Anyway, we DID have a Birthday Boy last week. Our sweet little (ha!) RJ turned the big 2.
I'm still 1 in this picture!!
The older kids kept him informed of how many days till his birthday starting about 10 till, so he knew SOMETHING was up.
They asked him if he wanted cake.
"Yeah."
What kind of cake?
"Choo-choo."
What color cake?
"Cake blue."
Then when the next night would come, and they'd tell him, "8 more days until your birthday!", he'd look up at us and ask, "Cake blue?"
"Yes, RJ, cake blue!"
So Friday eventually came, we had considered driving somewhere to see real trains, but the closest ones (45 min to an hour) didn't run on Fridays, and Roger had to work most of the day, so we cheated and went to the local Zoo instead, and paid a ridiculous $4 a person for the Caterpillar "train" ride that is new there. As you will see, only two of us are riding this expensive ride!
The chicky in front is not mine!
But hold on, the day started with RJ picking breakfast.
Blue pancakes with chocolate chips.... mmmmmm!
Errr, yeah, he's still wearing yesterday's shirt... hey, it's a TRAIN and it's mostly clean...
Then, after a nice, long nap, he picked chick-fil-a for lunch. Playland option, he's a smart cookie!
After that, Dad was ready for pick-up, so we got Dad and hit the zoo.
Back home, everyone played outside and had fun while Mom slapped together his cake. Indy had mixed up and poured the cake into pans earlier, then we threw them over to our awesome neighbor's house to bake while we went to the zoo. After dinner, our neighbors came over to sing and eat with us. Turning 1 is a big bunch of confusion for the birthday kid, but turning 2 is pretty cool, they know it's all about them, but they still don't have a full understanding. They're not as overwhelmed as age 1, and delightment is all over their face. Here's RJ and his cake fun:
He blew out that candle in one shot!
Mom's first themed cake EVER, and only because Indy really wanted to make it.
Not bad, eh?
We choose to make dairy-free cake and icing, and substitute the sugar in the cake with Organic Blue Agave, although the icing was still made from confectioner's sugar. It had a mouth-feel more like sponge cake, and everyone loved it.
That was his actual birthday, and two days later it just so happened that Roger and his Dad were heading to a Steel Match in Topton (just over an hour's drive) early Sunday morning, which is one of the places on the list to go to watch trains, so we all went. We dropped Roger off at the shoot, then went straight to the Market Cafe, which is a quaint little place directly next to the tracks and with a crossing in front of it. We arrived at 8:55am and did not have to wait long. The first train came through at 9:20, with another at 9:36 heading east, followed immediately by one heading west. We stood and cheered as the locals all held their ears... lol. We caught one more at 10:20 after having milkshakes and fruit, then headed home. RJ is trying to make us into railfans!
Happy Birthday RJ!!!
