James' Birthday Party

Our nephew James turned two at the end of July and we had a great time at his birthday party in San Antonio. The theme of his party was trains. My sister-in-law Page is incredibly creative and very talented when it comes to implementing her creative ideas. I’d like to think that I am pretty creative, but I often talk myself out of trying stuff because of how complicated it seems or struggle with how to turn my idea into a reality. She really inspires me to think of practical ways to bring my creative ideas to life. She always comes up with the cutest ways to carry out the themes the kids choose for their birthday parties. There were train engineer hats for the party attendees, a craft using train shaped paint stamps for the kids, and of course the cake was a train! I know you may be thinking “Oh, you mean a cake the shape of a locomotive?” No. The cake was actually a bunch of little cakes making up all the cars of the train! My mother-in-law gave Page and I cute cake molds for Christmas a couple of years back and this train mold was one of them. I was impressed with how well it came out. It was SO cute! Here are some pictures:


The birthday boy and his cake with Mom and Dad


Close up of the super cute and yummy cake


Or, you could have a cupcake


Page helps James put together our present to him...a Hot Wheels race track


Aunt Amy and Uncle Evan with the tired Birthday Boy

It was great to be able to spend time with everyone. Every time we see James and Elizabeth, they have grown significantly. It is very interesting to watch James as he interacts with other kids. The phrases we heard most at the party were “my turn” or “mine”. I can attest to the fact that he is getting better with sharing since his party in July. I was over playing with them yesterday and he is doing a better job sharing with Elizabeth. I am really fortunate to be able to be around them and be able to ask Page questions as a way to help build my knowledge for when the time comes for Evan and I and our own kids. Maybe it is just the teacher in me but child development just fascinates me. One of my favorite things about teaching was getting to see my students grow and progress over the course of the school year. While the changes were more subtle with my high school students than with James and Elizabeth, the changes that young kids go through are still very interesting to me.

Once we move, I will really miss getting to see them as regularly as we have been able to in the last three years while we were close by in Houston. I am definitely planning at least two more visits with Page and the kids while I am in San Antonio.