This year Declan's 2nd birthday serendipitously landed on a Saturday! So, we celebrated with a party on his actual birthday! But we'll get to the party details in a minute.
We started the day with a room full of balloons so that Declan knew that this was a special day. Declan and Daddy had a ridiculously good time punching all of them!
Next, some monkey bread! I was originally going to keep monkey bread as our traditional Christmas morning breakfast, but thought it would serve us better as our all around Special Occasion breakfast!
Present opening time! I think Dec was more into the Cars wrapping paper than finding out what was inside!
His favorite presents were a bubble lawn mower and wooden fruit that he can slice. Actually he loves this fruit! He'll play with it for well over a half an hour on his own! He especially loves slicing it, giving it to someone, and watching as they pretend eat it. It just cracks him up!
The only bummer about Dec's birthday is he wasn't feeling all that hot. It was his third day of fighting a nasty cold. But, his being sick did allow us to put him down for a nap at 12:30 instead of 1:30 (something that usually would be impossible). So he was well rested and seemed to be feeling better for his birthday party at 3:00.
Onto the party details! I think it was around Christmas time that I decided we should have his birthday party at the YMCA. My reasoning was two-fold; 1) it is his favorite place to play, and 2) knowing I would be in the last month of my pregnancy - I thought it would be a pretty easy party to plan (and I was right!). The only problem I ran into was that the minimum age for birthday parties at the YMCA was 3. Mmmm...what to do? I know, become an obnoxious mother and beg! Yes, I stooped this low. It took me a month, but I finally coerced the nice people at the YMCA to let us party! So here are some of the fun details of Declan's Superhero party at the YMCA:
The invites I bought from ETSY (have I mentioned how much I LOVE this website??). I mean seriously, aren't these the cutest? And, so inexpensive!
My first thought with a superhero party was one must have capes as a party favor! But, after pricing them out and weighing how much the kids would actually use them, I went with bouncy balls instead. :) Easier and more practical. I still love the cape idea though, and if the kiddos were a little older, I might have sprung for them.The cool thing about the bouncy balls is that the kids could use them during the party at the Y and then take them home.
Another cool thing about the bouncy balls was having them in our house a few days before the party. Our upstairs hallway felt like a ball pit. And we made sure to take full advantage of this!
I put up a few decorations, made some cupcakes and voila - party time!
Declan was dressed to impress for his superhero party in this awesome superhero shirt I picked up from Baby Gap. The cape Velcros on the back, so Dec wasn't even aware that he was wearing it!
And finally all of Dec's super friends having a super time!
My favorite memories from the party were watching the dads interact with the kids. Some dads didn't even need their child as an excuse to have fun! Case-in-point: Uncle Mike!
And also singing to Declan. Instead of doing it the traditional way, everyone came together at the end of play time and sat in a "bubble" under the parachute to sing happy birthday. The funny part is that the minute everyone started singing Declan scooted his little behind out of the bubble and watched from a safe distance. I held up the material so he could still see everyone. My mom snapped this picture of him watching the singing. Although you can't really tell from the picture, the look on his face was priceless!
What a great day!I can't believe my baby is already 2. Of course I am kind of sad and kind of happy at the same time. I have a feeling that we have a very fun year ahead of us!