James' 2nd Birthday

James' 2nd birthday was on Friday, and boy did we all have a blast! We celebrated his birthday in LA at my parents house so we could be near all our friends and family. Derek's parents flew into town from Seattle and brought James' cousin Jackson with them so that was really fun! Of course I was snapping photos all day long so I apologize in advance for the total photo dump... Hey, it's not everyday your kid turns 2!

I had this shirt made from a shop on Etsy called Sew Cute and I highly recommend them! They were great to work with and I think the shirt turned out amazing! James can definitely wear it many more times, not just on his birthday! We all know James is obsessed with pirates so it was only fitting for him to have Jake on his shirt and a pirate party.

Our first stop for the day was Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel. We are HUGE fans of this place and went on James' 1st birthday, too so it's kind of becoming a tradition. Here is our family shot from the day. Goofy's Kitchen is a character buffet with every breakfast and lunch food under the sun. I threw all my healthy eating habits out the window and chowed down.

James got to hang with all the characters while we ate...

He got birthday balloons, a birthday button, and a birthday cupcake. He loved blowing out the candle but only ate the sprinkles off the cupcake.

After Goofy's Kitchen we went into CA Adventure so we could hunt down Jake, do some rides, and watch some shows. I changed James out of his birthday shirt so it wouldn't get dirty but I love the photo of Jake holding it. Perfection.

Daddy got a vanilla shake and James decided to steal all of it... Hey, it was his birthday after all.

After Disney it was a quick nap, on to pick up the cakes, and back to my parents house to set up for his little party. I was SO pleased with how his cakes turned out. I designed them and then sent the mock ups to our favorite bakery. We have gone to Great Dane Baking Co since our wedding. They did our wedding cake and grooms cake and now we use them for every single birthday, anniversary, and holiday. They are AMAZING! The cakes taste even better than they look. We got a chocolate cake for James' smash cake, and then a marble cake with chocolate buttercream filling and a lemon cake with white chocolate moouse filling. We had lemon cake for our wedding (our colors were yellow and white) and it is seriously the best cake in the world!

My amazing and talented sister made this sign for James BY HAND! I never even knew she was so artistic but it was the perfect backdrop and James went nuts for it! He kept running over to the sign saying- Jake, Jake!!

We just did a simple dinner with soda and pizza. Since we don't live where the party was, I didn't have the option of cooking. Being lazy and having pizza delivered was perfect and delicious.

James got tons of presents. We got him a bunch of things but his main present was a bike! It is already a huge hit!

Here's a couple shots of James opening presents. He tore through them all so fast!

I swear 95% of his presents were somehow pirate related which was perfect for him!

The look on his face when he opened this hook my mom gave him was PRICELESS. My mom is the best gift giver. She always takes so much time into planning them and she also made him a scrapbook filled with photos of him and all the Disney characters from each of his thousands of Disney visits!

Some cake smash photos.. basically all he did was dig into it, make a huge mess, and didn't even eat anything! He had to have a bath right after because he was so dirty. Luckily he had some cake later on.

James' second birthday was a huge hit! He usually wakes up bright and early at 6am but he snoozed in on Saturday until well past 8am! A sure sign that he was exhausted from so much fun all day long! Saturday my friend from High School, who is seriously the most talented photographer ever, took James' birthday pictures outdoors at the coolest park complete with a pirate ship, and she also took our family photos because we've never taken any! James did really well for his birthday photos but then turned into a holy terror for our family photos. He was just over it and ready for a nap. Luckily we were able to make the best of them and I think she still got some amazing shots. We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing, playing games, and eating leftover pizza and cake. (I am back to clean eating now thank goodness).. My husband left to go back home to Bakersfield yesterday because he had to go back to work today. James and I are sticking around for another week  because we have doctors appointments and errands and all that good stuff. I'm so happy we were all able to be together this weekend to celebrate James.

It's so hard to believe that it's been 2 whole years since I gave birth to my precious baby boy. It's so cliche but time really does go by so fast. And there's absolutely nothing you can do to stop it or even slow it down a little. All you can do is soak up every single moment with your child. Put your phones away and be in the moment. Enjoy even the most boring of days, because you will miss those mundane little moments so much. Go all out on your kids' birthdays and take lots of pictures. Store everything away and remember everything. Be the best parent you can  be and give your child the best possible life you can. Give them special memories and love them with all your heart.

Happy birthday again, sweet baby boy.. I love you to pieces.