The Mickey birthday party

So my boy is almost TWO. What????

Here's how I spent last night (until midnight) while Chris, bless his heart, cleaned the downstairs bathroom, swiffered and mopped for me (while ice dancing was on the whole time!). What a man!

Cupcakes for the kids (with no black icing, sadly, chocolate was the more kid friendly/washable option...)



The thing that stole my evening, but that Ryan LOVED (thus, making it totally worth it!)



Table all set up for the party this morning (you can see Ryan's invitation to the left).



We only invited family and the 4 friends Ryan asks to play with (in an attempt to keep parties small and more managable for me). Even with my grand scheme, counting parents and siblings, we had 22 people! It kinda worked out though, looking back at Anna-Kate's 2nd birthday, she only had her 4 best friends too (and, ironically, both kids invited 2 boys and 2 girls to their 2nd birthday parties. We're equal opportunity like that.).

My sweet friend, Heather, let us borrow her bouncy house which was HUGE hit with the kids, but especially Ryan. His eyes lit up and got as big as saucers when he saw it in the backyard this morning!





The kids played outside (praise the Lord, our weather misfortune luck seems to be turning--if you don't know what I mean, you must not have been a loyal reader last summer at Disney or the beach--and it was a gorgeous 60 degree sunny day! Thank you Jesus for that blessing! We had Little Caesar's pizza, hummus and pita chips, carrots, grapes and pirate's booty. What more could a kid ask for (besides the amazing Mickey cake and cupcakes!)?? They all ate and even (mostly willingly) took a picture in their Mickey ears for promised cupcakes. Fun, fun morning!



Group shot all insistently saying CHEESE (to get a cupcake!) except for the few escape artists. (backrow, Lydia, Anna-Kate, Ryan, Adam, Jack and Lauren. Frontrow, Andrew and Patrick).



Birthday boy:



Anna-Kate and Adam:




Ryan got some great new toys and he was beside himself at the attention and gifts all for him! (Including his first train tracks for his Thomas trains, his own sleeping bag, new puzzle and truck, finger paints and a little people castle with knight and dragon!) What a lucky boy! Poor Anna-Kate had a hard time realizing why she kept getting nothing and no letters are coming for her in the mail. We now have a countdown to her birthday.

He got in his new sleeping bag and said, "I-an (Ryan) need am-ie (lamby)". He was so excited!



As it isn't his actual birthday yet, we saved his family gifts to give him then, so another Ryan birthday post to come.



After everyone left, my parents and grandparents stayed to play with toys and check out the work of my scrapbook palooza.