Two-day's the day! Happy birthday, Asher!

I'm a cheesy mom. I sang happy birthday immediately to him when I first saw this morning. I let him have his beloved Lucky Charms for breakfast. Enoch and I blew up a bunch of balloons the night before and left them in our family room for him to play with. I gave him lots of hugs and kisses. He's 2! He doesn't really get how this makes anything different than any other day, but I hope somewhere in his brain things are starting to click that something like a birthday exists.

I invited a few friends and their little ones over for play and lunch along with monkey cupcakes for dessert. There was quite a crew, but it was manageable. We had Abby and Daxton, Laney and Chase, Ruby and Tagg. We were hoping Reeder and Addy and their new little brother Talmage would join us too, but it didn't work out.  It was a bit chaotic but a whole lot of fun.

The best part of the celebration was singing to Asher and getting him to blow out candles. He didn't really get it at first. He hasn't experienced too many birthdays with candles yet--at least not in a way his brain can store. But he immediately knew that he LOVED fire. He's a Norton. He got all excited to just see the candles aflame. He blew, but didn't quite have enough air to blow them out at lunchtime. When we tried it after dinner with his dad, he did manage to blow the candles--a couple of times--because of course, with two Norton boys in the mix, that means we must light the candles again and again to indulge the pyromaniacs. Of course, we tried to teach some rules and fire safety at the same time. ;)

He had a fun day, and got a new dump truck, some paper and water color paints, more trains, some bath toys, and a new book. The kid is spoiled. And the birthday is not over yet. Tomorrow is Organ Stop Pizza with family to celebrate.

The boys who came to play.

The monkey cupcakes. Totally easy to do and totally copied from an idea I found online.

Can't you just see the joy because of the flames?

Trying to explain blowing out the candles.

Working together to blow them out.

Mission accomplished.

Ruby and Laney--so cute!

The above video shows his developing candle blowing skills. I love the cheesy smile he gets when he feels he has been successful. Happy birthday, little man!