We went to the farmer's market today with my friend H. and her two cute kids. I gave Lewis the little digital camera (on a strap around his neck) to snap photos with while he was riding in the front seat in the double stroller. Here is a of the back of a stall at the farmer's market, and the best photo he took, a close up of baby's breath. He must have had the camera zoomed way in, because the baby's breath was pretty far away! Not bad for a just-2-year-old.


(In case you're wondering what my haul at the FM was: a purple bell pepper and two zucchini).

He has also taken some other funny photos in the past couple days. I picked the highlights/most entertaining ones to share with you.


Tractor Cakes

I was looking at the website that has a bunch of tractor cakes on it, and he wanted to take a picture of the tractor cakes, so he took a picture of the monitor.


Evander Pants

Here's Lewis' view of his brother, who is sitting in the high chair in the kitchen.


Big Clouds

He got a pretty good shot of a cloud in the sky here. Gotta love full-sun photography. It even works for the under-3 set.


Our House

In the same vein as the cloud pic, but with a view of our house. What color do you say our house is? We get differing opinions on its color: blue, green, turquoise, aqua. It's kind of a swimming pool color.


Big Boy Swings

The playground next to our house - a pretty good shot!


Doohickeys from the Office

We went across the neighborhood to check out the office, and Lewis got a photo of the globe, big clock, and fake ficus tree.


More Doohickeys

These things are in a case by the front door inside the office.

And a nice big self-portrait to finish up this tour of Lewis's photography - the early period. These are just the clear ones. There are lots of blurs, blown out, too dark, and fingers in the way shots.

For Lewis' birthday, we didn't do any crazy party like last year's pirate dress-up party, but I did make a tractor cake.

For prep, I looked at some photos of real tractors, and some photos of tractor cakes, but before I did that I had this vague notion that I would use loaf pans and two sizes of chocolate-covered donuts. (Turns out some other people have had the same idea, but I can at least tell myself that the idea was there before I looked at photos!) After looking at the photos of other cakes, I decided to stick with my vague notion and try to put a tractor together with two loaf pans, no plans.

I sawed off the tops of the loaves (the rounded parts) with a serrated knife, and used one loaf for the base of the tractor. I then cut about a third into the next loaf (with a slanted cut) and used it for the back of the 2nd level. I took a thinner piece for the front of the tractor and placed it lengthwise across the front. I cut a slant on the part of the front piece that met with the back piece. It didn't quite look like a tractor yet, so I took another piece and stacked it on top. I put frosting between all the levels to assemble the cake once I was happy with the placement and shape of the pieces .

This setup was fairly sturdy, but after it was frosted, I ended up using some bendy straws sticking out the top to stabilize the three levels because we had to transport the cake to the party. I actually started out using the bendy straws cut in a short length for decoration, but then I thought of sticking them all the way down into the cake.

I used the straws cut in one inch lengths stuck into the donuts to attach the donuts to the cake after it was frosted. I used four pieces of straw on the large donuts, and two pieces on the small donuts, and I put some frosting on the sides that met with the cake, just for extra sticking power. Then I frosted around each tire where it met the cake.

I used buttercream frosting, and decided to go with yellow for the tractor because Lewis is pretty into construction vehicles AND tractors, and the yellow looks good with the chocolate donut wheels. I used chocolate frosting (buttercream with about a cup of cocoa powder beaten in - got the cocoa powder in bulk at Winco) for the details, and green for the accents, including a "2" I put on the roof of the tractor. I also wrote his name on the back. I just freehanded the chocolate detailing (again, no plans). I put a door on each side, defined the windows up top, and then just kind of did different lines on the rest of it.

We let the birthday boy blow out his two candles (which he did very well!) and then we let him pick at the cake. He chose a big donut wheel to start with! (You can kind of see the straws sticking out of the donut here).

Another thing Lewis is into is cooking (you know that if you read this blog!), and his Aunt Ana and Uncle David got him a mini chef outfit thing - an apron, a chef hat, an oven mitt, and two potholders (all Lewis-sized). So cute!

We have been having a great time visiting with Auntie Ana and Uncle David. The ONLY drawback is that we all wish we could sleep and hangout simultaneously to maximize hangout time!!

Today's Lewis' 2nd birthday! Happy birthday, fun little boy! You are brilliant, verbal, funny, fun-loving, and adorable.

We started a new tradition by hiding a matchbox car under his pillow last night so when he woke up, he would have a birthday surprise to find in his bed. I am hoping this tradition sticks, because it seems like a fun one. Lewis is really into vehicles right now (his favorite TV show is called "Mighty Machines" - a live-action show that just shows vehicles doing different things (garbage trucks, tractors, construction equipment, trains, etc.) His matchbox car was a garbage truck.

We told him to look under his pillow when he woke up. He said "washcloth on it." (There was a washcloth on the pillow). We told him to lift up the washcloth and the pillow and see what was under it. He found the truck in it's package and got excited and said "do this!" and "fun!" It was pretty cute.

He wanted pancakes for breakfast, so he got those.

I baked a cake last night, and this morning at some point, Ana and I are going to assemble and decorate it as a tractor. We got chocolate covered doughnuts (big and little sizes) to use for the tractor tires.

We're going to go to my parents' house this afternoon for a barbecue and little birthday party. Lewis requested barbecue chicken, and my dad is excited to let Lewis roast his first hotdog.

Lewis and I made my mom a cake for her birthday on Tuesday, but I'll have to post about that tomorrow or the next day! For now, I have to get to celebrating!