Parker James Stowe: Parker's 2nd Birthday Party!

This last Saturday, February 20th, we had some of Parker's friends over to celebrate his birthday! I was planning on just doing a general theme of cars or vehicles but the store I went to to get his party supplies only had Disney "Cars" themed things so we just went with that instead. He has seen bits and pieces of "Cars" and seemed to really enjoy it. He has a "Cars" book that he loves and he also has some "Cars" stickers and a "Cars" coloring book so he's really familiar with the characters despite not actually having the movie. Well...NOW he has the movie because we gave it to him as an early birthday present and let him open it the morning of his party! Here is a video of him right after he opened it...

We tried to keep his party pretty low key. We had "Cars" playing in the background for the kids to watch if they wanted to, a coloring/sticker table with pictures of different "Cars" characters I printed off the internet, and some balloons scattered around the room. The balloons were a HUGE hit!! They LOVED tossing them around and only 1 of them popped (and no one got scared when it did) so I consider that a success, lol! The party started at 4, they played until about 4:45 at which point Parker opened his presents. Then at around 5 they ate pizza and at about 5:30 we sang "Happy Birthday" and ate cake! The kids played for a little bit longer and then at around 6, everyone headed home! Parker seemed to really enjoy having his friends over for the party! We did however decide that next year, we won't do a party at our house! We only had 4 friends there and 8 parents (including James and I) and our living room was PACKED!! For his 3rd birthday we're thinking we'll either do it at "The Little Gym", "Flipz" or "Going Bonkers" where there's plenty of room for the kids to run around and play. I'm already excited for his birthday next year though...minus the fact that he'll be turning THREE!! We video taped the present opening and singing "Happy Birthday" on our actual video camera instead of on the video function of my digital camera and I don't know how to load those videos to the computer but I do have pictures from the party...enjoy! :)

Overall view of the decorations

Close-up of the banner

wasn't sure where to put the coloring pages to keep them somewhat accessible so I just lined them along the china cabinet, lol!

Close-up of the "Cars" stickers, "Cars" crayons and little "Cars" booklets of paper

the plates, napkins and "2" candle...

close-up of the "Cars" table cloth, "Cars" graham crackers and "Cars" fruit snacks

An emptied out party favor bag, "Cars": Frisbee (some had Tow-Mater, some had Lightning McQueen), crayon pack, little notebooks of paper, fruit snacks, stickers. Also a little tub of Play-Doh...doesn't fit the cars theme but what 2 year old wouldn't want more Play-Doh! :)

Present time...checking out his shoes from Grammy and Grandpo Stowe

...now looking at his puzzles and pattern block kit from Grammy and Grandpo Stowe

Opening his present from Little Gym friend Matthew...don't mind my face in this one...I think I was saying, "Oh, Parker, look!"

The cake...don't hate...I'm just not one of those moms who makes a homemade cake for their kids birthday...Hyvee did a nice job though, don't you think?! :)

I think this was right after blowing out the candle. I wasn't sure if he'd actually try to blow it out or not, but he did! In fact I'm not sure whether it was me helping to blow out the candle or his blowing that actually blew the candle out.

He was ready to dig in and grabbed the edge of the cake. Then he had the funniest looks on his face because he didn't like how the frosting felt on his hand, lol!