The Meyers

With the preparations and decorations all done, we were ready for a party! So was Joshua. With a slew of other birthdays having happened earlier in April, Joshua was very familiar with the idea of birthdays and even the birthday song, and he had concluded that it was his turn now — thankfully it was!

At breakfast on the morning of his party, we sang Happy Birthday to him as part of breakfast, and once the song was done he informed us that he wanted cake! He’s a smart little guy to have figured out that this is how it’s supposed to work. He did have to wait until the afternoon, but then when the party was underway, he finally got in on the candle and cake and thoroughly enjoyed himself!

Joshua and the guests seemed to enjoy themselves with the food and festivities that Kristen had planned.

Joshua got “into” it too with the “Toss the Coal in the Hole” game.

In some of the prior parties, not “helping” other people open their presents was a little bit of a struggle for Joshua. Now at his own party with his own presents, he got right down to it and thoroughly enjoyed himself!

Happy “Two” Birthday, little buddy!

One of the best perks of staying home with Joshua is that I now have the time to invest in some creative projects I never allowed myself to do before!  Pinterest has always been my “frenemy” with party planning (well if Pinterest can do it surely I can too!).  I also recently just purchased a Silhouette Cameo to design, cut, and create anything my heart desires.  I definitely experimented with this fun new tool while creating Joshua’s party decorations.

One of the big questions in my mind was of course….CAKE!  I have yet to master the art and patience of cake decorating; I’m pretty sure my Silhouette machine doesn’t cut fondant!  Cupcakes seemed much less stressful to me, and after I found this cute cupcake train display (yes, on Pinterest!) I knew this was the direction to take.

I used toothpicks to make the wheels of the train and attached a graham cracker on top with frosting.  Oreos covered the marshmallows to make them more visible.  I didn’t think about our wet Oregon climate and the humidity in the air, so after leaving it out overnight to let the frosting dry, the graham crackers were too soggy to support the cupcakes.  Oops!  Easy fix.

I LOVE planning food for a themed party.  Using disposable bread tins as the train cars, themed labels, and tracks from Joshua’s train table made the food display a fun experience.

Produce Car – Veggies; Coal Car – Grapes; Lumber Car – Pretzels; Animal Car – Animal Crackers; Diesel Fuel – Punch; Water Tower

My FAVORITE part was dressing up my little man for his party!  I used my Silhouette Cameo to design and make his shirt.  He was so proud!

Here are a few other fun decorations I made for the party!  Happy Birthday Joshua!  I sure loving being your mama!

Happy Easter from the Meyers!

We gave Joshua an Easter basket this morning filled with some fun toys, including Disney characters, stickers, and balls:

Then we had a nice breakfast with waffles and fruit:

We got all gussied up for church, including a brand-new Easter hat about which Joshua was very excited!

After returning home from church, Joshua and his momma played with some of his new toys while we prepared for lunch.

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We sure love our little Joshua!

We finally got a break from our record-breakingly-rainy winter — and we took advantage of the sun to go out to the neighborhood “truck park” near where we live. What a fun place for our almost-2-year-old little guy!

Joshua enjoyed playing on, under, and with the other items in the park too!

His favorite part of the day was swinging though – both by himself in the baby swing and on Daddy’s lap!

Then, it was time for one last ride down the slide before we headed home. We’re definitely looking forward to summer when we can do a lot more of this!

The Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge is a favorite spot of ours, with some walking trails and opportunity to see birds and other animals. There is a reservable photo blind that I (Joel) have aspired for some time to try out with my camera gear, and after a couple of hiccups, finally pulled it off! It was an early morning, and I got rained on a bit on the hikes between the parking lot and photo blind, but it was totally worth it! I had a great time and got some fun pictures of the wildlife and the rain hitting the water.

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Here’s what the photo blind looks like, inside and out:

I also saw some other wildlife on the trek back to the parking lot after finishing my stint in the blind.