You've Got a Friend in Me (Randy Newman, from Toy Story)

As promised on Monday, today is all about Colin's birthday celebration.  Two years old?!?  Wow... and Yep!  Despite the pandemic, Sarah planned a most wonderful day of fun and festivities, which took place this past Sunday (a few days before his actual birthday, July 21).  The theme was TWO Infinity and Beyond, as he is totally into Toy Story these days...  :-)

She had decorated the living room with crepe paper streamers, balloons all over the floor, and a Check-Off list of various activities, which delighted Colin as soon as he woke up!  

She had also arranged a Car Parade of various friends (the Besties, their husbands, and children; Nancy, her husband, and dog Lucy; Sarah's former boss, friend, and another co-worker).  We set up a 10' x 10' canopy in her apartment complex parking lot, where there is a natural round-about (all the way at the end, out of the way of traffic), and Sarah used the gates previously known as The Party Pit to keep Colin "contained" (so very smart!).  

Then began the progression of vehicles (from 10:00 to 10:30 a.m.) decorated with balloons, stickers, and people inside blowing horns, waving, and extending Birthday wishes.  He was enthralled!  

 Sarah made a Spotify playlist of songs with Two in the title (my suggestions were Two of Us by The Beatles, The Power of Two by Indigo Girls, Two Princes by The Spin Doctors, Love Me Two Times by The Doors).  Special Events habits die hard, so of course Sarah passed out goody bags with a Moonpie, a Starcrunch, and a few mini-Milky Ways for each person, gracing the children with juice boxes, and the adults with Sunshine beers... ☀

From set-up to breakdown, we were only there three hours, but I was exhausted afterward.  Two-year-olds are busy people!  I spent the rest of the afternoon/evening remembering this time two years ago when Colin came into the world, and feeling such joy being there to witness.  I was meant to be a Lala... 💖


SONG:  You've Got a Friend in Me by Randy Newman, from Toy Story)

BOOK:  Child of the Universe by Ray Jayawardhana, Raul Colón (Illustrator)

POEM:  On Children by Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,

so He loves also the bow that is stable.

QUOTE(S):  "We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings." ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe