This cute Turkey of ours is totally and completely obsessed with all things Fireman related, so his choice for a party theme was beyond obvious.  What Shane didn’t know was that a real, retired Firetruck was going to show up to surprise him and his little neighborhood buddies.  I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when that truck showed up…and well, it wasn’t exactly the look I expected!  Complete terror, ran away crying and asking to go home, go home, GO HOME!!  I think he was completely overwhelmed with all the attention and didn’t know what to make of it all.

After some hugs inside from Mama and a pep talk, we headed back out and he was ready to climb aboard that truck!  That’s when the fun started!  All the kids and parents got to ride on top of the Firetruck and we went in circles around the neighborhood waving, spraying pretend fires and making siren noises (sorry neighbors for all the ruckus).  Shane also got to sit behind the wheel, push all the different siren buttons, and yelled “it’s Shane’s party!!!” into the intercom.  They also set up a target for the kids, so they could each take turns spraying at it with a fire extinguisher hose.  I think Shane thinks it was all a dream because he won’t stop playing the videos on my phone on repeat today.

We had such an awesome day, and we thank all of you that were able to celebrate with us!  Shane is living in toy truck heaven this morning while I get to listen to horns, sirens, helicopter noises and revving engines as I type up this post.  Happy 3rd Birthday Shaney, we love you so very much and hope your every birthday wish came true!

Shane you are anything but a baby these days though.  You are a spunky, smart, curious, funny, dancing, laughing, sweet, and energetic carbon copy of your big brother.  You LOVE to follow Nathan’s every move and copy each little thing he does.  You two are inseparable.  I must say Shane, you are one tough cookie and can easily pin down your big brother, and give out bear hugs that will bring you to tears.  You love to do everything by yourself, and if I so much as reach out a helping hand you swat it away.  It always makes me giggle because I love how independent you are.

Aside from Nathan, your favorite things are garbage trucks, trains, playgrounds, books, puzzles, Nemo, music & DANCING, shoes, and animals.  You are completely obsessed with anything that barks, meows, tweets, oinks or moos and that is why we decided to do a barnyard theme for your big second birthday.  It was such a special day with all your best buddies.  You floated around the party just smiling, playing, painting, taking pictures, hitting the pinata, and eating endless PB&J sandwiches.

Happy Birthday Shane, Shaney, Baby Brother, Big Chubby, Diaper Baby!  You are so loved!

Some photos from his special Day:

Some iPhone Photos

]]> http://heylaurenrene.com/uncategorized/oink-baa-moo-shane-turns-2/feed/ 2 http://heylaurenrene.com/uncategorized/nathans-splash-bash/ http://heylaurenrene.com/uncategorized/nathans-splash-bash/#comments Tue, 20 Aug 2013 13:55:16 +0000 http://heylaurenrene.com/?p=1553 [...] ]]> With Nathan’s birthday being right in the prime heat of the Summer, we thought a Splash Bash would be a fun way to keep the guests cool this year.  I had originally planned a big party at one of the local splash pads but as the date approached I just didn’t think I could pull it off.  We have always had help in the past years, but this time I knew it would just be me and Greg trying to make 10 trips back and forth to set things up and it just didn’t seem possible with the two boys in tow.

We ended up deciding to have a smaller party at home this year with a few of his best buds, and make the most of the space we had.  It ended up being the best decision.  It was stress free, easy to set up and take down, comfortable, convenient and so much fun!!!

I set up the front room with a dessert and snack table that had cake pops, jello swimming pools, donut inner tubes, Nutter Butter flip flop cookies, fish food, cupcakes, and lollipops stuck into flip flops.  In front of the table I had beach buckets filled with squirt guns, bubbles, sunglasses, sidewalk chalk, swirly straws, flip flops and frisbees for each of Nathan’s friends.

In our dining room I put all the food that included chicken croissant sandwiches, turkey roll ups, buckets filled with snacks, a veggie platter with dressing that you could “take a dip” into, watermelon beach balls, and pasta salad.  I also made bagged lunches for the kids that included PB&J sandwiches, apple sauce pouches, string cheese, yogurt and apple juice boxes.

The beverage station was outside, as well as the kids’  table, water play area and a giant palm tree bounce house.  We opened up the back door of our garage that leads to our lawn and had the bounce house in our driveway facing into the garage.  It worked out great to have the kids all contained between the yard, garage and bounce house.  It felt surprisingly spacious too considering the small amount of space we were working with.

The water play area had a pool with squirt toys, water balloons, a water table, bubble machine, sponge balls, frisbeees, extra towels, and sunblock.  The kids just ran back and forth between the water area and the bounce house, while the parents ran back and forth between the food and the beer and wine.    It led to a really fun day for all.

Nathan was in birthday heaven and couldn’t believe this whole day was for him.  I loved this year so much because he really understood that it was his special day.  He was so excited the night before and jumped out of his bed at 6:00am because he knew it was party day.  He spent the whole morning staring out the front window asking when his friends would be over.

Although the invitation said the party was from 11:00-1:00 the last of our friends trickled out around 4:00 and the bounce house kept going until 6:30pm.  Nathan ended his day with an evening swim with Daddy and the neighbors, and came home one happy but exhausted Birthday Boy!  Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us…it was a splashing good time! xo

Thursday turned out to be a great day.  I went to morning boot camp, met friends at a splash pad, and tired the boys out so they both took 3+ hour long naps…AT.THE.SAME.TIME!  Any mom knows this is reason to celebrate!  Since they napped so late we decided to take advantage of it and spontaneously jump into the car for an evening at the OC Fair.  We had such a blast.  

Saturday morning I headed out to Laguna Beach to surprise my friend Andrea with a girls day of pedicures and brunch to celebrate the arrival of her second baby!  They aren’t finding out the gender, and I’m putting it in writing here, that I think their daughter will be a big sister to a baby BROTHER.  It was such a nice morning of girl talk and pampering to celebrate a very special lady and her growing family.

I headed home to hang with the boys for the afternoon, then got ready for a date night to the John Mayer concert in Irvine.  This is probably the 5th time I have seen John Mayer in concert, but this was definitely my favorite show to date.  We had a great time tailgating {yes Greg and I set up our own beer pong game in the back of our Jeep}, had awesome seats thanks to his client, and couldn’t have asked for a better set list.  Another successful Summer concert.  Next up Dave Matthews Band in September then Pearl Jam in the Fall {yes…PEARL JAM!…my favorite band since the 6th grade}

Since Saturday night was a little too much fun, I had to bow out of my usual Sunday run.  I was going to go for 10 miles, but I guess that will have to wait until this coming weekend when I’m a little less…dehydrated :).  We slept in, which in our house is 7:00am, then got ready for a birthday party held at one of our local splash pads.  My friend Amy put together such a cute party for her son Parker’s 2nd birthday.  We had an awesome time and couldn’t have asked for a better way to end the weekend.

I went with a color theme of red, white, light blue and brown and tried to incorporate a monkey theme into as much as I could.  We had a build-your-own sock monkey puppet station where the kids could make puppets and play with them in the little door theater I made.  There was also a sock monkey photo booth, a Pin the Tail on the Sock Monkey game, sock monkey coloring book pages and of course tons of sweet treats to  keep the kids entertained.  The monkey themed food included “Monkey mix”, banana chips, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, Jungle Juice, and Monkey vine licorice ropes.

Each little guest got a party hat that I made for them as well as a sock monkey stuffed animal with their name on them!  They could also stock up on treats from the candy buffet   One of my favorite parts was having a sign near the photo booth with our own party hash tag for our friends and family to tag all their Instagram photos to.  After the party was over it was so much fun to look through all the photos that everyone posted!  Especially the ones of Shane devouring his entire smash cake handful by handful!

There was also a surprise guest!  For our other son’s first birthday Daddy surprised everyone (including me) by dressing up as Elmo.  This year he fooled us all again and came dressed in a giant turkey costume!  I know you’re thinking that has nothing to do with sock monkeys, but Shane was born the day before Thanksgiving so we all thought it was pretty funny!

Shane was all smiles his whole party and was so happy all his friends and family were there to monkey around on his very special day!  We had such a memorable time celebrating our Little Monkey’s first birthday!