Levi's Birthday Extravagazna

Personally, I love my birthday.  I look forward to it for weeks, maybe even months.  And celebrate it for weeks (Josh would maybe argue even months!). A birthday is your one special day to shine.

Just like I love my birthday, I have also gone out of the way to create really special, meaningful celebrations for my boys.  We all know I love a party, but beyond that I also go out of my way to make my boys feel just how special and loved they are all of the time, but particularly on that one special day they entered our lives!  

Levi turned 2 last Saturday January 4th.  

When he woke up, he was really happy to find there were two balloons in his room.  Actually, they had to be pointed out to him, but his face literally lit up when he saw them.  And he totally clutched them with all his might for the rest of the morning.

After he had been up for a bit, we had our traditional birthday breakfast of cake batter pancakes!  And then since it was a Saturday and Josh was home, Levi got to open his presents.  I had always heard people lament birthdays around the holidays, but now I totally get it.  Poor guy really needed nothing at this point, but we managed to find a really cool Batman car he can race around the house with his brother (we had a fire truck one that they constantly fought over, so at least now, there's one for each!) and Colton got him a super cute Critter Zoo from Target (as in we told Colton that's what he was getting Levi after they both loved playing with a friends at our New Year's Eve house!).

After getting his hair cut with Dad, Levi's big day continued with a trip to Build a Bear with his Gigi.  Colton tagged along for the outing, but was a very good big brother and only helped Levi with his bear...appropriately named "Bear" (the creativity in this family is crazy, I tell you!). 

                                           

                                           

The boys also got some Chik-Fil-A while they were out and then came home to rest up for Levi's Messy Monster Party.  Josh and I had debated whether or not to have Levi's party on his actual birthday because it was so close to the holidays, but eventually we just decided to go for it because we figured it was silly not to take advantage of his big day being on a weekend!  So around 4, all of Levi's favorite friends and family members came over to celebrate him.  I'm sure you know there will be a lot more details in the coming days about Levi's actual party, but for now, let's just focus on my boy and the fun he had!  

um really, where did my baby go?!?

If you can't tell, our boy had a blast!  After all of the guests cleared out, the fun continued as Levi got to open his presents with Nene, Papa, Gigi, Uncle Ryan, C, and Riley there to watch...and Colton to help (of course!).  The big highlight was probably his tricycle, but I think really he just loved that he had presents to open (on a side note, I seriously wanted to make this a "no gifts" party, but Cotlon...and now Levi (because of Colton)...fully expect presents with birthdays these days.  They're not quite at the age yet where they can understand the "you have so much, you don't need anymore" logic yet, so we just went ahead and did gifts, but if anyone has any advice on how to navigate this in the future, I'd love to hear it!)

In the end, Josh and I were pretty exhausted, but satisfied!  I think the day was definitely as special as our baby boy is!  He had fun from sun up to sun down, got to spend it with all of his favorite people, and got lots and lots of love and attention.  And now he's officially 2!  Crazy, crazy!

Stay tuned this week for lots of details (and pictures) of Levi's Messy Monster party.