my my" and "Bless you, Mommy!"

Food he loves: Watermelon, hot dogs, peaches, yogurk (what he calls yogurt), and any kind of berries.

Noah's Ark Cake

Growing up, my mom made us the coolest cakes for our themed birthday parties. I always enjoyed seeing her creativity in all the cakes and all the love poured into them! I always wanted to do fun cakes for my kids although baking is not my thing.

This year's birthday theme for Brecken was Noah's Ark or a two-by-two theme. I wanted to make an ark cake and rainbow cupcakes. I was inspired by a tiny picture on Pinterest of an ark cake, but couldn't find anything larger so I kinda winged it. 

Here is how I made the cake: I baked a 9 x 13 cake as well as a cake in a bread pan. I cut the large cake in half and stacked it up then put the bread pan cake on top. I used a jelly roll pan wrapped in foil as the base for the cake to sit on. Next I used frosting as glue and stuck graham crackers all around the base and on the bread layer as well. I split a cracker in half to make doors. I used four full cracker pieces for the top of the cake and also added a cracker as a ramp. I bought a $3 pack of animals in the toy aisle at Walmart. Many of the animals had a partner - thank goodness since it is a Noah's Ark Cake! I mixed up some green frosting and used this as grass and to stick the animals to the pan to make the scene. I added some animals to the ark as well. I wrote his name on the cake with a small tube of detail icing. 

Brecken LOVED his cake and it was worth the time to make it for him!