MarkusseFamily: May 2008

Wow!!! I can honestly hardly believe that 2 years have gone by since this amazing little being came into our lives. These 2 years have been the best years of both mine and Hannes's lives. It is such a privilege to be this little boy's mommy and daddy. He has brought us both so much joy and happiness and this journey has been more than we could have ever imagined it would be and we are so excited to see what the future holds for us as a family.

We decided to have his party at home this year with just a few friends who are close to his age. There were 5 children in total. We arranged with one of the petting farms to bring in some animals for the little ones to be able to touch and play with. A friend of mine baked him a gorgeous Thomas cake and Hannes cooked up some traditional Canadian BBQ fare - hamburgers for the big people and hotdogs for the little ones. We had the most magnificent weather with temperatures reaching around 31 degrees so we all spent the afternoon outside enjoying the sunshine and the kiddies played in the sandpit and the water trough and of course with the animals.

The animals were really sweet. They brought along 2 baby goats, 2 little lambs, 2 bunnies and about 4 baby chicks. Jared got to feed the lambs and the goats their bottle for lunch which was great fun. He got the hang of it quite quickly although I would love to know what he was thinking. He quite fancied the little chicks and it didn't take him long to get the farm lady to get one out of the cage for him to pet a bit. Everytime he touched any of the animals he would say "wow, it's so soft" followed closely by "so cute". He really does love animals this little guy.

His actual birthday was spent away in Fernie so we took only a few small gifts along just so that he would have something to open on the morning. Hayley, Paul and Jessica sent him some gorgeous Thomas stuff including Harold the Helicopter which was a great hit. He recognised Jessica on the photo on the card they sent without any prompting from us. One of Hannes's colleagues RJ went out and got Jared a gift too which he opened that morning. It was a huge bag filled with all sorts of outdoor games. He was really spoilt. I must confess that he has not yet had his "big" gift from us. We bought him a huge train table. We are thinking of just packing it in the car and setting it up in the house we are moving into for the summer in Fernie. I do think this is the last year that we will get away with a trick like this for his birthday though. I will post some pics of the table once we have actually given it to him.

Here are the pics. It was a tough choice as usual.

Taking his bear for a ride on his motorbike

His new toolbench

Inspecting the photo of Jessica

Wow! Harold the helicopter

So excited to see what was in his gift from RJ

He couldn't wait to try out the ball games

The birthday boy ready to receive his guests. When I had pinned the rosette to his shirt he instructed me to take a picture.

His really gorgeous cake. It was all sugar icing not marzipan and was a delicious creamy vanilla cake inside. In fact, here is her website in case you are ever in Calgary and want one of the world's yummiest cakes :o) http://www.simplysweetltd.com/

This hat did the rounds between him and Pippa.

Lunchtime

"Look at all the sheep"

The goats and lambs each got a bandana around their necks which he was told were their party clothes and he got to help dress them and choose which one wore which bandana. He decided since it was his party he needed one too.

Helping to dress them

One of the 2 bunnies that came along

Lunchtime for the little lambs. This was soooo cute.

"Look the baby chicks"

"So cute"

"It's so soft"

Blowing out his candle. He was very confused as to why everyone was standing around singing to him

And it's out!! And so we begin on our journey to 3!

Thomas came to town and we bought tickets and took Jared to see him since he loves Thomas. It was a lovely morning out. We had an early start since we had to be there at 8:30am. The weather was nice. It was a bit cool in the morning but warmed up to be a lovely spring day. Jared was totally overwhelmed by Thomas. I don't think he could quite believe his little eyes. Our ticket purchase included a 20 min ride on Thomas around the park which was really nice. We tried to get some photos of Jared standing in front of Thomas but he was too interested in looking over his shoulder at Thomas and then he wanted uppie because I really don't think he could understand how it was that Thomas was real. We were a bit concerned that there might be tears, but there were none. He was very excited and nearly waved his arms off when we left to come home. I just don't quite know how we are going to get him to understand that Thomas isn't permanently at Heritage Park!

Again, it was a huge task choosing a few photos for the blog, so here are as many as I could whittle it down to. Enjoy!!!

The attempt at a pose in front of Thomas

Come get me please mommy

2 Cool dudes watching Thomas get ready to leave for his first trip

Incredibly overwhelmed but not taking his eyes off Thomas

Daddy and Jared off for a walk

He had his first taste of Candyfloss (cotton candy as it is called here) and wasn't too sure at first and then he decided that it wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.