r a i s i n g h i l l: Birthday fun, part 1

Wow, birthdays are pretty great. Last year I didn't really appreciate how cool it is to be the birthday boy (I was only one year old, after all). This year, I got to play with a whole bunch of new toys, Daddy came home from work early to play with me, and I even got to have a mini-donut with cinnamon sugar on it from Mighty O (I had no idea that donuts come with toppings)! And it gets even better: tomorrow, I'm having some of my friends over to help me celebrate more! Whoever came up with this "birthday" idea was pretty smart.

Here are some pictures of me on my birthday; I'll add more with my friends later:

My new easel, which I'm allowed to color on (unlike the walls, furniture, or Cowboy). It has a chalkboard on one side, a whiteboard on the other, and a roll of paper in the middle that pulls up over either side so I can color or paint on it. I'm not allowed to paint on it until we get something called a "drop cloth" for the floor.
My tricycle from Poopah and Grandma Joan. This is the first thing I saw when I woke up on my birthday morning and went to my play room. I opened the door, saw it sitting there, and yelled, "Ride! FUN!!" I scooted it around the living room, and then Mama let me take it outside to try it out. I'm not quite sure how the pedal thing works yet (in fact, I'm a little scared of the pedals) but Mama and Daddy say that I'll figure it out quickly. In the meantime, they can push me around or I can scoot with my feet on the ground.
My first train set. It's pretty simple, but I really like to push the engine over the bridge. I don't like to pull the rest of the cars behind the engine as much -- I prefer to park those in the middle of the track while I play with the engine.
I got the "2" to go with my "1" train engine from Grandma and Papa Hill. It hooks onto the engine, so now I can push them both around together. I'm going to have the longest, coolest wooden train in the world by the time I'm 35!