Corn maze

We went to a local-ish (35 min drive) corn maze over the weekend that offered other toddler friendly activities such as hayrides, pig races, farm tours, and funnel cakes.

Apparently I have an ability to minimize drive times

Me: it's 20 miles and 35 minutes away

M: is it really 35 minutes or are these "35 Dawn minutes"?

It was really 35 minutes. I used the "google". 

There was a light misting rain on and off earlier in the day so that kept a lot of the attendees away. I feel like we had the place to ourselves!

Evan wanted to carry his "Murse" (man-purse) everywhere. 

M ran with Corinne through the maze and I strolled with Evan at a more leisurely pace (with funnel cake). There were a couple times in there when I thought we'd have to send up flares. 

But, we didn't. Both kids fell asleep on the way home, so mission "tire the kids out" was a success. 

2 years

I still see so much baby in him, from the size if his feet to the curve of his cheek, but he's growing up. Between 2y and 3y is when i really saw Corinne leave all the baby stuff behind and morph into a kid with kid-like features. So I now know we're embarking on the season of change with Evan.

He learned his most of the letters (W trips him up) over the summer since Corinne became interested in letters (monkey see monkey do). In August, he was sitting in my lap staring up at the ceiling and started counting out loud "123456898". He is speaking in two word sentences; sometimes three words at a time. 

Evan loves airplanes, toy cars, and Bubble Guppies. He also loves pulling hair. A lot. Especially Corinne's hair because she yells loudly and that is,apparently, the neatest thing ever. We've started putting him in time outs for it/other rough behavior, but that's more for Corinne's benefit than his. He doesn't really get it "why am I sitting on this couch? Oh, hey! A bug on the wall I can stare at. And I have feet, well those are pretty fun to play with!"

He dances and sings (what sounds like the soundtrack from Frozen), and talks back to the TV when a character poses a question to the audience (Corinne still stares at the character disdainfully "whyyy are you wasting my time with this elementary question?"). However, he (like Corinne) hates it when M or I sing. He'll put his hand over my mouth and says "no (insert word here that I was singing)!" FFS little man, my singing isn't that bad. 

Evan's 2nd Birthday Party

The nice thing about having a birthday that falls on a Saturday is that the party can be the same day as the actual birthday. We had 7 adults and 8 kids (but one was only 5m old, so more like 7.5 kids).

Honoring Evan's favorite TV show ever, it was a Bubble Guppy themed party. Which, a few weeks ago, prompted a conversation between M and I when I showed him the invitation.
M: "I don't understand. Why is there a picture of the Bubble Guppies on the invite?"
Me: "Because it's a Bubble Guppy themed party. We'll have decorations and stuff."
M: "I don't think people will understand it's a themed party. It should say that on the invite."
Me: "So you think I should have written 'This is a Bubble Guppy party' on the invite?"
M: "Yes. I just don't think people are going to look at this invite and know."

I didn't write "This is a Bubble Guppy themed party" on the invite, FYI. So I'm sure the few themed decorations we had must have really thrown people for a mental loop.

Due to impeccable time management skillz, we actually had the house in pristine party condition with all food ready to go and no dishes in the sink at 4:55p (party started at 5p). I was proud.

Then the guests arrived. Corinne discovered there were cheetos and pirate's booty in arm's length on the table and an unlimited supply of juice. She was in processed food heaven.

Evan still isn't sure about the bounce house, but the other kids enjoyed it. 

Evan kept asking for "more ice". The kid really likes ice. 

For a "craft", I had the kids decorate plastic treat bags with Bubble Guppy stickers. Then, used the treat bags to hold pinata candy. 

Evan was ready to go with the pinata. 

  We had the kids hit the pinata in order of age, so Evan went first. The 3y and under set didn't have to wear a blindfold.

After the 3 year olds went, Evan decided he wanted another stab at it. So we let him. 

The the "big" kids (5y) tried it.

It was ultimately demolished by the 8 year old.

I wish this photo was in better focus.

When you have a lollipop, life is awesome.

Hopped up on sugar, we then moved to the cake. Evan didn't quite understand that he wasn't allowed to smash the cake this year and instead he had to wait patiently. "Hands OUT of the cake, Evan." was said a few times. He didn't quite understand the whole "blow out the candle" idea, so the older kids who have been around the block a few times, helped him out. 

By this time, it was around 8p, so we opened gifts before kids started melting down.

Around 9:30p, some kids had enough.

Other kids had not: