Birthday party bliss...

We had a small, low key, 2nd birthday party for Seth on Saturday. I emphasize the small and low key part. =) For his first birthday, he had a blowout, complete with full chili meal and 20+ people. I decided that was too much to try every year, and that he would enjoy it more right now if we just did something small with 5-6 kids his age. That turned out to be the perfect plan for us.

He is all about cars, trucks, and tractors these days. He talks about them and points them out when we're riding around town. They're his favorite toys at the moment. So, I decided to do a car theme. When I went to Party City, looking for car stuff, all they had was from the movie, "Cars." Disgusted by their attempt to make me succumb to crass commercialization, I resolved not to buy any of it. =) Seth doesn't know anything about that movie anyway!

So I went to Dollar Tree. LOVE Dollar Tree. They had red plastic tablecloths, red napkins, and plates with balloons on them. So I got one pack each for my tiny party. But I was really excited about the gift bag display! There were three different kinds of gift bags, each with a huge car or truck covering both sides! I snapped up three of them and cut them apart, giving me six car decorations for the wall!

It was hard to come up with a good cake idea. I've tried three dimensional cakes before. Those suckers are hard for a cake decorating newbie like me. So I just baked a 9x13 sheet cake from a box, "drew" lines on it with toothpicks, and then cut out the shape of a truck. I got two donuts for the wheels from our local Krispy Kreme. I've had bad experiences with food coloring bleeding on me, so I cut licorice to fit the edges. Tip: lay out and cut the licorice on the cake before you ice it. It's simple, but Seth was happy with it. He wanted to "eat truck." =)

We did a little dancing with a kid's cd I have, but a bunch of 2-year-olds mostly want to play. We moved around a little furniture and put toys in the living room and the playroom. I'm going to have to do that more often for larger groups... it really worked well.

The best part of the weekend for him and me, though, was just having Daddy around. We got to take a walk on the greenway and go out for Mexican, too. And there was even a guitarist at the Mexican place that kept him mesmerized through dinner. I also discovered something else really cool that evening. We got a movie from Redbox, and we learned that our local Harris Teeter has these tiny carts for little kids to push. Seth spent 30 minutes pushing one around the store, happy as a clam. If you need to kill some time with a toddler who wants some space to move in, I'd try it. =)