Dinosaur 2nd Birthday

Welcoming people to his party. :)

S is very into animals, including dinosaurs. I wasn't totally sure what basic theme to do this year, but K decided for me the week before the party. He thought dinosaurs was best! Since we have lots of dinosaurs between the two boys, and I figured it wouldn't be too hard to find party stuff at the store, it was a go.

At the party store I found plates, napkins and a few other things. The only other thing I bought, apart from the paper goods, was dinosaur tattoos. With my two boys and my 2 1/2 year old nephew as the only kids at the party, I knew they'd be really into tattoos!

My approach to kid parties has been to do a big family party for the first one, small family parties for ages 2-3 and then a bigger party with friends for 4 and up. So, this party was the four of us, my parents, my sisters, my nephew and my grandma. The other grandparents and aunts and uncles are out of state, so unfortunately, they weren't at this one.

Since this was a smaller party and since I've been very tired and overwhelmed lately, I didn't put a ton of effort into this one. But it was perfect for S and a fun time none-the-less.

K helped me decorate with the dinosaur toys we already had. He put them everywhere he could think of! I just had to explain to him when he got upset that putting toys where S or his cousin could reach them meant that they wouldn't stay where he put them! K had some fights with his brother at first, and kept trying to explain why S couldn't play with his own toys, but then he gave up on that useless task.

Well-read dinosaur. He conquered the book mountain!

Dinos in all forms: Rex from Toy Story, sand filled one, little dollar store ones,

wax one from the zoo,

more small ones and a dinosaur skeleton to keep the presents company.

In our family, there are some non-cake eaters. I know, I know! Craziness! Blasphemy! But I still need to make sure to have some kind of dessert for the non-cake people. This year I decided to make chocolate chip cookies, since they are a general crowed pleaser. Due to laziness/tiredness, I then decided I ONLY wanted to make the cookies. So I bought two colored tubes of frosting, plus I had a clearance tub of peppermint frosting in the cabinet. I made about half of the cookies larger size and we just decorated them ourselves! I frosted S's and put a "2" candle on it so we could sing happy birthday. Everyone else did the work themselves. We had ice cream too, and I barely had to do anything! The benefit of laziness!

Most of the present opening is three kids, surrounding me and the presents. Not easy to get pictures!

He got more dinosaurs and animals. Each toy had to be played with as soon as it was opened, of course!

Birthdays can be emotional.

That's a sticker on his forehead, and he had to try out his new swim ring right away!

So, we made it through another birthday party! The kids had fun and S is still loving all his new toys.