A Talent Show for A Birthday

Norman Harold Thomas Smith turned 2 on Pie Day (3/14/15.) That was his due date, and also the day that I was induced, as we were trying to time the delivery between Ryan's chemo treatments as he was battling colon cancer.  What a spot of joy Norman Harold was during that rough patch, and now he's talking and walking and running. His sister has taught him how to "whip and nae nae" so basically, we're all very proud of Norm.  In honor of his special day, and since we hadn't done this in a while, we decided that a Family talent show was in order. We had two rules: everyone had to participate, and no person could take more than 5 minute, even if they did multiple talents. It was ridiculous, and so very fun! How grateful I am for my herd, and especially Norman on this day of pie, joy, and toddler fun!

Confessions of a tired mom: I totally bought these pies from the store. Raspberry Cream  and a chocolate silk. I can indeed make pies. Very good pies. Sometimes convenience outweighs quality. This is one of those times. Oh, the shame of a chef!

Maybe he could tell that his mother hadn't made the pies?... More likely, he was tuckered out. We did pie after the talent show, and I think he was just exhausted from watching all of his talented siblings!

We celebrated his 2nd birthday with a trip to the zoo.

He's patiently waiting to ride the merry go round. We caught it after checking out all the zoo animals.

Norman got to ride the buffalo.

A friend met us at the zoo to celebrate the big day.

He opted for the eagle.

Not too busy. Lovely weather. Loads of fun.

Happy boy opening his gifts! Many thanks to grandparents for the wonderful toys, clothes, videos, and love!

Simon did a Minecraft rap.

Ryan displayed some ball handling skills.

Owen bottle flipped. And yes, this bottle landed.

Preston and his lovely girlfriend, Abby, performed a song from Moana. Abby was the grandma; Preston was Moana. It was magically strange. Haven't seen the movie so I'm not sure if the hats have anything to do with the show...

Norman played the piano, and danced and sang, and "helped" out with many of the the other performances. Handsome!

Calvin played guitar and sang the Justin Bieber song... My mama don't like you, and she likes everyone... can't think of the name right now,

A gal pal and Annie sang a duet as well.

... And I did an interpretive dance to a song about cows... but since I was dancing, it wasn't documented.

You know you're party was a success when you wake up the following morning and rush to your toys! Happy birthday, my sweet, wonderful, caboose!