Brenson's 2nd Birthday

Our little Brenson bug - my baby - turned 2 on February 10th. His birthday fell on a Monday this year, so Chris took the day off from work in order to spend with us and help make the day special for our little guy. 

The night before Bren's birthday, Chris and I wrapped and set out his gifts so Bren would see them as soon as he woke up. His big gift was this Little Tikes truck, and we were hoping Bren would love it as much as we did.

We also did a few other special things around the house like hanging this banner that I had made for their party last year.

And, we blew up and hung balloons in the doorway of Bren's room along with a Mickey Mouse banner we got at Disney World last year. While he loved the balloons during the daytime, he didn't like them at night. He's such a particular boy!

After Bren woke up on his birthday, we got him dressed and let him go into the living room to see his gifts and balloons. He very carefully checked everything out at first.

Then, he got SO excited!

Is this the face of a happy boy or what?!?

He couldn't wait to get in his truck!

He didn't really care about opening the few wrapped gifts . . . he just wanted in that truck!

We did finally convince him to open his other gifts. Love his "What is this?" face!

Still trying to figure out what it is.

It's his very own umbrella! I found this umbrella and a Hello Kitty one at Walmart clearanced for $3 and thought the kids would love them for their birthdays. They do!

Brenson tends to be quite serious when he's opening gifts.

He was excited when he saw that it's a sticker book!

He also got a set of Melissa and Doug fireman dress up clothes. I don't know why I didn't get a photo of this?

Bren's birthday was kind of hard on me this year. I just can't believe my baby is not a baby anymore. Knowing he may be our last certainly doesn't help these emotions, but I try not to let that be a shadow over my life.

Our sweet boy was so excited that it was his special day!

I love this smile :-)!

I put a photo of Bren on FB and Instagram with a caption that read: "Happy 2nd birthday to my tender-hearted, perceptive, slow-to-warm, loving, logical, always-on-the-move, intelligent little joy in the form of my boy Brenson. We praise God for you and thank Him every day for choosing us to be your family on this earth. I'll eat you up I love you so!"

We let Brenson choose where he wanted to eat breakfast, and he chose Braum's. He loves their oatmeal and biscuits & gravy. After a yummy breakfast, we headed to a local Children's Discovery Center that recently opened for a day of fun.

This was our first time to the Children's Museum, and it did not disappoint. In fact, we liked is so much that we bought season passes! There were several great hands-on exhibits that the kiddos enjoyed.

The Museum is home to a system of tunnels and slides that are suspended in the air. The interesting thing is that it is ALL made of packing tape!

Brianna LOVED this! In the photo below, she was right above my head, crawling through one of the packing tape tunnels.

Brenson wasn't too sure about it at first, but he soon discovered that if he took off his socks, he could run through the tunnels at warp speed. There was no turning back after that!

Here is Bren getting ready to slide down the enormous packing tape slide.

Cautious at first, as usual :-).

But in the end, he decided he liked it enough to try it again!

While Brianna spent a ton of time racing through the packing tape tunnels, Brenson really like the hands-on discovery exhibits best.

He is a very curious boy, and he's a thinker. This place was right up his alley!

There was also an area where you could build with these huge foam pieces. We spent a LONG time building and building.

Both kids would just put pieces together and take them apart over and over again.

Then, they helped Daddy build a little house.

Brianna, our little wild girl, loved knocking the pieces over and falling in them.

She also wanted to climb and climb.

Love that smile!

Brenson lost interest with the building and went to discover some other things for a while.

BUT, he came back to the building after just a few minutes.

SO much entertainment in these simple blocks.

Hmmm, does this fit in here?

While Brianna preferred climbing ON the blocks, Brenson preferred crawling UNDER them.

Still building :-).

My sweet little love.

I love this photo of Brianna. It captures that crazy little twinkle in her eye!

Somewhere along the way, Brenson picked up these rhythm sticks. One of the fun things about this place is that many of the hands-on exhibits are in one big open area so the kids can go from thing to thing easily.

The birthday boy was having a blast!

After we pulled the kids away from the building blocks, we put Brenson on this bed of nails. He was very unsure about this, as you can obviously see by his face.

Chris even gave it a try!

I skipped the bed of nails, but jumped right in on the crafting. The Museum has a room set aside for creating things, and this month's theme was fibers. There were all kinds of {donated} materials and an instructor to teach you some neat projects to do with them. This was a little too old for Brenson, but great for Brianna.

Bri decided she wanted to make a skirt out of a t-shirt.

With a little instruction and some help from Momma, she left with this adorable product! And yes, she got to take it home!

After opening gifts at home then eating breakfast out, we got a bit of a late start to the day. It was waaaay past lunchtime when we left the Children's Discovery Center, but both kids fell asleep in the car on the way home. I wasn't too worried since we'd had a late and BIG breakfast, but I did feel a little guilty that we skipped lunch. However, I didn't feel bad enough to wake Bren up from his nap to feed him, either.

After nap, Brenson couldn't wait to play with his truck. He played and played with that thing until we left the house to go out for dinner. We decided to go to our favorite Mexican restaurant in town that night, and since my sister and her family live close by, they met us there.

This is Brenson telling us that he's 2!

We've been faithful patrons of this restaurant for many years, so we have a good relationship with the owner. In fact, he even gave Bren a birthday gift! He also didn't mind when I brought my own cupcakes I had made at home the day before for our birthday celebration.

Brenson wasn't sure about being sang to. Of course.

He did blow out his own candles like a boss though!

My boy LOVES cupcakes. And he enjoys every bite!

Ack! The cuteness!

Our little family on the day Brenson turned 2. *tear*

This last photo is one that I wanted to get because for just 8 days of the year, these cousins are consecutive ages . . . 4, 3, and 2 in this picture! The funny thing about this photo to me is that Chloe Jo and Brianna are only 10 months apart in age, but CJ is SO much taller than Bri. Brianna and Brenson are a full 2 years apart in age, but they don't have near the height difference as CJ and Bri do. Brianna is average height for her age . . . CJ and Bren are both TALL!

We had a great day celebrating our little 2 year old, and Brenson went to bed a very happy little boy. I always hug and kiss and hold my babies before they go to bed, but this night I held him just a little longer, soaking him in. Happy birthday to our blessing from above!