The Birthday Post

In February, we spent most of our time in Yakima where Steve was doing a two-week externship in Ellensburg, a nearby city. We just happened to be there over Ethan's birthday, which was fabulous. I spent the night before his birthday making this train cake. During the entire week previous, I had asked him what kind of cake he wanted. We narrowed it down to a Lightning McQueen cake or a Thomas Train cake. He finally settled on a train cake, so that's what I set out to do. He absolutely refused cake on his first and second birthdays, so I was excited to make this one. Well, I took it out of the fridge on his birthday and he looked at me and said, "Mom, I wanted a Lightning Mcqueen cake ... I told you that." He wouldn't even try the cake. I was totally ticked off. My mother-in-law could only laugh, telling me that Steve did this to her often (wasn't totally satisfied on his birthday). When I told my mom, she laughed too because she also could relate. I am not too easy to satisfy on my birthday either. I suppose moms just sometimes have to be disappointed on kid birthday! But alas, he sure is cute on his birthday and I still love him! He's also wearing his new Thomas shirt from Aunt Jen -- it makes noise!

Perfectly content with presents, hat and lollipop.

Said cake.

There are a lot of February birthdays in the Connell Clan, so we celebrated with Uncle Super Mike and Jon at their house. Ethan asked every day for Gordon and Henry trains (again, who knows why he didn't like the train cake). As a mother, I sure do love the trains. They kept Ethan occupied for the entire two weeks while we were in Yakima.

Part of the birthday festivities: musical chairs. We ended up never taking a chair away because someone always ends up crying and the kids have fun just walking around the chairs with music anyway. It was a great day!