illinois trip - day 5 :: jonah's 2nd birthday

sunday, september 28

startin' the day out right with a big bananer

jonah, could you be cuter?

jonah got to watch bunny town while he ate breakfast. what a birthday treat!

zack having a krispy kreme

good morning, rachey!

ok, one of the many things i love about about my best friend is the way she makes you feel so important and loved and one of the ways she does that is by calling you on your birthday and having her hampster sing "you say it's your birthday" to you.

well jonah was lucky enough to have woken up on his actual birthday at rachael's house... so he got to have the hampster serenade him in person. that is sooooo cool. what a lucky bundle.

i love my birthday boy!

we had jonah's 2nd birthday party at the hundred akre wood aka. grandma & grandpa's house. my art school sister molly made all of the decorations. she's brilliant!

kylee helped paint the paper for the leaves for winnie's tree.

jonah, why so grumpers? it's almost your birthday party time.

oh yeah. it's my birthday.

daddy is fuuuunny.

kylee super star

hunny treat bags

hey everybody! look! it's my birthday! and i'm dressed like christopher robin. =)

let me sit down and get a good look at it.

awwww! we-me! i love you!

see jonah, this is what your mom meant by sit next to winnie and smile. it's not hard to do.

but i'd rather ride bikes.

hey look! tigger and roo are bouncing up the stairs to my party!

and here we are at the top of the stairs. aunt mowgy, you are amazing!


jaycob and his little brother scooby came to jonah's party!


kanga helped my mom put the finishing touches on jonah's cake.


here are the cousins: kylee, jack & jonah


more of molly's brilliant art work

my dad and his sisters: pat and mary ann

jacob & zack having a ball

i love love love the decorations. could i gush just a little more about how awesome they were?

and here's the artist herself, having a carrot fresh from rabbit's garden.

don't miss this one...

oh, who doesn't love putting olives on their fingers and running around the house. i think random adults fed jonah about 20 olives before the night was through. (please don't throw up, please don't throw up).

my shirt twin: great uncle mike!

and our special guest for the evening... winnie!

winnie rang the doorbell and jonah answered the door.

at first he took it all in stride. "here winnie, would you like a drink?"

but then he ran inside and made daddy hold him. little miss brooke especially loved winnie too.

i think this was blowing winnie a kiss.

"nose!"

"ah ha ha ha! winnie's so funny!"

"hee hee hee! this is awesome! i love winnie!"

the paparazzi was outta control.

not sure if he's ready to stand that close to winnie yet.

ok, this was a really funny part of the day. winnie brought winnie ears to hand out to all of the kids, but winnie couldn't see his hands, so he just held his hands out and let molly set the ears on his hands and then he would just move them back and forth between molly and the kids, even if there weren't ears on his hands. it was quite hilarious.

everybody say "hunny!"

winnie, kylee and sheridan. hey kylee, where's your dad? he's missing this! ;-)

winnie brought a fun game to play... pin the tail on eeyore. jonah wouldn't wear the blindfold. is this cheating?


rachael and zacky

let's see what happens when we take zack over toward winnie to get his prize. (so mean, mama.) p.s. that's the reason zack came dressed as scooby to jonah's party. he said he'd only come if he could dress as scooby since winnie was going to be there.

winnie handed out spinning top shooters to the kids as prizes. i think it's so cute when jonah squats like this.

rachey goin' for a quick spin.

aunt rachey, uncle al, nana joy, jake & zack

silly boy!

rach and jonah playing with jonah's new light up top.

the big boys that were too cool to come outside and play with winnie until they heard they were missing out on the prizes, so i made them get their picture taken with him. =)

jonah did warm up to winnie by the end of our time together. so much so that he decided to give winnie a kiss good-bye. the perfect ending to a wonderful visit!

eeyore got some spare tails. that should last him in case he loses a few.

jonah sat on grandma's lap while we all sang "happy birthday!" jonah had a smile a mile wide the whole time.

ok, jonah blow out your candle! like you blow bubbles...

gasp! i did it!

i think i can fit this whole thing in my mouth. chomp!

awe! baby tigger, you just missed your buddy winnie.

present time! ok, if i had a dollar for every time i've heard the word "choo choo" since jonah's party... i don't know... i could buy something big.

awe! a special blankie from grandma!

...with love in every stitch.

i think he loves it! i didn't make him do this. honestly.

more choo choo's!!! ope-it! ope-it! (translation: open it! open it!) we heard that a lot that night too.

i have no idea why i have this look on my face. i mean, it's a really cute puppy, but i'm not sure why i look so shocked??? thanks aunt mowgy & uncle tiger. he sleeps with "puppy" every night and plays choo choo with him.

rachael got dave and i a present for jonah's birthday too. as i was opening it i looked at rachael and asked her if i was going to cry... yeah! maybe from laughter!

sham-wow! what a fantastic gift!

last time we were in town we all stayed up way too late... like late enough for infomercials to start coming on tv. so mix a late night with the cheesiest infomercial you've ever seen, well maybe not ever, but man oh man it was so good.

oh, der! we're on the internet here people. just check out the infomercial for yourself. i don't know. it sells itself.



aaand... notice how it coordinates with my winnie ears. very nice touch, rach.


order yours today! here's the website: shamwow! i mean you're gonna spend $20 on paper towels every month anyway.

more olives fingers. it never gets old.

a no look shot by [d]. nice one hubby.

come on, uncle jeff. ope-it!

how 'bout now? is it open now?

i think kylee might be telling rachael a secret.

ummm... whatcha gonna do with that ball, jonah?

impressive.

whew! what a party! we had people falling asleep in the weirdest places by the end of the night.

thanks for coming to jonah's winnie party everybody! we had an awesome time! the next day jonah was still looking for winnie at the front door... "winnie? knock?"