Party at Rhodes' Digs

Today is Rhodes' second birthday.  I love that sweet thing to pieces.  We had his party Thursday night because John Michael has a golf tournament this weekend.  Since that baby is like a magnet to sand and shovels, I thought a digging theme would be quite appropriate, so we had a party at Rhodes' "digs."

He had a fun time at his party and the weather was unheard of for July.  We were even going to blow up the water slide but I think it would've been too chilly for the kids to get wet.  It felt that good outside!

 Favors were shovels... what else?

And a sand cake.  Which I didn't make enough of.  But people really liked it so I will share the recipe.

John Michael's sweet self worked tirelessly to finish this fort and sandbox so it would be ready for Rhodes' party.  How could we have a diggin' party without sand?  So, the "non-handyman" handyman knocked it out in a week. By himself for the most part.  I'll never let him fool me again into thinking he can't do something!  But he did have some really wonderful help to speed up the process.

I filled the sandbox up with tons of little toys and shovels for the kids to dig and collect.

I also set up a golf toss for the adults.  Well it didn't get much use from the adults because all the kids wanted to do was play on it like it was a ladder.

After enough cake and watermelon, Rhodes was ready to ditch the party and play in Papa's car for a bit.

Ryder did dress himself.  Just thought I should throw that out there.

Whew.  Mama and daddy finally got to sit down.  Throwing a birthday party will wear you out.  I don't care how big or small it is!

Later that night after everyone left, Rhodes (or should I say Ryder), opened presents.  He got lots of awesome things and believe me, he needed some new stuff!

Sand Cake

8 oz cream cheese
3/4 stick butter, softened
1 1/3 c powdered sugar
2 bags golden oreo cookies (I threw in a couple regular oreos in too to give it a few black specks)
2 small boxes INSTANT vanilla pudding - very important - I learned
4 c milk
8 oz cool whip

Grind up oreos and set aside to dry out.  I used a food processor.  Mix butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar together and set aside.  Mix vanilla pudding mix with milk, set aside.  Mix cream cheese mixture with pudding mixture and stir in cool whip.  With a sand bucket of your choice, start with a layer of the crushed oreos and then the pudding mixture.  Repeat until you end with the cookie crumbs.  Refrigerate until time to eat.  Cute to serve with a shovel.

This morning Rhodes woke up a two year old!  He was so excited as we sang happy birthday to him.  Glad I caught it on video:

Let me share some cute stuff about Rhodes.

When it's bedtime (and he can always sense it), as we are headed to his room he'll lay his head on our shoulder and say in his little raspy voice, "wah wah" which means rock rock.  Me oh my he's sweet.

While we are rocking I always sing Jesus Loves Me and Rhodes has started to chime in.  It's a whole lotta crazy sounding but I can tell he's sounding out the words and staying on tune with me.

He can count to thirteen!  Certainly not on command, and it's only happened a handful of times, and it's usually very much out of order, and it sounds a little weird - kind of like I'll start by saying ONE, and he'll say (sound these out yourselves) tuoooo, fwee, fouh, five, sits, senen, fwee, fouh, senen, aint, nine, tan, lenen, twelf, tirteen.

He sings parts of the theme songs to Dora (he calls it Dowa Boots), Mickey Mouse (he says Mee Mowh), Octonauts (ahhnots) -- I DIE it's so cute.

He would brush his teeth twelve times a day.  I've found him many a time standing on the bathroom stool taking matters into his own hands.

I love the way he sounds when he says things and how they don't sound anything like what the actual word is, but John Michael, Ryder and I always know what he's saying.  Like beberries for strawberries. Dooce for juice.  Buhhh Buhhh when he sees a bug.  Puhl when we get to the pool.  Huuuuuuh with outstretched arms when he wants a hug.  Err for ear.  Sher for share.  Her for hair.  Mirk for milk - he's got something going on with the "er" sound and it's pretty hilarious.  Nack for snack.  And he's got a full blown lisp just like his brother.

I'm so glad Rhodes joined our family two years ago.  He makes us laugh, but makes us crazy sometimes too!  He's so cute to me and I have started to figure out all of his quirks.  I can't wait to see what kind of little guy he turns out to be.  Thank you God for our healthy, handsome, sweet and silly boy.  We have been given more than we could ever deserve.