Party, Party, Party!

Our little boy turned the big 2 this past Monday!  Since Joey is a product of Michael and me, we had to have a party (or three) to help celebrate his big day!  

For all three parties, I made homemade white cupcakes with cream cheese icing.  The theme was wild animals with monkeys, hippos, and a lion being the main characters.   

 

I was really proud of my cupcaking skills, but I am so cupcaked out that I don't think I'll make another cupcake...at least, until the next birthday!

The first party was with our really good friends (that are also military related) on the military beach.  We rented a picnic/playground area to hold the festivities.  This was the most boring and mellow party that I have ever thrown!  A lot of people have told me that all young kid parties are like this.  I disagree!  Joey's 1st birthday party lasted all day and night and was hopping!  Anyways, we grilled out, played with bubbles, and let the kids play on the playground.   

 My friend, Jackie, also painted the kid's faces!

Joey seemed to have a good time and liked all of the attention being on him!  The picnic area was also right next to the train tracks, so that kids got to see the train go by a few times which they loved!  A fire truck also graced us with its presence...not because of us, it was just passing by.

 Joey really didn't eat too much at the party, but I think that's because there was so much going on!  However, he did chow down on one of the monkey cupcakes once we got home!  Yummm!!

On Joey's actual birthday, we had our Mommy and Me class.  Joey was the Happy Helper and his teacher, Ms. Jami, gave him a crown and birthday button to wear.  He actually wore that crown for a pretty good while.

 Joey really likes getting to hold the flag while the class says the pledge.  

 He also loves to check the class mailbox!

The kids got to do balloon art for this day's craft!   

Joey really liked playing with the balloons and paint.  He really wanted to pop all of those balloons!  Balloon popping is one of his favorite pastimes these days!  The class all sang to Joey and enjoyed the cupcakes to wrap up his special class!

We had one more party to host (this was with all of our town/civilian friends), so we had to make lots more cupcakes!  Joey had no problem helping me with that! 

I host a playground meetup at different town playgrounds once a week (something I learned from my AK mamas!), so it was only fitting that Joey's town party was at one of our favorite parks!   

I don't think Joey knew what to do with himself!  We usually don't go anywhere in the afternoons, so I'm sure Joey was all excited that we went to a "far away" playground after nap time (which he didn't take!!)!  

Joey had a great time playing with all of his buddies, blowing bubbles, and eating yet another cupcake!!   

After we left this final celebration, we rushed home so we could Skype with both sets of grandparents!  Joey really misses seeing his family, but likes when he gets to see them on the computer!  He actually hugged the computer during these Skype calls.  

As Joey's Mom, I think that his 2nd birthday was well celebrated!  The only thing that could have made it better was if Michael could have been with us.  Michael made Joey a couple of videos before he deployed, so we made sure to watch those videos a bunch on Joey's actual birthday.  Hopefully, Michael will be able to be with us for Joey's next birthday!