ramblings of an incoherant mind: Sam's second birthday celebration

We spent all week gathering party supplies, cleaning up the house, moving all the dislocated house furnishings into the unfinished master bedroom. We then got cupcakes to have after dinner on his actual birthday with a special birthday dinner of Mac & Cheese, green beans and chicken tenders. Sam got to open up his main gift that night also; a wooden train set with a bunch of track, a bridge, tassels and three train sections. He had a hard time stopping play to go to bed that night.

Then the morning of the party Aimee decorated the family room when Sam went down for his nap and I went running around getting the cake, party supplies, veggie and fruit trays, balloons and other last minute items. Aimee got the house finished and people started showing up before I got back with the final batch of stuff, including the 20 mylar balloons from the dollar store; we gave them to whoever wanted one when they left.

There ended up being 13 ~2 year old s, 3 other kids under 7 and 25 adults. Our little house was quite packed but everyone got along and there was evidently enough toys out to allow everyone to play nicely with each other. There were no tantrums or fighting that I saw; maybe some minor squabbles over who was going to get a specific balloon, but other than that all the kids and adults played well together.

Our friends from the Birth-to-Three classes we went to consisted of the bulk of the families there, then there was my sister and her two kids, Sam's daily babysitter and her two boys, and our chiropractor, his wife and their two older daughters. My and Aimee's parents were all there as well as Aimee's grandmother, Ta. I was kinda disappointed that our friends from Portland didn't even respond to our invitations, but maybe something happened in the mail or something.

Sam did great at blowing out his candles; even with the little drip of drool on the edge of the cake that turned into his piece of the cake. The cake was white with a creamy filling and white frosting with primary colored balloons. He got the two candles out in two breaths but got them out none the less. He enjoyed his cake and wanted more, but on a mostly empty stomach we told him that he would have to wait until later. I don't think he ever got another piece, now that I think of it.

Some of the highlights of his presents were: wood block set, a stuffed tiger, a play doctor's kit, a sit-n-spin, some art supplies and coloring books, some clothes and a pair of shoes, a lacing shoe block sorter, and a road track set that the adults almost has more fun playing with than the kids did.

When everyone left, we had a spaghetti dinner with french bread with the family that had come and we invited out friends from church, Sarah, Terry and their boys Zach and Tyler, to stay also since we knew we would have plenty to eat. I had fun playing with the kids and Terry; we got out the road track set and were having fun setting it up with different obstacles and using shoes and other toys to make mountains the little cars had to climb.