Birthday Catch-Up

We recently had to buy a new dryer to the tune of $400, and 3 days of me hanging laundry on a clothesline (which really puts the convenience of a dryer into a whole new perspective) - so we decided to keep Adam's 2nd birthday on the small side, and instead of inviting ALL our friends (sorry guys) - we figured we'd just have a small gathering at our house with a few close friends and family.  All of hub's family had just come for a surprise visit on hub's birthday(34th!) March 31st, so we just assumed they wouldn't be here 2 weeks later for Adam's birthday. 

Well, we were wrong...they all wanted to come!  And since just our two immediate families alone total 17 people, we decided our house was gonna be a tight squeeze.   We instead went to Strother Park in Arroyo Grande.  I'm not really a "theme" person in general, but I'm learning that kids parties are much easier when there is a PLAN, so after going back and forth we decided on a Curious George party.  I found a great deal on a bunch of George stuff online, including a pretty lame looking pinata....

But he's 2, who cares, right?

We kept it pretty simple.  Just some food and pinata busting and gifts and DONE.  Except I did not anticipate the weather totally sucking.  The day before, was awesome.  Blue skies, gorgeous, perfect.   On this day?   CLOUDY, sprinkling, cold, and very windy.  It totally sucked.  We were all cold...and I was wishing for hot stew instead of cold sandwiches. 

But oh well...the kids were on the playground having a good time and all the adults were hanging around chatting, it ended up being okay.

The pinata was pretty funny because it was one of those "non-violent" ones where each kid pulls a string and one string opens the floodgates of candy?

(which by the way, nothing funnier then cramming candy up a monkey's ass the night before your kids party...I think I giggled like an 8 year old the whole time I stuffed that sucker).  Except that apparantly I didn't read the instructions or something because we were supposed to cut a certain part of it so it would open....and we didn't.  So each kid took a turn pulling a string and once all the strings were gone, we still had a full pinata hanging from that tree.  Wah-wah-waaaaah.

Which is when the men stepped up and found tree branches and let kids start whacking away...only none of them were big enough to do any damage.  My brother finally went for it and with one solid THWACK knocked the whole body off of George's head and candy spewed forth.  Admist all the kids scrambling for candy, we had one poor little girl Addison crying into her mom's neck because it scared her - and one poor little Adam standing there looking horrified at the carcass of Curious George at his feet....and the HEAD of Curious George still spinning around on the end of the rope...HA!  

Man, that was funny.  Not my most sensitive moment in regards to my kid...but funny nonetheless.

After that, it was banana cupcakes for all - and a quizzitive Adam wondering why were trying to light that giant number 2 in his cupcake...

which he devoured...

And then presents!   The boy got quite a haul...

and I honestly HATE opening presents like that in front of everyone because it's just like "oh hey, thanks!" and then set it aside and onto the next one...in the meantime Adam is wondering why he can't play with each item.   It just seems like kind of a whirlwind and too fast and overwhelming for a kid this age. 

The toys and givers of toys don't really get the respect they deserve, and I hate making everyone else stand there to watch that whole debacle.  Not really sure how else to handle that though...anyone got suggestions for future birthdays?  Do you do something different?

Anyway, after that - the kids all took off to play while we adults starting packing stuff up because it was so cold and we all wanted to go HOME.  I left Adam in the care of my oldest neice Keeley who is 10 years old and very capable...she's a little mother hen that one.  Pretty soon, before I knew it - he was asleep in the swing...happily clutching his new toy jigsaw. 

Now if any of you were reading this blog last year...you might remember he also fell asleep in the swing at his 1st birthday...hilarious! 

I'm wondering if this will be a yearly tradition?

At this point, I walked over to gawk at my baby boy and take some pictures....which is when he pulled his head up and heavily blinked around wondering where he was...and then he slowly and quietly threw up ALL OVER HIMSELF.  Awesome. (I spared you all and didn't take any pictures of THAT)

Now, we are used to dealing with puke around here - in fact, nowadays we're like a Nascar Team doing damage control with the puke...but at a park?  and in the park swing?  that was a new experience.   Let's just say, I was extremely thankful I had an extra change of clothes AND a jacket for him because that was a bad one.  Thanks to my mother in law who helped me get him back to our picnic area without any puke getting on ME.  Thanks to my dad and my neices who helped clean the swing and under the swing...and thanks to my neighbor who was there to take his clothes from me and put them into a plastic bag...and thanks to my friend Ani who cleaned off his new toy jigsaw...and thanks to my hubby who was there to run to the car and get everything I needed for my poor shivering, green-around-the-gills boy who I think just had a little too much cupcake and too much swinging.  It really does takes a village!

After some cuddling and warming up with some clean clothes, the boy was good as new and back running around on the basketball court chasing his cousins.  He even FINALLY got up the cojones to go down the slide without me....and went with his cousin Gracie.

We had a good day with friends and family...here is hubs with my best friend Amanda.  We've known each other since we were 4 years old, and she's the one who introduced me to hubs in the first place.  She's an absolute doll and we both adore her to peices :)

Nice hat-head there, hubs...

And we had several thwarted attempts at a family picture because hub's sister kept closing her eyes...but with a little force...I finally got one - they might just kill me for posting this, but I'm willing to risk it

My mom has a really cool tradition of painting a banner for each of her grandbabies.  An actual vinyl banner that can be rolled up and reused for each birthday.  Well, last year she was busy making Bob and Larry cutouts for his 1st birthday, so this year she pulled through, and isn't it fabulous?!?!?!

Still can't believe my baby is two!