Kaleb Prinz: October 2013

Look out world, Kaleb Preston is 2 years old! I've been thinking about this day almost since he turned 1, and it was so much fun to put together. When I started planning, Kaleb was all about Elmo, and I was thrilled. Then in May, when he was in Children's for the GJ procedure, he discovered Handy Manny....and there's been no looking back. He has fun with all of his toys, but Manny and the tools are, by far, his favorites. After much entertaining debate with daddy about the theme of his party, I had to concede Elmo's defeat. Now those of you with kids probably know that Handy Manny has been out of the mainstream for a few years now. Shhhh! Don't tell Kaleb! Thanks to eBay, Amazon, and several consignment stores, we've managed to amass a pretty impressive collection of toys, as well as, put together a pretty cool party.

Of course, we couldn't just have 1 birthday party. After all, we managed to celebrate 3 times last year! ;) Why should this be any different?! We started celebrating on the real day, August 29th, with cupcakes to our wonderful therapists at Baylor Our Children's House. Kaleb even sampled a bit of a couple of the cupcakes during feeding therapy, but ultimately had the most fun throwing and smashing them with a monster truck.

That night, Mimi and Paw Paw joined us for cake and presents. Kaleb decided to show off a little of his new "I'm 2 attitude" by refusing to sit in his high chair without watching a Handy Manny video. Hey, at least we can be happy that he's really gotten the hang of the Baylor feeding protocol! He wasn't totally crazy about blowing out his candles or eating the cake, but it sure felt good to sing Happy Birthday to our big 2 year old boy! He really enjoyed playing with his new Handy Manny matchbox cars on the roller coaster, and putting together his new Melissa & Doug fruit puzzle(that mommy was WAY more excited about than she should have been.)

Since Kaleb's birthday will pretty much always fall on Labor Day, we had the party a week late this year. Several weeks before his party, Ragan's Hope put us in contact with the most amazing organization, Icing Smiles. This non-profit organization finds bakers in the area to make cakes for special needs/sick kids(AND their siblings) for special occasions-mostly birthdays. The first cake they make for you is called a "Dream" cake and is a multi-layer cake with a theme and flavor of your choosing, and is absolutely free. They are an amazing organization, and I highly recommend finding them on Facebook or their web page if you have a special needs/sick child or are interested in making a donation to a worthy cause.

Kaleb was matched with Annie Hall, of Annie's Culinary Creations in Murphy, Texas. When I talked to her, she was so excited about the design they had come up with for Kaleb's cake and couldn't wait to get started. All we told her was Handy Manny and the tools, white cake w/butter cream icing, number of servings, and she took it from there. Saturday morning, we drove to her shop to pick it up. It was AWESOME, and she and her mother were wonderful.

Meeting Annie was one of those times you know you've connected with someone you hope you'll always know. When she showed us the cake, I cried. I feel a little silly about it, but it was so perfect and beautiful I couldn't stop myself. In truth, I'd been crying a lot(happy tears) for at least a week leading up to the birthday. Kaleb loved it so much he just kept staring at it....it was so cute. We were fortunate enough to be able to spend some time talking to Annie and her mother before we had to leave to get ready for the party. While we talked, we took tons of pictures and had the most delicious breakfast ever! We are so grateful to Ragen's Hope and Icing Smiles for introducing us to her!

Kaleb's party was a blast! It was amazing to watch Kaleb play with his friends, and be surrounded by so much love. Kaleb loved every minute of Pin the Mustache on Kaleb, the Pinata, cupcake decorating, and trying to keep up with all his friends. We are beyond blessed to have had Kaleb for these 2 wonderful years, and we look forward to so many more!

One day, one hour, one minute at a time,
Jenifer