The Big 2: Group Shots!

Two posts in one day, woo hoo!!

I would've really liked to get a picture of all 11 kids there - but that's an impossible dream. I do think what we ended up with shows the mass chaos known as pre-schoolers!
I think the icing on the cake was the fact that it was nearly noon, which is the start of preschooler-fussy time with nap time rapidly approaching! Plus they were all happily playing and running around and the idea of all standing together at the same time was just ludicrous!
This was about the best one including the birthday girl...HA!
Oh this is a happy bunch for sure....and Lilli nowhere to be found!
Party over!!! It's time for naps!
Not a soul looking in the direction of the camera...
Me with the birthday girl!

The Big 2: Presents

This has to be about the most documented 2nd birthday party ever!!!! But I only have a few minutes each night and way too many pictures to do it any other way.

Even though our invitations always say "no presents" people always bring a ton of presents. And we really do mean it, she has a ton of stuff and at this point she has no idea what a birthday is or why in the world all these people were in her house, so might as well enjoy that while it lasts since next year she probably will be expecting presents!But she really does enjoy opening things now, and has gotten the hang of it. She was much better at opening and then opening the next present in line than she was at Christmas.


She loved all her presents and she's a pretty big fan of cards right now, too!
A pass to Peek-a-Boo playtown! Yay!!!
A puzzle from Adam and Julia - she wanted to talk about all the letters and the pictures on them. She's starting to get pretty good with counting and can identify several letters, just not really in order.Oh my! Plates! You shouldn't have!
So now we have LOTS of Thank You notes to do!!!!

The Big 2: The Cake!

We kept it pretty simple with the cake/cupcakes for Lilli's party this year. Last year's Monkey Smash Cake and Monkey Cupcakes were pretty time consuming. And I really didn't see anything super cute to make her cupcakes into, other than some various shark and surfboard themes. For her special cake we just made a white cake with icing and candles.
We actually practiced blowing candles out for a couple of weeks but when everyone was singing to her she got really shy and wouldn't blow them out. I bought custom cupcake toppers for her off of Etsy - they were SO cute. They had her name, hula girls, the #2, and a few other various things on them that fit perfectly with her party theme. I also got custom Favor Bag Tags that matched.
Love this one Adam took of Heath taking a picture of Lilli.
Kiddos enjoying cupcakes and party horns!
Digging in.
Taylor cracked us up - he did NOT like the party horns. I heard him tell some of the other boys a few times to quit blowing them, and once he came and told Lynda that Micah wouldn't quit blowing his horn. Hilarious.
Yum Cake!!!!
What comes after cake? Presents!!!!

The Big 2: The Food!

We really wanted to serve some GREAT food this year for Lilli's party, and when we were trying to come up with the theme for the day I decided to talk to Blue Coast Burrito and see how much they charge for catering. One of the favorite parties we've ever been to was a going away party for an old coworker of mine that he had catered Mexican style. Besides just being a fun night the food was great and it was just so different than the usual BBQ, burgers, or pizza.

Honestly, they weren't cheap (AT ALL), but since we were saving on location and since pretty much everything else I bought was half off since it was off season for a summer party, I didn't mind spending a lot on food. And we decided to have it delivered (also not cheap, at all) but it was SO worth it. They were perfectly on time and everything came in hot and was completely set up by the Blue Coast guy.
As soon as he set out the chips our little Blue Coast fan was all over it and wouldn't leave the kitchen!And everything looked SO delicious once it was set out! And my house smelled like Blue Coast, one of my favorite smells!!!#1 Burrito Fans!They provided all their own serving utensils, plates, cups, and also all the same little salsa containers and chip boats you get at the restaurant. It was really just like being there! (But we used all the pretty party things instead and are saving theirs for other less festive occasions!)
Lilli and Julia hanging out in the kitchen while we got everything ready!Time to Eat!! We cleared off all the crafts off the kiddie tables in the living room, so many of the kids ate in there or in the dining room. I was surprised we actually ended up having room for everyone!The food was DELICIOUS and I'd recommend Blue Coast in a heartbeat. We ended up with a ton of leftover salsa, rice and beans, but not really all that much meat. I think we've eaten leftovers for 2-3 meals and are pretty much done with the actual meat. But for this week I've got a couple of recipes lined up to get rid of the rest of the leftovers - a black bean soup for one night should help us with some of the black beans!!

The Big 2: Party Pics - Crafts

We had two crafts from Oriental Trading Company for the kids to make. One was a little flip flop you put your pic in (and decorate with stickers, etc) and the other was a little Monkey Face with sunglasses on. I had already had Brent print pictures of each of the kids attending (thank you Facebook!!) so that made it a little more special for each kid.

Wesley and Kairo working on their project:

Seth helping Taylor
Haven chilling out with some Play DohAnd Haven playing with some glue. Kids just LOVE glue!! Lilli loves to glue stuff all the time.

Julia with her flip flop for Ella Kate
The monkey table with lots of kiddos hard at work:
Lynda helping Levi

Lilli made herself right at home in Jackie's lap.


Rachel hanging out in one of the chairs, I think I was trying to find her a glue stick then!

Emeline working on her monkey.
Lilli working on her project with Grandma to help...

Evelyn with a glue cap, I think! Hopefully she didn't just taste it, ha!
I wish I had thought to have pictures taken of each kid with their finished projects. A couple of people accidentally left theirs and they were so cute I wish I had seen all of them. The food arrived around this time so I was busy making sure everything was set up the way I wanted it.

Lilli, Rachel and Tonya
Jackie and Liam
After craft time it was time to EAT!!!