Vinny Turns TWO!!

This was the very first picture out of the shoot. Vinny sat down on the mat and immediately said "cheese." It was down hill after that. Sure the pictures all look adorable, thanks to the genius of a clever and quick photographer. We were absolutely exhausted trying to wrangle this busy boy!

I love this one...it pretty much sums up our happy boy. Always running, jumping (well trying to anyways), and clapping!
And so the party planning begins...

OK, I will admit, we went overboard. We went nuts, we completely lost our minds. No denying it. Once I got started, I couldn't stop. If Vinny has only child syndrome, it will completely be our fault, and I know this. It all began with his little choo-choo arm chug that drives me crazy with love. It's just so cute and I have yet to catch it on video. It's one of those things that had better burn into my white matter, as John would say. And then, his obsession with Mickey Mouse, or "Gickey" as he says, spurred a google search which lead me to....
Cute right? So then when we learned we couldn't have his party at the train park, another google search lead us to find that we could bring the train to us. But what would our little party guests do while waiting for the train to arrive? Jump in a bounce house I suppose! Here is Vinny and Daddy getting a sneak preview since the guy delivered it the night before.
The Cake...

Here is the cake that I made for the big day. While I did enjoy the end results, I do look forward to the day when Vinny puts in his own request for just a plain old chocolate cake with regular ole' frosting...or better yet a carvel ice cream cake.
Birthday donut! We practiced singing Happy Birthday and Stolat, as we were worried he get a little stage fright like last year. After a hundred times and burning the candles down to nearly nothing, we thought we would have a show-off on our hands for the main event, but as you will see below, he got shy.
First presents of the day from Mommy and Daddy: a scooter (Vinny calls it his scooty) and a basketball hoop. He took to it really fast!
Let the Games Begin!

Here is Vinny with his little buddy Evan.
Anthony proudly grilling his burgers. He insisted on using the charcoal grill so they took a bit longer, but everyone thought it was worth it.
Vinny with Aunt Weez.
Who needs a dog when you have a two year old that can beg for bites just as well? Aww, I don't think Boppo minds one bit!
Gramma is taking Vinny out front to see his special surprise...
And here it is! We loaded the kids in the train and the conductor took them around the neighborhood and then down to the basketball court behind our house. Despite Vinny's expression, he must of liked it because he showed no hesitation and stayed on the whole time. Here he is in between his two girlfriends, Lia and Ellie.
What the heck is going on here Mommy? Have you lost your marbles?
But see, it was irresistible.
Time to sing...and cling to Mommy. He did like blowing out his candles though.
His haul of presents was ridiculous! What a lucky and loved little boy.

Books are a favorite item!
Evan gave him a Handy Manny toolbox, which he loves to dance to when it plays its famous theme song, and it has come in quite handy with various projects around the house. Yet, he doesn't like the show. Odd.
Back to the bouncehouse. Now I understand why everyone out here gets one of these for parties-it was the perfect entertainment for the kiddos, and I didn't have to supervise one game! In retrospect...shoulda just stopped here. LOL
Happy Boy!
Vinny's pals Lia, Elliot, and Ellie
Our pals Debra, John, Teresa, Jason, and Erica
Little Miss Jocelyn playing amidst the aftermath.
March Madness! Everyone gathered to watch UCONN squeak by the AZ Wildcats!
Proud UCONN Family!

And UCONN went on to become the 2011 national Champs! Way to go Huskies!
Fun with Gramma and Papa!

First item of business...find a good Mexican restaurant for lunch! But try not to get a speeding ticket on the way. grrrrr. Not happy about that, but I digress. Anyway, Gramma and Papa got a first hand look at how eating out with Vinny is challenging these days. Especially when there are birds (tweet-tweets) and fountains, and all kinds of places to run and climb. We all took turns chasing Vinny and scarfing down our lunch!

We took a trip to the Train Park in Scottsdale and had a blast! Vinny loved riding on the train and asked to go on the Merry Go Round again and again and again! Now of course we took most of the pictures on my mom's camera, and she sent me the disk...and of course it packed.
Hi Papa!
This was Mom and Dad's last trip to Arizona! The next time they come out to visit us, it'll be in California! We had a good time reflecting on the fact that had it not been for us living here in the desert, they probably would have never come here to the Grand Canyon State. They've seen enough brown desert and red rocky mountains to last them a lifetime and I think they will enjoy visiting the Pacific Ocean, Disneyland, and Hollywood even more-especially with Vinny!

Spring Training...Not So Relaxing This Year!

Three. Yup, that's all you get. Three measly pictures. Granted we seemed to be super busy this year, with Anthony traveling, and me planning the big birthday extravaganza, and who knows what else. Spring training seemed to be over began it even started, and I think we made it to two games all told. Vinny saw none of them, and neither did we come to think of it. If we weren't chasing him up and down the hill you see above inning after inning, we were stuffing his little face with snacks in hopes of keeping him still so we could catch our breath! He was the center of attention for all who strolled by center field, as you could hear him giggle and squeal a mile away. And how exciting it was for Vinny to finally figure out how to roll down a hill! Knowing how little he enjoys sticky hands, he must unhappy about the cotton candy we let him try for the first time in the picture above! Either that or he just scrubbed in for surgery...but somehow I doubt that.

Not Your Most Conventional Way to Celebrate St. Paddy's Day...!

Phoenix Suns Day On the Court

Anthony had the opportunity to go play basketball with his Cigna co workers in the US Airways Arena today. So off we went to watch Daddy and Uncle Tom dominate the court. There wasn't much basketball watching though...Vinny ran around the court and up and down the steps for one hour straight!

A quick pause to cheer for Daddy...

Time out for a quick snack...This by the way was Cigna's cheering section.
Daddy, Vinny, and Uncle Tom.
Mr. Brian helped Vinny shoot some free throws.
After the game, Vinny ran around the court non-stop. This was as close as I could get to a still shot.
Yeah right Ma, you want me to stand still here on center court? No way!
We tried luring him with a ball...geesh, this kid is quick!
This is how Vinny passed much of his time...running around the rows, setting all the seats down. I'm sure US Airways staff appreciated this bit of helpfulness.
Playing ball with his pals Ben and Hannah.
Finally, Anthony was able to wrangle Vinny for a super cute picture!
Not 10 minutes into our ride home...

Mommy's Little Leprechaun

Still squirrelly, I remember how much smaller Vinny was when I took his picture in this chair last year!
After a long day, it's time to put away the camera before we melt down! Happy St. Patrick's Day!