Happy Birthday Zander!

I felt so guilty about Zander's birthday party this year. He turned 2 on Saturday and we left Sunday for 10 days in Italy. I was so busy preparing for the trip I hardly spent any time on his celebration. But he didn't seem to mind!! Thankfully he is still young enough not to really understand or expect much on this day. And my guilty conscious will just have to make it up to him next year.

His birthday cupcakes were my one attempt at effort this year.


He wasn't so worried about cute, he was just hungry. (See my dad's hand? I think he was trying to recreate Zander's first birthday)



I found this recipe in Family Fun magazine and thought at least it would look like I tried. And can I just say that making rainbow cupcakes is a lot harder and more time-consuming than it looks. But, aren't they cute?


But, who really cares about cupcakes when there are presents to be played with. Obviously the bike was the big hit of the day.


Um, I think I'm going to have trouble on my hands with this one!


Everyone was fascinated by the dinosaur. He talks, walks and scares the crap out of little kids. Best part (at least for this frugal momma) he was only $10 (regularly about $60).






Zander also loved the big ball Mema and Papa brought over for him!


And no family function would be complete without Zander trying to swipe someone's cell phone. Ashley has finally wised up though. She made him sit on her lap to play. I'm pretty sure she was tired of paying for the phone calls to Australia.