Life and Times of The Johnston family: Devin's 2nd Birthday!!

So...picking back up on Saturday. In the early evening because Elizabeth got the required amount of star stickers on her "super star behavior" chart and because it was the day before Devin's birthday we went to Chuck E. Cheese's (you have to know that Elizabeth has been asking to go there for months!...Darn commercials!) It was actually a lot of fun! We found some awesome coupons that helped us do a lot for cheap! We got a pizza and drinks, and the kids had 65 tokens each...which they couldn't have possibly gone through since everything is only one token there, so they ended up splitting 65 tokens between them and they got to do everything they wanted pretty much as much as they wanted! I took the other 65 tokens and won over a hundred tickets for them on the coin pusher game....cause I won the bonus...ya I'm THAT good, try not to be jealous, it's a gift. ;) Any how we spent a couple hours there letting the kids have tons of fun, and at the end of it we traded in our tickets(and a few dollars) to get Devin his begged for sucker(ugh, hate that thing!) and Elizabeth her much anticipated, all she wanted stuffed animal. She got a teddy bear with a pink Chuck E. Cheese hoodie. They both left the happiest kids in the world!
Sunday was of course Devin's 2nd birthday! We could not believe it's been two whole years since he came into our lives! He certainly comes with unique challenges, but in the end we wouldn't have it any other way. We have learned so very much from him and the challenges he presents, and we have grown so much spiritually while being guided in helping him grow and learn. I've had many sacred experiences while raising him, and though it is extremely tough...most of the time, I feel incredibly blessed to have been chosen to be his mother. I learn so much from him and his special needs that I would not learn otherwise, and for that I'm grateful. Devin's smile and laugh are still the sweetest things in this world! If you can get a smile from him you instantly melt, because it's so special. He doesn't exactly give them freely so it's all the more special when he gives you one. He is very smart in his own right, he has a very curious and mechanically thinking mind. If he's determined to do something he'll find a way to do it, this gives us and everyone who works with him a lot of hope for his future. We really love our beautiful boy!! Before he went down for his early nap we let him open one of his presents, it had a super cute new outfit to wear to church and a a Thomas the Train birthday book. We brought birthday cookies to nursery so they could celebrate with him, and after church and dinner both our parents came down and Tony's parents gave him his second present from them and he opened some of his presents from us(he has his last birthday party next Saturday) he really enjoyed all the fun things he got for his birthday! We didn't have birthday cake but we did have yummy birthday cookies! Sometimes it's hard to tell with him....and he was certainly having a bit of an "off" day, but all in all I think he really enjoyed his birthday!

Whack the mice! This was a fun and cool game!