turkey trot!

Thanksgiving morning we all headed out to cheer on Mike, Adam and Zoe as they ran in the Edwardsville Turkey Trot 5K.

While they ran, G and Colin played on the playground at (one of) my old elementary school playgrounds. Talk about deja vu.

Then we headed down to the race, where Colin was thrilled to be given Mardi Gras beads?

So proud of our runners, who all had great times!

Guess who did not run?

Post-race, C enjoyed an entire Honeybun all by himself and I was excited to run into and catch up with a few old friends. Love that about going home.

the traditional post-race toddler tossup!

We had a fantastic weekend at home.. more pics to come!

is there anything yellow he won't wear?

colin is so fashionable he decided his (yellow) dump truck bed would make a great hat.

this went on for a while this morning. so fancy.

tarp riding

Busy weekend this weekend... which included our attempt to rake the back yard. Mike made the mistake of giving Colin one ride on the tarp.. needless to say, he enjoyed it:

Which led to this scene about 12 more times, before I finally took him inside:

(this is my little boy who is afraid of swings, by the way)

Lellie and Fia

Colin was a popular guy this weekend, having "dates" with both of his little lady friends. We had dinner with our neighbors Saturday night, where he and "Fia" spent the whole night running around and chasing each other. Colin gave her a sweet hug and on our way out, said, "I love you Fia!" Awww...

Not to be outdone, Ellie came over Sunday morning for a playdate. They were content to climb inside the toybox and enjoy some milk together. Don't they almost look like siblings here? I think it's the "unruly blonde" look they're both rocking.

Despite some sharing-related tussles, they had lots of fun together! Colin enjoyed tickling Ellie as she sat on the ottoman.

Although he wasn't thrilled to share his chair, Colin had lots of fun. Ellie made quite an impression on him. He spent the rest of the day reminding me of "Lellie" and how she drank some of his milk. Ha.

So nice to see the kids actually interacting and playing together after two years of our forced playdates :)

happy halloween!

Our little tiger got all dressed up tonight for his first "real" night of trick or treating!

We headed over to the Dalton's first. Don't worry, he didn't need to see to be able to cross the street.

He would only say "trick or treat" (more accurately: "tafweet?") before the door opened, and "thank you" after the door closed. But he did do a good tiger ROAAAR a few times :)

When else besides Halloween do you see a unicorn and a tiger facing off?

We visited a few houses on our street, and mom's partner Deb's house for a special treat. He busted into Deb's house to chase her dog. Nothing like impressing the partners. When we got home, he REALLY enjoyed this peanut butter cup. He seemed suspicious that I was going to take it away... like it was too good to be true.

So after I had bought the tiger costume for Colin, Grandma Pat informed us that Mike was also a tiger the halloween he was two! Here are the father and son (Colin's mom actually did buy black eyeliner just for the occasion and then forgot to draw on whiskers!)

happy halloween!

Two Years Old.

I am just now getting around to posting about Colin's big birthday this week... mostly because I now have a TWO YEAR OLD. Can you believe that? To quote Colin's favorite book, "Where did the baby go?"

Colin started the day with a special sign on his door at school. His teachers both wore yellow t-shirts! And the class sang happy birthday to him. Hopefully he was more polite to them; when Mike and I sang him happy birthday, he promptly requested "Farmer in the Dell" instead.

Mom picked Colin up from school early and our friends from across the street came over with a present. Colin was unsure about this whole present-opening thing at first.

But once he figured out there were TOYS in the packages, he changed his tune.

He was very excited to get this car launching ramp (or, "car whee!" as he calls it).

That is, until Mike brought out his BIG present, which caused him to drop everything and yell "CAW CAW BIKE!!!!"

So we kind of misjudged the size of this bike. His feet don't even reach the pedals... but he doesn't care, he just scoots himself around the house on it. He was overjoyed.

It was a crazy day and evening.. this is the only picture I got of me and my stinker on our special day. Colin is deeply pondering the meaning of life in his advancing age.

Our present-opening extravaganza continued with the rest of the presents from G and Grandma that didn't get opened last weekend. This microwave rocked his world. He tried to take it to bed with him that night.

Finally, it was time for cake. Here's a tip for you parents out there. Don't give your kid an entire cupcake all to himself one weekend, and then three days later put a whole cake in front of him, and try to explain to him why he only gets one piece instead of the whole thing. This was in the middle of 10 straight minutes of "CAKE MINE! MIIIIIINNNNNNEEEE!"

Shut it with the singing already, this is the third time with this song today. Give me the cake.

But once he had the cake in front of him, my sweet boy returned.

One of Colin's favorite new pasttimes is looking at his baby book. He loves the pictures of himself as a baby. He doesn't know it's himself, but he likes to tell the baby "night night." When I look at those pictures, I just can't believe that Colin is that little baby. I love that he's becoming a little person with his own personality and sense of humor. He makes every day more fun, challenging, and happy. We love him so much. Happy Birthday Colin!

early birthday party!!

We celebrated Colin's second birthday (I can barely even type that!) in Edwardsville this weekend!

Can you tell that someone was excited to get to the cupcake?

Pouty face could barely wait for us to finish singing...

We stopped in the cupcake shop to get cupcakes for the celebration. Mom's friend Erin was working and she was SO nice, she made Colin his very own YELLOW CUPCAKE. It was the highlight of Colin's day.

He was much more restrained in his cupcake destruction than a year ago. He has matured.

Happy, happy birthday boy! (who refused to wear his birthday bib, or open his presents. Seriously, he demanded to go outside and sweep the porch rather than open presents. Whose kid is this?)

But the presents we did open up were a big hit. Colin refused to even set this sandbox toy aside to finish his dinner.

Colin had lots of fun in his short trip there. He played blocks with G....

and Uncle Adam was in town to run the rock 'n roll half marathon with Aunt Zoe, so we got to have some fun times with the whole family there. So much fun to run around the front yard like kids again.

Colin LOVES his uncle "Ada."

We had a great weekend! It was so nice to celebrate Colin's birthday with family!