Vince's 2nd birthday party

On the night of Vince's birthday we took him to Vincenzo's Pizza for dinner. Seemed appropriate as he had not yet been outside the womb.

 When we saw a big guy shouting around orders to his employees (his daughters, maybe?) I asked if he was the owner and if his name indeed was Vincenzo. It was. So, I broke the news that my sweet little boy's name was also Vincenzo and that today was his 2nd birthday and if we could take a picture with him. He was flattered, I think.

Earlier in the day we bought him a talking Elmo doll on clearance at WalMart. He usually is apathetic to dolls of any kind, but he held Elmo around all day. It was endearing to watch.

The next day we had his party. As per usual parties are just too stressful for me to do. Charles and I came to a conclusion about what we can do next time to make things more pleasant for everyone :)

Ever since making Azure's monkey cake for her 3rd birthday I have wanted to make special cakes for my children each year. Maybe I will retract that decision, but it's the only "cutesy" thing I feel I do for their parties as I don't do elaborate table spreads, regardless of what my pinboards show. The cake itself was easy to make. The frosting was another story. I am learning as I go. It took me over an hour to frost this cake b/c it was too thick. I wanted to take a couple shortcuts and one was purchasing ready-made frosting. Turns out I bought the wrong kind.

Charles gave Elmo teeth. Too bad we had thrown out the white frosting beforehand.

I LOVE this surprised look of awe!

 As if to say, "All this is for me? All these people came over and are singing for me?! I wonder what's going on?" Sooo cute!

We joked around that the red frosting was going to stain his face and that we'd still be able to see it the next day. Turns out we did see it the next day, but not on his face..in his diaper. I hate food coloring.

He received a light up sword which is now being used as a major prop in our nightly reenactments of our Book of Mormon readings. Azure, of course, chooses to be anyone that uses a sword :)