Axl is 2 years old!!

...and I can't believe it!! Though sometimes it feels like we've been in the terrible two's for a while now! ;)

To celebrate Axl's birthday this year I decided to just have a family party and we invited one of Axl's friends, McKay. Given that our families are large, it was still quite an affair! The theme was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, as this is Axl's favorite show at the moment. The day that worked out the best for the party was actually the 12th (my birthday), so we attended church, came home to put Axl down for a good nap and the guests started arriving at 5:30. We tried to fill the day with Axl's favorite things: Mickey Mouse (Gickey), pizza (teetza), Toodles (tootie), balloons (this word is essentially unrecognizable unless you are Axl's parents), and Gabi (Babi, meaning ALL of his cousins collectively, ha). The party went extra smooth, as I didn't really have to do anything because we had purchased Papa Murphy's pizza (which didn't end up being very good) the day before, and I also made the cake the day before. Though it was pretty stressful, I was really happy with the cake. The only other cake I had ever decorated was for Axl's 1st birthday, and it was TINY; so this was a challenge, but I did it! Toodle's face was chocolate cake with strawberry filling, and the ears were white cake with strawberry filling, and the icing was buttercream (my first ever successful (meaning it didn't taste like straight butter AND didn't turn to sugar) icing--and I have tried so many times!!) Axl didn't eat much pizza (he's pretty much a hot 'n' ready snob, ha) and as I predicted was much more enamored with the idea of the cake (du-day or birthday) than actually eating it (didn't even take a bite). He did blow out his candle, which surprised me because we haven't been to all that many birthday parties where he would pick up on this...anyway...he had a wonderful time running around with all of his cousins and all in all it was a success!

By the end of the night he was hot mess covered in sucker and ready for a bath!!

Side story: On Sunday, the day of the party, I was packing Axl's church bag and threw in the figurines that I didn't use for the cake. I only used Mickey and Pluto because those are the only characters he has ever acknowledged or talked to me about. As I opened the zipper of his bag in the middle of sacrament meeting, his eyes got so big they looked like they were going to pop out as he reached in a grabbed each of the figurines one by one..."Daaaaaaaaaaisy", "Goo-gee" (goofy), "Ninee" (minnie), "Ga-na" (Donald)! It was one of the cutest, most surprising things. If someone saw me they were probably wanting to lift my jaw up off the floor because I just couldn't believe he knew all of them; he really is a smart boy!!