OK, so not exactly later that week... but we had family in town... then I caught a cold that my pregnant body decided was the plague... And since you already waited almost 6 months, what's another week? So, without further ado, pictures from Ethan's 2nd birthday party, which was themed after his favorite book (at the time)
The Little Blue Truck. Seriously, we would read that book at least 4 times a day. It's still in the regular rotation, but other longer books have taken its place as the favorite in the past few weeks. Oh yeah, I said without further ado...
The invitation! I made them all "by hand" (OK, so the Cricut was used to cut out the shapes, but I designed it all, glued it all together, and figured out how to format the text -- which I tried to match to the book in font -- to print correctly), and I came up with the rhyme myself, based on the opening stanza of the book. In short, I'm pretty proud of them!
The spread and the cake. It was a mid-morning to lunchtime party, so I kept it fairly simple. We had chocolate pudding to mimic the mud, fruit salad to add some nutrition, and buffalo chicken dip with crackers, carrots, and celery. It was simple, and everything went over well with adults and kids alike! I made the cake myself this year, found some toy cars/dump trucks to recreate the book's famous scene, and piled up the chocolate frosting (also homemade) to really get that "stuck in the mud" feeling.
Balloons played a bit part in the decorations thanks to a helium tank from BJs. In fact, every kid got to take one home so it made for a cheap and exciting party favor to boot. I had planned on making a banner like last year, but the wall seemed to be a better canvas for this one. I used my trusty Cricut again to cut out all the different animals mentioned in the book and even was OCD enough to recreate the pushing scene with all the animals in order. The "Happy 2nd Birthday!" was more of an afterthought made possible by a Sharpie and some cardstock.
The birthday boy with his favorite book, left out for guests' perusal.
The party itself was pretty laid back. We started out outside with the slide, the wagon, and the goats being the main appeal (though the two boys spent a good amount of time teetering on the edge of the fish pond and making us all nervous as they explored). Then we moved the party inside and let the kids go nuts with toys while the adults chatted. No planned activities (the kids ranged in age from several months to 3), and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves!
Blowing out the candles with Mommy!
Yeah, Ethan got his hands on the pudding ladle and was all ready to serve himself...
Now that's a party!
And of course, the family that was able to make it in town couldn't resist having their picture taken with the guest of honor after all his friends left! It was a big and fun day, and, honestly, didn't take that much prep or work so I was able to enjoy it, too. I'm really happy with how it turned out, especially since I couldn't find any Little Blue Truck parties online to model ours off of so this was all my own creation. Humble, aren't I? =P
Ethan's 3rd birthday party will be about a month after his baby brother/sister is born so who knows how big we'll go with it. Heck, we may aim for a park party or something so that others won't be subjected to what will likely be our disaster area of a house. Or I could just go ahead and start planning now in hopes of having all the work done before the new arrival. Regardless, I'm glad we were able to have such fun parties at home for his first two years!
