Callum's 2nd Birthday

Callum's actual birthday (the 26th) fell right on Thanksgiving Day this year, which it is apt to do every 7 years or so for the rest of his life I suppose. I suspect he will be arguing strongly for us to move to Australia when he is old enough to figure this out so he doesn't risk his birthday ever getting overshadowed.

The flood of gifts started the day before on the 25th when we let him open a present from his day care lady. She had bought him a few small toys to keep him entertained on the plane ride to Sacramento later that night. She also threw a few sweets in the bag as well, and here is Callum's face when he realizes this and pulls out a lollipop.


As mentioned, later that night we traveled up to Jen's parent's house in Lincoln (40 minutes northeast of Sacramento) to spend the Thanksgiving weekend and Callum's birthday with them. This is the pile of presents we had to pack to take with us that included presents from us and folks in Australia that we brought back with us in October.


So on the 26th we celebrated both Thanksgiving and Callum's birthday. The present opening started early and was done in a few shifts during the day because there were so many for him to open.


In the middle of the day we sat down and had a traditional Thanksgiving meal of roast turkey with all the trimmings thanks to Jen's Mum and Dad and Jen's sister Vonda. We also get to thank Jen's dad for these turkey hats.


For dessert we picked up a small single serve cake for Callum (since we knew there was a full cake coming on Saturday).


Which of course, he quite happily ate and even used a spoon to good affect for most of it.



Here he is opening more presents later in the day. This one is a bag full of giant bugs and other creepy-crawlies courtesy of my Mum.


So that was on the Thursday. On the Friday we did some errands to prepare for the party and Jen and I were able to go out on a date courtesy of free babysitting by Grandma and Grandpa.

On the Saturday, Jen's parents had organized a proper birthday party for Callum and invited family and friends from around the Sacramento area. The theme of the party was Thomas The Tank Engine, so Jen's cousin Josh put together an excellent cake to match.


We played a few kids games including Pass The Parcel which is a staple at Australian kids parties, but I discovered is not known to American kids (or their parents).

This is Jen supervising the present opening.


And here is Callum enjoying the Thomas cake.


On the Sunday of the weekend we came home without too much incident, which is always a concern when traveling on Thanksgiving weekend. When we got home, Jen and I built Callum's present from his Grandma and Grandpa, which Callum took too very quickly.