Happy 2nd Birthday, Grayson!

Today is Grayson's 2nd Birthday! I can't believe it! HE'S TWO!! Blows my mind. I can't call him my baby anymore -- he is officially a toddler now. Anyway, we had a great day, filled with lots of fun and excitement!
Gray woke up early this morning (6am), so we got quite the early jump on the day. Steve and I decorated while he was asleep -- I made him a "Happy Birthday" banner:



Steve went out and bought him some balloons:


We also blew up a bunch of balloons and snuck them into his room while he was asleep, so he would wake up to them in the morning (this didn't quite happen like we planned, though, because he woke up so early, and I was so DEAD TIRED that I just brought him into bed with us for another 1/2 hr [he had woken up every 1-2 hrs throughout the night -- I think I got a total of about 2 hrs of sleep]
Here are the balloons (he kept calling them "pears" -- I guess because he thinks balloons should float, so obviously these aren't balloons!):


Here are his presents from us:


And here's a shot of the banner AND the presents:


And the "Happy Birthday" decoration:


Here is Gray once he noticed that there were new cars on the table:



Yeah. We stayed there for a while. They entertained him for at least a 1/2 hour!

He also got a big Sprig off-roader car that has a push handle, and once he got that off the table, he pushed it around for another 1/2 hour or so :)



(He put his Ele in the car so he could push her around, too :) -- I thought it was cute!)

Then we opened more presents -- this was the first time I've ever seen him really rip into a present -- he is so careful and never wants to tear the paper!

A new Elmo book! Yay!

Then tonight we had our family over for a little party! Gray gets really anxious around a lot of people, so we kept the party small -- just our immediate families.
Gray got spoiled as always :) He got a Nerf ball and hoop from Uncle Jordan, and Dinosaur magnets from Nana and Pop:
The rest of the pictures didn't really turn out that great, but he also got some new animal toys, puppets, books, car racing tracks, an activity book, a humidifier shaped like an elephant, and some new matchbox cars! He was in heaven :D

Grayson's current obsession is the movie Madagascar. He calls it the "Hippo, Lion, Move it Move it" movie. We watch it almost every day. And always have to re-watch the "Move it Move it" part like 20 times. *sigh*. It makes him happy :) So I made him a Madagascar cake! I am by NO means a professional cake decorator -- I'm not even really competent at it -- but I gave it a good go, and I think it turned out pretty cute! Here is the final product:
I was trying to make it look like the animals were on an island. I tried to make "waves", but it kind of just looks like I can't frost right. I had to stick the hippo into the 'water', because she didn't stand up by herself. There are candy rocks around the edge of the water, and crushed graham cracker for the 'beach'. I made Melman (the giraffe) look down at one of the rocks, because he looks exactly like he does in the movie when he taps on a rock he thinks is fake and says "Wow, that looks real!" -- can you tell I have seen this movie WAAAY too many times?!? I made the palm trees out of Oreo sticks and green-tinted white chocolate, with cocoa puffs for coconuts. Here's a close-up of the trees so you can see the coconuts:

This is how I made the trees:

And this is a picture of me while I was decorating the cake (cute, I know :P):
--as a side note -- I was talking on the phone with one of my best friends in the world, Jessica! She had just had her baby!!!! So our little boys have the same birthday! How much does that ROCK?!?! Congrats again, Jess and Adam!

Here is Gray with the cake:
He threw a FIT when he first saw the cake right after I decorated it, and I wouldn't let him have the hippo right away. So as soon as I set it in front of him, the first thing he did was grab the hippo. So fast I didn't even get a picture in before he grabbed it :) The boy loves hippos, what can I say?!


He loved the tree :)

Yummm! Oh, the inside of the cake was white cake with oreos in it, with vanilla frosting between the layers! :) And we had cake batter ice cream with it (ohh so good)



I love this one, such a good action shot! :

I got him to wear a party hat for all of about 2 seconds. Cute while it lasted, though!



We watched "Monsters vs Aliens", and Jeanne set up the race track she got Gray:

Ollie had as much fun with the track as Gray did! It shoots the cars along the track really fast, and he was trying to chase them :)


And here are some random pictures of people!
Gray and his Uncle JD playing "dump truck" -- always a favorite


Uncle Jordan -- recently back from a mission in Ohio:

Momma and Grandpa Scott:

Gray snugglin with Gram and the rest of the Wayments, watching the movie! (Gray STILL eating his tree -- he carried it around and just nibbled on it the rest of the night!)

Thank you Mom, Dad, JD, Malissa, Kailee, Scott, Jeanne, and Jordan for coming over to celebrate with us!! It was so much fun! And we missed you, Sarah, Trent and Rowan! (oo, and PS Gray hasn't opened your gift yet -- he was a little gift-ed out, so he'll open it tomorrow! But thanks in advance!!)

Happy Birthday, Gray! You are the sweetest, smartest, most energetic little guy I've ever seen, and you are the best part of my day -- all day, every day. I love you, little mister!