Happy Birthday, Tyler!

This past Monday Ben and I went to my friend Amy's house to celebrate her son Tyler's second birthday. Our other friend Aimee and her (soon to be) two-year-old daughter, Elaina, were also there. It was Ben's first birthday party that he has attended and between the gifts, balloons and cake, it certainly was good practice for his Big Day in March! We got some cute photos of the four kids since Tyler's younger sister Samantha was also there with us, so here they are:

Ben being "gentle" with Baby Samantha. We've been working on this lately around other babies and animals since Ben is known to whomp Barney in the head, much to the poor dog's dismay, and also to try to grab his friends' hair without realizing his own strength!

Amy gave each child a balloon with a little goodie bag tied to the end of it. Ben got a cool pair of orange sunglasses (he still prefers my prescription ones!!), a ball and a book. Even better than the prizes, though, was watching the helium balloons float to the ceiling of Amy's two-story family room.

Here, Ben stares at these bright latex wonders as they float to the ceiling and then chews on the end of his balloon's string.



Here, Tyler and Elaina show off their new shades.

Now for the favorite part of the day - CAKE! I allowed Ben to have a small piece of Tyler's birthday cake and boy did he love this. It was a yellow cake infused with red Jello then topped with pudding and whipped cream. The only thing that could have been messier would have been chocolate cake!! We all had a fun time watching Ben try to jam the entire piece of cake into his mouth at once.

The funniest moment at the party was when we found that Tyler had already helped himself to his gifts as the moms cleaned up after lunch (and I dealt with Ben's red, cream-coated face!). Here Tyler is "caught red-handed" in the act.

"Who me? I didn't do anything."

Ben gave Tyler a band-in-a-box for his present (yes, I've already apologized to Amy for this!!) and the kids all had a fun time playing with it. There were moraccos to shake, drum sticks to bang, a harmonica to play and loads of other goodies. Here Tyler tries out the drum as Elaina watches her little boyfriend all dreamy-eyed.

"Oh Tyler, you're such a good drummer..." /sigh/

Ben observes the action as he has never seen a drum before (except if you count my double boiler and a wooden spoon, which he sometimes plays with at home).

Ben decides to join the band...

...or steal the entire band altogether!

What a fun time we had celebrating Tyler's big day with him and next week we do the same for Elaina at her second birthday party!