Liam's Birthday Weekend

 Joel had this past weekend off, and since I hit my 36 week mark Sunday (yay!), we decided that we would take advantage of the weekend by throwing Liam a "little" party for his 2nd birthday, since who knows when Aiden will arrive! Now originally, we were going to only have a few families (the ones Liam talks about the most- his few guy/girl friends from church)... and Joel wanted it, as he put it, "low key". So I told him to make a list of those he wanted to invite... and well, let's just say that we had about 30 people over on Saturday morning! More then Liam's birthday, we saw it as an excuse to have friends over- something that is rare at our house with his crazy busy schedule. But we figured why not have a theme/reason for this food, fun and fellowship?! And since we really didn't do anything for his first birthday (well, we did spend most of the day at Home Depot, painted, and had Len over for takeout sushi...), we figured "why not"?!

One of the books Liam enjoys reading, though definitely not his favorite, is The Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle. So I figured it would be fun to incorporate this into his party- especially with his recent fear of bugs. I'm hoping that this over abundance of caterpillar/butterfly stimuli might help out his insectophobia- we will see!

From the pictures below (sorry for so many, it's so my family can feel like they were there!), you may see that this Mom has too much time on her hands... well, not necessarily too much time, but many free nights when her husband is gone, her son is in bed and so she can't be too loud with her housecleaning! It ended up being a delightfully packed weekend, with Joel's parents coming up for a long awaited visit, the party, a country singing at the Rauhes, church, a visit to Shiro, and lots of playing with all Liam's new toys!

Liam enjoyed helping me bake and prepare for the party before hand...

making lemon cupcakes

cutting out butterfly cookies

discovering what cookie dough is... "nummy nummy nummy!"

making "caterpillars" for the scavenger hunt

Liam's Birthday Party...

the hungry caterpillar upclose

bite size cherry pies (made from a mini cupcake pan)

the dessert table: lemon cupcakes with buttercream frosting, cherry pie and chocolate cake!

 

drinks: lemonade and water for adults, juice boxes for kids

family favors: homemade playdough and butterfly cookie cutter, bug stickers and gummi worms

almost all the food (besides the chips, burgers and hotdogs) were based off the book

one of the little boys reading The Hungry Caterpillar


butterfly cookie decorating station

of course all the ortho residents had to get in an ortho conversation at the party!

 

Liam was content hanging out near the food, "mowing" our grass carpet with his golf bag "lawnmower"

 
the reason why he was content: a plentiful supply of one of his favorite things... ICE!!

playing cornhole

the spectators...

Liam scoring some points for his daddy

Jimmy and Liam playing with the trike that Danya and Jimmy bought Liam

Cindy and Joel's mom cleaned up most of the house for me so I could rest afterwards!

Jimmy pulling Liam and Abby on the trike. I told Liam don't get used to it, because this Momma won't be as nice!

so much for my "no gift" stipulation...

the welcome sign and card for everyone to sign for Liam's birthday box

caterpillars were hidden around our house by one of the older boys

"pin" (I used velcro) the caterpillar to the apple

After the singing, Liam opened up his gifts before he went to bed...

Daddy helping him open a container of legos from Grandma Bahler/Grandpa and Grandma Virkler

 

all these presents are for me?? We had to keep telling him he could open up the next one!

 

excited about a tractor toy from the Evensens

 

and of course, no birthday is complete without bubbles!

 

a new fire truck... this one makes "music" and lights up!

Playing with the basketball hoop that Len got him...



Dancing with his fancy schmancy trike...

On Sunday we went to Shiro with Joel's parents and Len... it's a Japanese restaurant that Joel and I have driven past frequently and always wanted to go to! Apparently the house was built by a guy as an engagement present to his fiance. Supposedly it's also haunted. All I know is that it has really good food, and my son LOVES their edamame (he ate a bowl of edamame all by himself) and steamed gyoza!

The result of a busy busy weekend with lots of fun and stimulation! Joel put Liam to bed at around 730pm Sunday night, and about 15minutes later, this is how we found him (unheard of for our little man who will talk in his crib until midnight!)