A Very Merry Joint Un-Birthday

Joseph's cousin Elena turned five last week and Joseph turns two at the end of the month, so we had a little birthday party for them yesterday.

Joseph was really excited for his party and was talking about "cake" and "Lena and Jonah" and "cars" (the theme of the party) for several days beforehand.

We had presents first (which wasn't really the plan, but as soon as Joseph saw them, he yelled "open!" and he started ripping into one -- luckily it was for him). He wasn't sure what to make of the fact that Elena also got presents and she was a real sweetheart and let him play with her new present (a guitar, which Joseph preferred to use as a golf club).

Elena got Joseph a magnadoodle, which he loves. My sister and her husband are both very artistic and Noah drew a picture for Joseph on the magnadoodle. After they left, Joseph asked for Noah all day; I finally figured out he wanted Noah to draw more pictures.


The cutest thing was that we also got some cars for Elena and Joseph and his other cousin Jonah so that Jonah wouldn't feel left out. When I handed Jonah a wrapped box, his eyes--which are already huge--got the size of moons and he said, "For me????" He was so happy! (We have some video of this but I will have to have Todd put it up.)

After presents, we ate and played a bit. Corndogs, which we also had on Joseph's first birthday, seem to be becoming a bit of a tradition.



Then we had cake. I made Joseph and Elena a car cake. I wanted to make it red since that is Elena's favorite color, and I had to use an entire package of red food coloring to make sure that it was red and not pink. Todd never would have forgiven me for making my son a pink birthday cake (especially after the Valentine's day fiasco.) I think it turned out pretty cute, especially for the first cake I've ever decorated (note the stop-light cupcakes); unfortunately it did not taste very good, and Joseph, who had been asking for cake all week, ate about one bite. I think next time I will stick with a boxed-mix instead of trying from scratch!


But Joseph did love the song "Happy Birthday" and has been requesting that we sing it ever since then. Tonight he even said to me, "Happy Birthday to Joseph," which I think might be the longest sentence/phrase/number of syllables that he has put together so far. Nevermind that when he says "Joseph" it sounds an awful lot like "Spaceship."


The cousins also enjoyed playing in Joseph's favorite little hiding spot.



Luckily for Joseph, the festivities will continue. Next weekend we are going to be in Utah to meet baby Asher and we'll have a little party there; the weekend after that we plan to visit Nana and Grandpa to celebrate Joseph and Grandpa's birthday; and then after that it will finally be his *real* birthday. So I guess Joseph will have 4 birthdays this year (to beat our 3 Christmases last year). Should be fun!