I can’t even believe my baby boy is 2 years old already! It’s been so amazing getting to watch him grow from a tiny baby…

wearing the traditional Bradshaw first Halloween costume…

to this adorable grown up little boy! I have no idea where the time went, it seems like it was only 3 or 4 months ago that he was barely learning to crawl and now he’s starting to potty train and talk like an adult…

Our schedule for holidays and birthdays is a little weird because of Kinsey, and I wanted to make sure we celebrated Jonah’s birthday when she got home. At the same time, I couldn’t just let the day go by without doing anything, so I made the boys cupcakes.

I love ice cream cone cupcakes because it helps the mess factor considerably.

I’m not really sure what’s going on with my cell phone camera and that glare, but he’s concentrating so hard on that icing I just had to share anyway!

So after having cupcakes on Monday (his real birthday), we also had to have cupcakes on Saturday with Kinsey while we opened presents. We got him a sensory table (I’m already regretting this, it’s SUCH a mess!! But he loves it…) and the racing tower in the background.

My parents sent him an easel that all three kids love, those ridiculously cute slippers, and a big matching game. It’s kind of a long video, but it’s funny to see the other kids insist on sharing Jonah’s new toy. 😛

After celebrating on Saturday, my in-laws decided to host a family dinner on Sunday, which meant more birthday cake and more singing for Jonah. 🙂 Every once in a while it’s nice to spoil my kids rotten!

Jonah had very little patience for presents or even cake, but he was in heaven playing outside with his cousins for a few hours. I swear he thinks he’s ten already! He got an awesome police car that lights up, and a collection of matchbox cars from my in-laws, and he hasn’t put any of them down since!

Don’t mind the grumpy look, he woke up from a nap right before we opened presents.

I’m so happy we got to celebrate with family (some in person, and some via phone or FaceTime), and that the kids are so resilient when it comes to Kinsey’s schedule. I always worry a little about how the back and forth schedule affects all of the kids, but so far just pushing special days to whenever Kins is with us has worked pretty well. I always want her to know that the date doesn’t matter as much as her being with us, and the boys to understand that I’ll never blow off their special day but it’s not as special until the whole family is together. Blended families are hard, but I like to think we do a pretty good job with it.

How do you work special days/holidays when the family can’t be together?

Do you throw big parties for toddlers or just hang out with family?

We did a bigger party for Jonah’s first birthday, but this year we decided against it. It’s hard to spend a bunch of money for a party that the birthday boy doesn’t care about at all — he just wanted to play on the swings and eat icing.

What have you done to make a sensory table workable indoors without destroying the house or the vacuum?