Birthday Party Pictures

I think overall, Eli's birthday party was a success. I went back and forth on party ideas, how many kids to invite, where to have it, all of that. I really wanted to just have friends play in a park, but was worried about the heat, with temperatures hitting over 100. Last year we just did a family party, but now that Eli has had several playdates consistently with little friends, I really wanted to do a "friend" party. I also really wanted to keep it SIMPLE. It was just for a TWO year old. We finally settled on having water play in our backyard, with cupcakes. Then I fretted about the time, because morning is best for most toddlers' demeanors, but if I had it 10 to noon, would I need to feed them lunch? Decided lunch was ok, and would get a tray of chicken nuggets from Chic Fil A. Who doesn't like chick fil a nuggets?! As the weeks went on, suddenly we had a drop in temperature (into the 90's, whoo!) but also had some breeze. Soooooo, I changed the party location to the neat park across the street from our house (what I wanted to do originally anyway!). We had seven friends come, which I know is a lot for a 2 year old. But, being at the park, it didn't seem overwhelming as everyone was running around playing. I think the overwhelmed/overstimulated part came when we all gathered and sang Happy Birthday, because that's when E put his head down on the table and cried! All in all though, it worked out just fine and I think all the kids had fun.

We were able to snag the little covered pavilion at the park (it's on a first come, first serve basis). Covered one table with the blue table cloth, attached some balloons, and used the other table for the food and presents. Here E is smiling sitting next to his best buddy, Brandon. It is so cute how they love each other! Brandon is about 8 months older than Eli.

Doug with the balloons.

I was thankful my shutter happy friend Lindsay was able to come early and help out - she took this picture of my mom and me. It was also great having Grandma at the party!

We actually tried an organized game of Red Light-Green Light, with Doug holding up a red paper or green paper and the kids running and/or stopping. They were really good at the running part, not so much the stopping! It was really funny watching them. They were loving it.

I made cupcakes the day before - these are NOT them. Mine looked really sad! And, I didn't know the secret of putting the icing in a ziplock, cutting a hole, and using it to get the big fluffy icing look. I ditched those and bought some at Target. The racing flags though, those were my idea. I cut pieces of our racing check duct tape and taped them to toothpicks to keep with our "cars" theme. Even though I wasn't going to have a theme because I was keeping it simple. But I did let myself get suckered into Disney marketing and bought a Cars balloon and Cars paper plates. But that's all!

See Eli on the left, putting his head down while everyone was singing?? I've heard that's pretty common for toddlers! It's not a party till the birthday boy cries!

He wasn't so sure about his cupcake either.....

Later that day, after nap, we were able to reveal his Train Table! Doug spent quite a bit of time, figuring out how we could use most of the train track pieces. He loved it!

The next day, we had family over for family birthday time. Grandma got Eli this nifty water table. E has really been into playing with water lately. His other grandparents, Pa and Meme, came into town too. We had the Tuckers over and the Fossens too.

Eli was more into opening presents on this day, I think he was getting the gist of this present thing. He cried again when he was center of attention while we sang, but not for long. This time, he did try to blow out his candle. Doug made him a red velvet cake from scratch!

Later that same day, we went up to the Fossen's house for a birthday dinner for Rachel, as her birthday was the day before Eli's, and the grandparents were in town. Here the cousins are dogpiling on Doug. Eli likes to run around on the trampoline. Notice I did not post any of the pictures of ME jumping on the trampoline. They weren't prettty. Not pretty at all.....

Remember Rachel's name board I made and talked about a couple of posts ago? She loved it, and here she is trying it out on a wall in her bedroom.

And, last but not least, here is Rachel blowing our her candles!

As you can tell, it was a super busy weekend - I'm kind of tired just reading about all that we did -but it was also super fun, and we all enjoyed celebrating Eli, and Rachel!