Thursday, March 24, 2011

Kieran's belated birthday!

This blog is a little late in coming. Kieran's 2nd birthday was March 12th, the day we moved into our new home so we postponed the party till the following Saturday so we could have it at the house. The party was a great success with lots of family, friends, gifts and far too much delicious food! We only just now got internet access up and running, so I didn't have an opportunity to post about the party until now.
Rick took Kieran out of the house the day of the party so I could prepare the food, clean and get the gifts wrapped. By the time they got back home, most of our guests had arrived and with them lots of gifts and noise! Kieran wasn't sure what to think when he walked in the door- a bit shell-shocked!

What else but a train cake?! For his second birthday, in honor of Kieran's love of all things train, I made him a train cake complete with engine and cars! It was a big success!

Family members enjoy the spread- thank you so much to Sandy, Mom and Joyce for bringing so much great food!

The menfolk partake of the goodies!

Grandma Sandy and Aaron's boys.

The grandmas and kids at the train table- a source of delight and frustration for everyone ;)

Aaron's boys were fascinated with the dogs and although the dogs were thrilled at first to get some attention, they weren't quite sure what to think about hours of so much love!

Braydon's face says, "I Love dogs!" while Neko's says, "Please get me out of here!" Best quote of the day: Jaron "Is this your new house Aunt Susan?" Me: "Yes, do you like it?" Jaron: "Ya, it's nice and the dogs are GREAT!"

The Rother clan taking the shibas for an afternoon stroll.

Dad trying to free a toy car from it's packaging... Kieran looks so serene and happy- too bad it didn't last!

The grown ups playing with a frog puppet/washcloth. Although he wasn't too interested at the time, Kieran loves this thing at bath time now!

The kids playing nice (for a very short time) with some stringing beads.

When Kieran wasn't crying, he watched Cars off and on through out the party.

All the gifts, people and sugar proved to be too much for our intense little man.

A single tear and a pink bow- what a great look!

Uncle Furcin got in on the gift-unwrapping as Kieran wasn't too interested in this aspect of the party.

Jaron with the big red bow- he is so great with Kieran.

Amongst the gifts...

What a funny face! Kieran really did love the cake, although he could hardly wait for the candles to blown out to grab a train car and start gnawing on it!

Cutting and dolling out the cake- mmm, green tastes soooo good!

Kieran with his train car cupcake and flanked by his many toy car gifts.

Blue frosting is about all Kieran ate of his cake.

This time last year it was all hands, but 12 months later he has nearly mastered spoons and forks- what a big boy we have!

Presley loved the cake too and was quite  bit tidier with her's the Kieran!

Our new home, with furnishings!

Our new home with a beautiful evening sky as the backdrop. As you can see, no grass yet... but hopefully soon!

Another view of the front of our home- you can see the front porch rocker from our old place fits perfectly on our new porch as well!

The back covered porch. LOVE this space- can't wait to add some patio furniture and maybe screen it in.

The back porch door- you can see the bump-out here where the fireplace was added.

Front door viewed from living room with dining room/train table room to the left

Living room with our lovely new leather sofas and Kieran's paintings above the fireplace.

So glad we managed to find a spot for the large armoire- it is now a giant toy cabinet!

Living room from the kitchen- notice the new entertainment center and TV- yay!!

Breakfast bar with new barstools- love this space!

New kitchen table- perfect fit for the small space.

Kitchen and Kieran's kitchen too :)

View of living room from kitchen- it is so nice to make dinner/do dishes and be able to see the living room and what Kieran is up to!

The guest room- come stay with us!

More of the guest room.

Kieran's/guest bath- lots of color and pattern!

Kieran's room and HUGE window- thanks goodness for room darkening blinds!

Kieran's "big-boy" bed and book shelf. He has been sleeping all by himself, in his new room, and on his big boy bed all night- what a big boy we have!

Kieran's room.

Office with Neko and Kieran.

Book shelf in office.

Master bedroom with our new comforter- this is another favorite room!

Our bedroom with "sitting area"... wouldn't that be the perfect place to rock a new baby ;)

As you can see, we had no problem filling our walk-in-closet!


Master bathroom

LOVE the new shower!!

So nice to have our own vanity space!