Evan's 2nd birthday: The party

It was a bright and sunny Saturday morning, with a modest high temperature forecast of around 80 F.  It seemed perfect for hosting Evan's 2nd birthday party, in which we planned to spend a lot of time outdoors.  (However, it ended up being over 80 F by the time the party started at 10am!  And it got into the mid 90s F by the afternoon, before some storms rolled in that cooled things down and gave us some rain!)

When Evan woke up and came down for breakfast, he saw the decorating I'd done the night before in the kitchen already.  He was so excited about the balloon garland I'd strung above the kitchen table, and immediately wanted the balloons.  So we had to blow up a few more for him to play with while we got everything decorated and prepped for the party.

Colorful balloon-decorated cupcakes surrounding a 4-inch two-tier cake for Evan to blow out his candle.

Assortment of round/ball-shaped snacks, including some "Bubbly Birthday Punch" to drink.

Party favors, party hats, and a bowl of skinny balloons with instructions for making balloon animals (the parent activity--see below). 

The kids played with balls and we had the bubble machine on (though sadly it wasn't working so great that day...), they had big bubbles to chase that John made with the bubble wand, and they even made bubbles themselves with these little bubble guns my Aunt Linda had gotten for Evan.  Rather than spending much time around the table on the deck, which was in full sun, we eventually all migrated to hang out under the shade of the tree in the backyard to finish snacks and let the kids play.

My birthday boy having his snacks.

Then we came inside to cool off and to do the adult activity: balloon hat or animal making.   Oddly enough, I think the hardest part about this was for everyone to figure out how to inflate their balloons!  The skinny balloons were nearly impossible to blow up yourself, and they were even tricky with the balloon hand pump I'd bought.  Luckily we got some blown up and there were a variety of hats and dogs made.

John working on "Bluey" the dog.

Evan just loved the balloons, in whatever shape they came!

After that we went on to the presents.  When Evan opened his first present that was wrapped (as opposed to in a gift bag) he tore off the paper in such little tiny pieces...it took quite awhile!  [Later that evening (after the party) we opened his pressies from his Nana over Skype with her and while he still tore off some small pieces, he was getting the hang of ripping the package open a bit more.]

Evan got great new toys, puzzles, and books and a new track suit for this winter.  So far he really loves his hopper ball that John and I got him (we had some "insider" information that he would, given how he had been using balloons or balls that he already had to bounce on already).  He also really likes his caterpillar crawl tunnel from Nana, as well as his new puzzles and Bilibo "seat".

Me and my birthday boy after his party, playing on his new hopper ball.

The party ended with cake.  Everyone got a cupcake while we sang "happy birthday" and brought out Evan's cake with a "2" candle lit.  He immediately tried to touch the flame, but we warned him it was hot.  Then he said "fire" and started trying to blow it out!  John and I had to help him blow it out for good.  When I served Evan a cupcake (rather than let him dig into the whole cake like he did last year!) he ate it without hands...face first.   You'd think this kid either had never eaten food with his hands or a fork before, or that he's been watching dogs and cats eat face first in their food bowls!  Needless to say, his face was covered in red frosting after that!  But he was the birthday boy, so we let him have his cake however he wanted it.  Lol.  What a fun day.  Overall, I considered the party quite the success!

[I'll do another post in the future with more photos.  I had a friend take photos for me, so I just need to get them from her first...]