Final Birthday Celebrations and Welcoming Autumn

After the big birthday party with all of the extended family, we celebrated Ira's actual birthday with a quiet, little trip to the mall. And then, a week later, Poppy, Nonny, and GG came to town for a little more birthday partying and a stroll through the pumpkin patch.


The Bass Pro Shop isn't normally our first stop at the mall, but they have a big fish tank and other cool stuff like camping gear. Here's Ira in a little, Ira-sized chair.


The big draw of the mall is the train that runs from the Dairy Queen to the Gymboree store.


Look! We've got our tickets!


All aboard!


Whoo! Feel the wind in your hair!


We had a fancy birthday dinner at Chili's.


I don't know what silly name Chili's has for their silly chocolate dessert thing, but Ira didn't care what they called it. He didn't wait to find out before he dove in head first.


A week after Ira's birthday GG, Poppy, and Nonny showed up bearing gifts.



After the presents, we took off for the pumpkin patch. We're really starting to repeat ourselves a lot, now that we've been blogging for almost two years. But its cool. We like doing stuff more than once, and I'm sure you like looking pictures of us doing that stuff. Right? And besides, for Ira its like we're doing it for the first time.



For the sake of comparison: here's Ira at Gentry's Farm last year. Holy crap! Look how tiny he is!


Just so you know, Ira isn't wearing the exact same outfit as last year. I think corduroy overalls are just the standard pumpkin patch outfit.


Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins!


One thing that's changed from last year's trip is we didn't have to go by ourselves. We got to bring some family along. Here's GG and Nonny with Ira on the hayless hay ride.


Poppy and Ira.


There were all sorts of animals at the farm like these homing pigeons.


Chillin'


Ira went through this tunnel about a hundred times. He was very sad when we made him stop.


Ira and Mommy on a bridge staring at a creek.


Nonny, Ira, and Poppy.


Playing in some wheat.


Pumpkin patch! Ira spent a long time searching for the perfect pumpkin.


And we found a few.


Ira loaded the pumpkins into our car for us.


And here we are at Centennial Park later that night. All in all we had a great time with family. Now that its been a few weeks, Ira is about done singing "Happy Birthday" to himself and has stopped asking for cake for dinner every night.

At the fair

Last weekend we went on down to the Tennessee State Fair. It smelled awful, but we had a lot of fun.



Ira and Mommy with a giant, mutant dalmatian.


Here we are with another goat. One day I'll count 'em up, but I'm sure the number of goats that have appeared on this blog is staggering.


I think this is our first turkey. Ira was a little frightened, and who'd blame him. These things are ugly.


Ira got pretty excited when he saw all of these truck things. I think this is a bulldozer. I should wake up Ira and ask him because he would know.


Train tables are almost as ubiquitous in our life as goats.


Ira riding a pony.


We checked out all of the rides to see which Ira would be able to ride . Of course the train was a natural choice, but we were a little apprehensive because it was a kids only sort of thing and we couldn't ride with him. Fortunately this little girl took good care of him. We didn't get a picture of her kissing his check just a second later.


Click on the picture for a larger view. Ira's in the last seat in the middle car.


Ira sat alone on his second time around.


This isn't at the fair; we're at the Greek Fest. We hang with stinky animals wherever we go.


I had to work in the afternoon and Greek Fest opened at noon so we only managed to take a few pictures. Fortunately we had enough time to introduce Ira to the world of tacky Greek accessories.

Happy Birthday, Ira!

Ira won't technically turn two for a few more weeks, but we celebrate Labor Day weekend so all the out-of-towners can join us. Kirsten has always been a believer in the month-long birthday celebration, and it looks like Ira is starting to think September is the Month of Ira. So what I'm saying is that these are pictures of what is probably just the first of our Happy Birthday, Ira posts.



Big G kicked off the Month of Ira with the first present.



I predict one month after this picture goes online the sweater vest/no pants look shows up at fashion forward swimming pools all over the world.



The first official It's Ira's Birthday Celebration took place at my favorite restaurant in Opry Mills Mall with animatronic endangered species: the Rainforest Cafe. Ira and a small portion of the Holley clan wait for our table.



Ira and Jacob check out the tropical fish.



Daddy, Ira, and Big G getting ready for an indoor thunderstorm.



The first official It's Ira's Birthday Dessert: the Chocolate Volcano. When you order one of these, twelve waiters-who-thought-they-would-be-country-music-stars-by-now shout "VOLCANO!!!!" as they parade to your table.



After so many birthday desserts, Ira now thinks cake is a valid answer to the question "What do you want for dinner?"



Ira's extremely happy because he's with his Nana and also this is the first food he's had in months that wasn't made from tofu or black beans.



Ira was asleep before we made it out of the mall parking lot. He didn't sleep well, though. He kept waking up shouting, "VOLCANO!!!!"



We had Ira's party in our backyard. Click on the picture for a larger version so you can appreciate the awesome dinosaurs I made.



We bought this Jumpoline especially for the party. Ira's so excited he can hardly contain it.



Papa and Holley in the Jumpoline. They weren't allowed to jump. I was sort of a Jumpoline tyrant because I didn't want it to pop.



We turned our kiddie pool into a sandbox with crazy blue sand. That's me lounging in the background, monitoring the Jumpoline.



Pizza time.

The party started outside, and the weather looked fine despite the weather man's warning of rain.



But after twenty minutes or so the rain started. We brought the Jumpoline into our living room and everybody got very cozy. Ira, Darren, and Eric didn't seem to mind.



Ira preferred having the sandbox in the kitchen.



Fortunately the rain stopped as quickly as it started, and we were soon back outside again.



Eric is Ira's favorite kid at school. "Ira what'd you do at school today?" "I hug Eric."

Happy Birthday, Ira! from Jesse Morros on Vimeo.

The beautiful dinosaur cake. Kirsten, Nana, and Holley put this thing together. Very impressive.



Ira's first piece of cake. I think he ended up eating three pieces. Don't tell his mommy.



Who wants some dinosaur cake?



Ira's moved to plate number two while Uncle Anthony just watches.



Ira thinks about how to get some more cake. You should probably ask Papa.



The present opening begins. Like cake, Ira can't understand why we haven't been doing this everyday.









Ira has no idea how his life is about to change. Little does he know that inside that yellow paper is . . .



a motorcycle! This Harley has been the highlight of Ira's short life.



Ira's second favorite present were these cars. At least that's what we tell Kyle and Jason, who gave them to him.



A couple of grandmas making an Ira sandwich.



Cruising down the street on his hog.



If you ask him, Ira will tell you that he wears the helmet for safety.

The first weekend of Ira is over, but there is surely more to come. We went to the fair today, and I'll get those pictures up soon. As always, there are many more Ira pictures in the Picasa albums.