Our Little Monster Turned TWO

It's so hard to believe another year has gone by. Everyone warned us that time would fly as soon as Cashe was born & to enjoy every single moment with him. We are obviously learning that for ourselves & passing the wisdom onto others. It's wild how quickly the year flew & how quickly I had to get on the ball for planning another big day for our little man.

This year's theme I found online (before I discovered Pinterest unfortunately ... or fortunately, because I would've gone a little overboard had I see all the extras I could've thrown together for a monster party). The theme was "Our Little Monster Turns Two". No, he's not really a monster. He 'roars' every now & then & he is definitely a BOY when it comes to rough-housing & banging his cars against the furniture & the walls, but he is truly a little angel who is full of joy & lots of giggles. An angel-themed party wasn't abou to suit this guy though, so here's what we went with ...

'Tis the season for pumpkins ("puntins" to Cashe), so we might as well make the most of 'em & celebrate our Lil Monster.

Everytime we're in WinCo, Cashe oogles at the pinatas. I found one at Target that fit the theme, so I didn't hold back.
These are also all the kids' favors: monster squishy balls, monster stickers, eye ball bubbles & eye ball bouncy balls.

The Monster himself.

I couldn't resist a giant poster of these two studs.

Our array of monster joy, including my homemade Monster Pops.

The living room decor.

... another angle.

... and another (in case you didn't get the gist from the 1st 2 pix).

Working for HP rocks! I made this poster of all the events we did this year: starting school; visiting our new cousin, Sage; going to the zoo; going to the lake; taking our 1st shower; going to the McCall Winter Festival; watching Daddy's basketball games ...

And here was a poster of a bunch of people we saw: Auntie Kelly, Grandpa, all our cousins, Kohlman & Ella, Aunt Shauna & Aunt Stacy, Great Aunt Shauna & Great Uncle Peek, the whole Nyquest fam, Auntie Leasha & Uncle Luke, Grammie, Great Grandpa ...

Chattin' it up with a few of the mamas & their girls:

Baby Eloise, Jill, me, Baby Anna & Amber Joy.

This child LOVES his pizza ("pitza"). My craving while I was pregnant was fruit & pepperoni pizza & Cashe cannot get enough of either food.

He also loves to eat his pitza upside down & from the middle. Crazy kid.

Finally ... the moment he had always dreamed of in those WinCo aisles: PINATA TIME!

Ella's up to bat!

Jay's helpin' out Dylan.

Macy's helpin' out Joel.

The Birthday Boy is patiently waiting to climb aboard the Magic Tumble Bus.

Anna's scorin' some Lemonheads.

There it is! FUN ON WHEELS. The Magic Tumble bus is a school bus that's been emptied out & filled with gymnastics equipment for kids to climb on.

Since Cashe can't STOP climbing unless he's sleeping, I thought this would be a perfect fit for this year's birthday party event.

And sure enough, it was ...

Ellie had her own jungle gym.

Stunt-man, Kohlman

Bouncin' boys: Caden & Joel

Monkey-man, Dylan

Beauty queen, Ella

Stud-muffin, Aiden

Awe ... some more mamas: Jen & Heather

Sweeties: Macy & Joel

Handsome-man, Cashe

And a tired boy too ... ,

but not too tired to swing around like the big kids:

And not too tired to open all his new toys! ... with much help from his friends.

Could this be why? Sugar overload.

Takin' some time to chill with his new Cars car.

A Few Days Later ...

Opening his gift from Auntie Leasha, Uncle Luke & bebe cousin, Sage.

ANOTHER gift from Aunt Shauna, Uncle Dyl & cousins: Dylan, Jadon, Kody, Kaylee & Colty.

Then, school celebrated Cashe's birthday the day before his actual birthday & we got to bring whatever we chose (meaning, it didn't have to be healthy) for snack.

Since this month's theme is : "I Am Thankful For ...", we made Turkey Cake Pops to represent Thanksgiving & being thankful for Cashe.

They were a big hit, but there was a few left-over so the Birthday Boy got an extra.

YET ANOTHER gift from Uncle Matt & Auntie Ali.

Holy smokes! And ANOTHER from Nana!

We made a giant "2" puntin pancake the morning of Cashe's birthday. He helped.

The final product (could've fed a family of 4).

Then, we had some friends over & got a cool new Toy Story cup from Alesa.

... And a chocolate & M&M doughnut from Melissa.

... Then the biggest package in the whole world arrived at our door from Auntie Stacy!

And we ended our night watching Cars 2 with some of our greatest friends, Ella & Kohlman.

If you're anything like your mom, little man, you'll stretch these birthdays out for an entire month (similiar to what you did right here!) Enjoy every single moment of this coming year, Baby Love & do your very best to prove that the "Terrible Twos" don't actually exist. We love you with all our hearts, Sweet Monster.