Clever Daddy

birthday photo shoot

I want to always remember what Callan is like right now.  Today.  Age 4.  

I want to always remember his goofiness and all the things I love that make him him.  

So, the other day I drug him around our neighborhood taking pictures of him being him for a birthday photo shoot.  I asked him to wear his Buzz costume because that's where he's at.  He loves to dress up in costumes, and I wanted to capture that with my camera.  

Here are four of my favorites.  Gosh, I love this kid!

 

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY, CALLAN!

today's snapshot...What I want for my birthday is...

...a mohawk.  That's what he asked for.  That's what he got.

Today is the day...

Today is the day.  

Today is the day my 2-year-old turns into a 3-year-old (and wakes up at 5am wanting to open his gifts).  

Today is the day my 3-year-old drags around a "Happy Birthday" helium balloon everywhere he goes.  

Today is the day he finally receives his "big red ball" he's been praying for (hopefully anyway....or else Nana & Grandpa are being sent back to PA, haha).  

Today is the day he opens his homemade felt board that I sewed for him, only to toss it aside to play with the cool hockey stick Daddy got for him.  

Today is the day he asks me over and over and over again if he can have his moose and buffalo cupcakes yet.  

Today is the day he carries around his #3 candle exclaiming, "It's my take tandle (cake candle)!"  

Today is the day that I tell my son, "3 years ago today Mommy went through a lot of pain, but it was worth it because at the end of it, you were born!"  (Isn't that the speech every mom is supposed to give their child on their birthday?)  

And as you can see in these pictures, some things never change over 3 years.  He still has his many "looks!"

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY, CALLAN!

callan's 2nd birthday: party #2

callan's 2nd birthday: party #1

We were at my parent's house for a few days over spring break, so we had a party for Callan there first with some family and friends.

my sis and my friend (Alicia)
who I've known since birth, I believe

this is the only second that I could get Callan to stop
playing with is new toys to pose for a picture with me

Kinsley was well taken care of during the party in Mimi's lap...

...and also in Nana's lap

Callan loved his new basketball hoop

...and his new golf clubs

going in for a lick of icing before we sing "Happy Birthday"

a two-year-old's cake wouldn't be complete without
a huge fingerprint and a missing glob of icing

Callan mistook his #2 candle as candy...good thing it wasn't lit yet!

Big smiles while we all sang to him...he loves the spotlight I guess!

zzzzzz....

This is what you look like when you've spent too much time at the zoo looking at the buffaloes. He was so funny because he had to keep his hat down low over his eyes as well as wear his sunglasses. You can see his sunglasses sticking out by his ear. It was hard for us to figure out if he was really asleep because we couldn't see his eyes.

callan's 2nd birthday: a buffalo cake

Homemade buffalo birthday party invitations, a buffalo hat, buffalo toy figurines, real live buffaloes, and of course to top it all off...a homemade buffalo birthday cake!

step 1: bake a 13x9 chocolate cake

step 2: cover the bottom part in green icing for the "grass"

step 3: cover the top part in orange icing for the sunset and sun

step 4: get a cereal box to create a buffalo stencil

step 5: cut out the 3 parts of the buffalo
(Gene informed me that buffaloes have 3 different colored sections to them, so he had to make our stencil in 3 parts)

step 6: place the stencil on the cake

step 7: use crushed up oreos and graham crackers to fill in the stencils and brush away the extra crumbs

I learned a lot about buffaloes from my husband while making this cake.

The middle section of a buffalo is lighter in color, hence the lighter graham cracker color.
The front and back are darker (oreos).

step 8: remove the stencil

step 9: use the white icing from the inside of an oreo to make horns and an M&M for an eye

Oh yeah---repeat the whole process again to make a 2nd cake (we were celebrating with both sides of the family while we were in PA, so Gene wanted to make two cakes...one for each party). Yes, we are crazy. And, yes, we will never do that again.

callan's 2nd birthday: zoo america

The theme of this year's birthday was buffaloes. Since we were heading up to PA for Gene's spring break, we decided to take Callan to Zoo America in Hershey to see the buffaloes that they have there. Let's just say it was a MAJOR hit! We spent about an hour and a half looking at the buffaloes and 30 minutes looking at the rest of the zoo.

opening up some birthday presents before we left...check out the new shades!

he also got new Nerf sandals (his Nerf ones from last summer were a big hit), a Fruit Loops shirt (compliments of Daddy) since he loves to say "Toucan," and a buffalo hat...which he wears all the time now and loves to point to it and tell everyone, "BUFFALO!!"

all ready for the Zoo (notice the buffaloes on his tray that had to come with us)

As soon as we got inside the first building, Gene said, "Callan look at these alligators!" Callan's reply was, "Buffalo?" That was his response to all the animals until we finally made a beeline to the buffalo pen. As you can see, Callan could care less about taking a quick picture with Mommy.

showing his toy buffaloes to the real buffaloes

(oh, and he had to drag along his bubbles everywhere we went, too...I guess some kids have a security blanket, and some kids have security bubbles)

showing the spoonbills his toy buffaloes

2

What I love about our 2-year-old:

--As soon as our boy turned 2, it's like he had a vocabulary explosion. Just this past week he started using more sentences. The other day I said, "Do you want Mommy to read you the book?" And he responded, "No, Daddy read da book." I almost fell over! All of the sudden his two word phrases turned into sentences!

--He also began actually saying the names of animals instead of just saying the sounds of them. We were at Chick-fil-A and Callan said "cow." Gene and I looked at each other trying to figure out why hearing that word come out of his mouth sounded so strange. Then we realized it was because he's always only "mooed" when he saw a cow. All of the sudden, though, he started saying the full names of elephant and cow, two animals that he's only ever made the noise for before.

--I love how he enthusiastically throws his arms in the air after we pray at dinner and yells, "AMEN!"

--I also have to snicker when I put his food on his high chair and say, "Ok. We need to pray to Jesus now." and when he is really hungry and just wants to start eating he replies with, "No pray to Jesus."

--I love how he was so excited to eat his buffalo cake for his birthday that he grabbed the #2 candle that was sitting on top of it and took a bite out of it (it wasn't lit yet, thankfully)!

--He is so obsessed with animals that he saw some animal crackers on the table today and said "elephant." So I pulled out a random cracker and handed it to him, and he handed it back saying, "No. Elephant."

(birthday pics are coming...)

Big Birthday Balloon

Apparently dragging the newspaper up the stairs wasn't a big enough challenge. Callan somehow found his birthday banner and decided to drag that up next.

Also, on Callan's birthday Gene came home from work with this LARGE birthday balloon. He just LOVES it. The balloon is about three times bigger than Callan, but he drags it everywhere with him. I can always tell where he is even if I can't see him because I can see the balloon bopping up and down. He walks into the room and immediately starts pointing at it and babbling. He'll play with one hand while holding onto the balloon with the other.

Leave it up to my son to have a "security balloon" instead of a security blanket...

(I love this picture. Callan's giving Gene a hug to thank him for
the balloon...all the while he still has his eyes
fixed on the balloon as if to say, "I'm not letting
this thing out of my sight!")

He even sat still for several minutes beside Gene the other day because he was perfectly happy just holding his balloon!