Going Through Our Days: 2nd Birthday!

I'm going to take a break from party posts and post the boys actual birthday.

We had an extremely busy birthday weekend!

On Thursday the boys Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle came from MN to visit. They stayed until Tuesday morning. The boys had a lot of late nights and early mornings. They did really well considering all of the commotion going on in our little house. Their little play areas were taken over with big bodies and bags. They didn't mind at all. As long as they could see Grandpa they were happy.

Sunday the 11th was their actual birthday. I brought the camera along with me when Hubs and I went into their bedroom to say good morning and sing happy birthday.

G was happy as could be. He smiled big and said, "Morning Mommy".

M needed a couple of minutes to wake up. He was happy to be snuggled in Mommy's arms for a few minutes.

G loves his little draw. We have had about 5 of them so far. I had a bunch that I bought for my classroom when I was teaching. I left all but 2 of them when I left. I thought that the boys might enjoy them at some point. I use to put it in the diaper bag so that we had something special when we were out and about. That didn't last long. The boys want it every day all day. The two that I had from my class room broke quickly. We bought 2 more. Another broke quickly. We bought another. Another broke. We are down to 1 right now.

M enjoyed that Mommy allowed Jersey into their room for the special occasion. (I can't stand allowing the dog in the room. There's enough dog hair in there even though he's not allowed in there, I hate when he sneaks in. I figured this was special. Especially since M LOVES him so much.)

G even decided to come over and give Mommy a hug. I think I would have cried if he didn't. haha

We decided that we would go out on the boys birthday. Hubs and I have been talking about taking the boys to Adventure Aquarium in Camden. We thought that today would be the perfect day.

After getting ready we all sat at the table and had some delicious carmel rolls and left over egg bake.

Then we all piled in the car and took the 2 hour drive to the aquarium. The entire drive the boys were searching for big trucks and talking about seeing fish and sharks. They were so excited. They kept saying they were going to see Nemo.

M waiting for a ride in his stroller to get into the aquarium.

G patiently waiting for all the adults to finish getting ready so we could go.

The second we got in there we took the boys out of their strollers. Everything was at the perfect height for them to walk. We lifted them up every once in awhile but they didn't necessarily NEED to be.

M with Uncle, G with Daddy.

I love this picture of the boy looking at the sea horses and the starfish. ... Yes 'the boy' I have no idea how it is haha.

The boys were excited to see the sharks.

They even had a chance to touch some sharks. This pool was actually too deep for the boys to reach the sharks. They were happy splashing but got 'yelled' at a few times. We tried to keep them from splashing... and their splashing wasn't a full blown splash it was just a wiggle of the hand in the water. I mean come on now, what do you expect when they can't actually reach the shark.

This is G at the sting ray pool. It was much easier to reach the sting rays. The pool wasn't as deep and I don't think the sting rays swam as low to the bottom as the sharks.

Grandpa held G while Daddy helped 'push' his hand down as far as it needed to go. Daddy loved the experience. He thought it was so fun to be able to feel the sting ray with G at the same time. He loved that he knew for sure when G touched it and when he missed it. G loved it too. When he was all done his sleeves were soaking wet. Leave it to men to not pull the sleeves up high enough :)

Here is M with Daddy. He wasn't quite as enthusiastic about touching the sting rays at first. After he actually did it he was thrilled and happy to do it again.

M and Daddy

After we pet the sting rays we went outside to the sea lions and penguins. It was such a beautiful day. A little windy but perfect in the sun.

Daddy tried to get the boys on the turtle so I could take a picture of them together. See what I go through in order to get a picture of the two of them together... NOT POSSIBLE haha.

M loved walking the curb.

We were hoping that this guy would roll into the water.

M waiting patiently.

G waiting patiently... He never rolled in. We thought he was going to. He rolled from one side to the other. We thought he was about there... then stopped and basked in the sun again. So we moved on to the next.

Penguins. The little guy on the left actually 'jumped' into the water for us. The boys were yelling and clapping jump penguin jump.

G waiting in anticipation.

M happy that the penguin went into the water.

M, Daddy, G, Mommy (and jumping bean)

The boys loved that the hippos came right up to the glass in front of us.

After the hippos we went under a shark tunnel. I had put my camera away at this point. I had began waddling and thought there was no way I could do anything more than hold a hand and walk well and maybe hold a tot if he asked).

The boys LOVED the shark tunnel, yet hated it at the same time. M was right along with Mommy at this point. He had said, bye bye hippopotamus, bye bye sharks, bye bye fish and asked to go into his stroller. He was sitting in his stroller as we went through the tunnel. G was being held by Daddy. Since he was being held he was closer to the sharks. He was so funny he would shriek in delight when a shark swam by him and then burry his face in his Daddy's shoulder saying shark don't bite me.

After the aquarium Hubs wanted to take his family across to Philly. Neither of us have ever actually been there. Mama and the boys were beat but we decided to be troopers.

After the literally 8 minute drive across the bridge the boys had passed out.

Some how Hubs was able to transfer them from their car seats to the stroller with out waking them.

We felt so bad that the boys were missing out on all of the horse and carriages.

M didn't stay asleep for very long. He woke up pretty quickly once he heard all the noises.

We visited the Liberty Bell.

M and Mommy (it's not necessarily the best picture ever, but I love it)

M and Daddy. M was awfully snuggly with Daddy. Talk about a jealous mommy :)

I thought this bench was so neat. I know it's just broken, but I liked it.

Beautiful signs of spring.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.

Daddy and G

Tired babes

Uncle and M

The boys walked just about the ENTIRE day! Hubs and I said that we have never met a kid that would walk as much as these two. Maybe there are. BUT They went from 10am-9pm. M slept for about 10 minutes and G for about 40. They wanted to walk over being carried or ride in their stroller. AND they did it happily.

After our extremely busy day we took our 2 hour drive back home. The boys stayed away the entire drive. Even though it was so late Mommy wanted to serve her brand new 2 year olds cake. I mean they weren't born until 9:16 and 9:17pm. It's only fitting to have cake at that time. haha.