Choo!! Choo!! Chance is two!!

Chance's 2nd Birthday will forever go down as the Thomas Birthday. Somewhere in the past 6 months Chance happened to catch an episode of Thomas, or hoo-hoo as he likes to call it, and let me say this, love at first sight does exist.

All this time I thought he was just mispronouncing "choo-choo" until my cousin, out of the blue, enlightened me that he's probably saying hoo-hoo because that's exactly how the train sounds.

Hooooo-Hooooo!

Hmmm, come to think of it, she's probably right.

So a hoo-hoo party he shall have.

A personal goblet for the big boy. 

And little man relished his open top cup as smooth as Donald Draper

Toasting and clinking with everyone around him.

Get this, all week we've been practicing the peace sign with his fingers to signal the #2. Well, how do I say this gently, it's like his fingers were drunk or something and wouldn't cooperate and really didn't fold well and for the life of him he couldn't figure it out.

And then in a brief moment of awesomeness Chance made it work when Nana asked the proverbial question.....just HOW old are you today?

Bam! Just like that! Two separate fingers! He was so proud of himself.

I used  window markers to decorate all the glass stemware which I thought was a brilliant idea until I poured in the lemonade and all the ink began running from the sweat. Oopsy. But the permanent marker on the plastic glasses worked like a charm.

Eugene planned out an AWESOME Filipino birthday menu for our family.

The first course: Pinya Asin or as we call it, Salted Pineapple

Which I do not have a picture of but you can see Bella chomping down on it here

The second course: Inihaw or Filipino BBQ sticks. Trust me, you have never in your life tasted BBQ beef better than this sweet marinated kabob-HEAVEN!!

The third course: Ginitang Shrimp or coconut shrimp for us country folk.

Holy mother of pearl, this dish was fantastic! 

Fourth Course: Pancit. Oh come on, like you haven't tried pancit before--it's the token dish that every Filipino co-worker brings to the company Christmas pot luck party. In a nutshell, (which no-- it's not) it's asian noodles with fresh vegetables. 

But get this, for bonus points Chef Eugene presented us with a deconstructed pancit. With the veggies in the small bowl, the noodles in the larger bowl and the lemon and soy sauce in a little cup, we were asked to mix it ourselves. 

Oohhh. Audience participation.

Eating noodles on your birthday is a traditon signifying long life. I've been meaning to ask my in-laws what eating noodles once a week gives me? Immortality? Muwaaahhh.

Right about now we all took a ten minute breather. Totally needed.

So we snapped some pics.

Annnd.....back to the table.

Fifth course: Bistek. Now hold up a minute--before you go googling a translation, it's English definition is, get this, beef steak.

Bistek. Beef Steak. 

Freakin' hilarious.

Basically, beef marinated in lemon juice and soy sauce with sauteed onions--

hands down, my favorite filipino dish. Typically bistek is thinly sliced but since my husband likes to go big or go home he had the butcher cut him a three inch thick tenderloin.

Yowsa.

Shit, is this the Food Network or a birthday party?

Back to Chance. He made his daddy proud as he gnawed the heck outta that bistek.

Sixth Course: A THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE BIRTHDAY CAKE!

OH MY GOD MOM! MY HEAD IS GOING TO EXPLODE WITH EXCITEMENT! THERE HE IS! RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!  I LOVE MY HOO-HOO SO MUCH.

this is getting a bit awkward, huh? This hoo-hoo talk?

Honey, why are you smelling your hoo-hoo?

I've never seen Chance happier than he was today. He knew it too--when he woke up and saw the 6 foot Thomas poster that this day was for him. 

All him. 

Which had to feel pretty good being the youngest of three.

This boy I tell ya, he has me. He has all of me. 

Yes, I have amazing and totally different bonds with all of my kids, but this guy...there's something about this guy--our mother and son bond is so, so invincible. 

We rounded out the party with presents and a pretty badass pinata, which deserves it's own post altogether. Seriously, if you ever need anyone whacked--call on my kids. They're barbarians. 

Chance, Happy 2nd Birthday, my love!