We celebrated Greyson's birthday a week early this year! He will officially turn 2 on December 9th. Because Thanksgiving was so late this year, Matt's ENTIRE family had planned to go out of town Dec. 2nd on their annual trip to Florida. It is the last time they have to work their way down visiting customers for their business before Christmas & once they make it to their house in Hobe Sound, FL it is also the week of the Singing Christmas tree! Everyone was in town for Thanksgiving (except my family of course...they are coming for Christmas) so I planned to have his party the Sunday before they all went out of town.
Theme:
{Thomas the Train}
At this age, it is unbelievable how many little boys are into Thomas the Train. I remember the first time he watched a 10 minute episode! He paid attention to the whole thing & immediately learned the names of the trains, & was fascinated with everything about the whole show. He never cared about watching toddler shows & even if I turned something on, he would go off & play on his own...except with Thomas. Later he got really into Curious George..those are his 2 favorites! We did Curious George for Halloween, so I knew Thomas would be the theme for his birthday party.
At 9 months pregnant...I chose to keep things SIMPLE! =) I did not feel the need to go all out like we did for his first birthday. I plan to only have a few big parties for each milestone birthday & use those where more family from both sides can be a part of it. For this one, we had most of Matt's family & a few close friends celebrate with us.
The birthday boy got his very own Thomas shirt - Thanks to my very talented friend Emily. She can applique pretty much anything & they always turn out so cute. He loved the shirt & it made him feel extra special on HIS day!
Since we were pretty much spread out all over the house, I decorated one small room & put all the decor & focus there. I used a lot of things over again from his 1st birthday since the colors were so similar. I only bought plates, napkins, balloons & wrapping paper from Party City with the Thomas theme. I also got a small 8 invitation packet to pass out to our friends & family.
Our favorite item HAD to be the cake. Matt had a major part in making this happen. When I told him the theme we were going with he immediately wanted to know the plans for the cake. I told him probably just a regular sheet cake with a picture of Thomas on the front....he wasn't having it! Apparently it had to be an actual train...3D & everything...
I already knew I wanted our good friend Courtney to make it, but couldn't bring myself to ask her to do that much work, so I told Matt if that's what he wanted, then he had to ask her & make arrangements for a cake pan because I KNEW she wouldn't have a 3D train pan!
She took on the challenge & we were SO happy with the results!! It was the cutest Thomas cake ever & I'm so glad Matt insisted on getting his way...haha Not only was it so cute & made the party extra special...but it tasted amazing too!! She used any left over batter & icing to make cupcakes & I added sugar sprinkles to the tops. Greyson loves all of Courtney's cakes & has named every cake he sees a "Corty" cake =) whether she has made it or not! He's a big fan of cake.
Since things were so simple, I tried to spruce up the decorated table with left over confetti, straws from his first birthday & a few Thomas toys Greyson already had. I wrapped all the plastic ware in Thomas napkins & tied them with some jute string & put them in a bucket. The Thomas & Friends wrapping paper also added to the theme & was an easy decoration!
I bought 6 Thomas balloons & a pack that has assorted solid colors in it. We had some of them blown up with helium (because those are always fun) & the rest we just had laying on the floor so the kids could play with them too. It definitely made things look more fun, festive & colorful! I tied a few of the balloons to his highchair in the kitchen so you could definitely tell where the birthday boy was!
To make things easier on me, I just had everyone bring a dish to share for the main meal...everything was delicious!! Then it was time for CAKE!
Greyson gets a little shy when we sing to him =)
Our last birthday photo of our family of 3!
Jace wasn't sure about having his picture taken...
Greyson digging right in!
Time for presents!! He got so many cute outfits & fun toys. He has been pretty busy playing with each one all week. Even with all the Thomas trains & toys he got, I can't say which is his favorite. He got a fun bath tub toy, some cute books, a reindeer on the roof, games, cars, stickers...the list goes on. He goes from one thing to the next...He officially named his reindeer on the roof "Cookie" yesterday...I guess he goes with the things he knows he likes best.
It sure was a fun birthday party! Not too overwhelming & worked out perfectly to have on a quiet Sunday afternoon.
I was so glad to get through that week...I knew if I went into labor early I would only have one little pocket of time where it would work out. I did NOT want to be in the hospital over Thanksgiving & we were so busy up until that point that all I wanted to do was get through the party too. I was just afraid we would have to postpone until everyone got back in town & after the baby came.
I'm so glad I was able to put all of my focus on his day & not have to worry about recovering & taking care of his sister at the same time. Now that it's over, I am able to take it easy...relax & get in some rest & extra snuggle time with my little man before our family grows by 2 more feet =)
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