Monday, April 11, 2011

Brayden's Big Game: 2 year old birthday party

Earlier this year, when I started thinking about Brayden's party, I knew I could widdle down the themes to two things: Toy Story or Football. They are the two loves of my first born son, and so I was having a really hard time deciding. So I decided to approach the birthday boy himself and ask him what he wanted. He gave an enthusiastic "FOOTBALL" answer, so football it was. I was secretly thankful he chose football, because I knew it would be a lot cheaper to decorate for. I had seen several different examples of football themed parties. I knew I didn't have the time or energy to get all fancy, but I wanted to make it special. So I started with the invitation.


I don't even remember where I had seen this idea originally, but I knew if I ever did a sports themed part for one of my boys I would use it. I looked at a professional sports ticket and basically tried to make the announcement look like a football ticket. This is what I came up with:

A friend of mine let me borrow a lot of her serve ware that was football themed. It was so cute and really brought the entire theme together. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of the food setup, but it was awesome. I did apples and caramel dip, carrots and celery with ranch dip, chips and french onion dip, chips and salsa and cheese dip and cupcakes. The cupcakes were from Sam's and were delicious-- and SO cheap! If you're ever throwing a party, I highly recommend Sam's. Oh, and the party sub I got was from Walmart. Another cheap food staple, and honestly, I bought too much! We're still eating subs-- haha!
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The kids just basically ran around and played... there's not much game playing when you have 20+ kids that are all under 5! Brayden was in HEAVEN, since he LOVES his friends. He kept telling me that he was going to give them all "high five" whenever they got here-- haha!
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(blowing out his candle)
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Only MY child would refuse the cupcake and want the celery and ranch dip. haha!

I think the most fun part of the party for me was to see him interact with all of his friends, and opening his gifts. He would get so excited about each present, and then his friends who just shove another wrapped gift on his lap. The big present was a Buzz Lightyear from Drew and I. We had actually bought it last year, but he was too little for us to give it to him, so we held on to it for this year. When he saw it, he was MESMERIZED. And when my cousin was opening it for him, he was literally shaking. I wish I had captured it on video. It was awesome! He LOVES his Buzz, and now sleeps with him (along with Spot-- our build a bear dog-- and Woody... not sure there will be much room if he keeps his entourage growing!). Buzz also joins us in our bedtime prayers, but has a hard time assuming the prayer hands, since his arms are kind of bulky ;)
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(please notice the pink shoes he had stolen from one of his girlfriends...)
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Alysssa was a big help with the presents :)
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this little grill is SO cute. He keeps saying "like my daddy!" and grills up burgers and hotdogs for us to "eat". Thanks Ava and Kinley!
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One thing that really jumped out to me at Brayden's party was that our group of just a few couples from when we were first married has now grown to 12 couples and TONS of kids. I couldn't help but look at all of the kids, all of whom are answers to prayers. God's awesomeness was definitely shown through the party, and I feel so blessed to have so many awesome friends that love our baby boy so much and have been such a help in raising him.

We were pooped at the end of the day, but it was a great party, and so fun watching Brayden really enjoy the festivities this time around. It makes me excited for birthday parties to come-- I love celebrating my boy!
 

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