Graham’s Birthday Party (took place on 1/21/12 – 2 years, 29 days old)

After getting back from Mexico, things seemed a little hectic, so we tossed around the idea of skipping a second year birthday party for Graham, but he knew what birthday parties were (from attending his friend’s parties) and he LOVES opening presents so we sent out a save-the-date and started planning. 
After looking into MANY options for out-of-the-house/hosted-by-some-other-entity parties, we decided to throw a traditional party at home.  After an incredibly warm, mild, and dry winter, it ended up raining the night before and morning of Graham’s party, but everyone took it in stride and after moving the majority of the party indoors, Graham had the most fabulous time celebrating with his friends. 
The party started at 10:30 in the morning, so after breakfast Alethea came over to help and we were in full party prep mode. 
Graham got dressed in his #2 birthday shirt and watched as we pulled everything else together:

We set up the savory and sweet croissant bar:

And hung the piñata:

Before most of the people arrived, we let Graham open one of his presents and he started bonding with his new dinosaur right away:

We set up a photo prop that never really caught on, but at least Graham got a cute picture with it:

The piñata was a pull string piñata, so each kid took turns pulling a string until the one magic string released all the toys.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it and it wasn’t until the last string was pulled that we realized the release mechanism hadn’t worked!  Super Mommy came to the rescue and pulled open the piñata.  Once the toys all spilled onto the floor, no one seemed to mind :)  Graham gave away blow-up mini beach balls, finger puppets, expand in water bugs (which I later discovered did not work), mini Slinkys, and bird whistles:

Next up was the cake, probably Graham’s favorite part of any birthday party.  After stuffing a full piece of cake down his throat, he frantically pointed at his food tray and said “more cake for Graham, put right here.”:

When everyone left, Graham had some special play time with the now empty piñata:

He also loved playing with one of the balloon clusters:

Check out this video from later that night.  Graham loved how the balloons would float for a while before falling to the ground, no matter how hard he threw them:

Graham wasted no time opening his presents and fell in love with a toy garbage truck that remains one of his very favorite toys to date:

Graham had such a fun day.  All of his best pals were there to help him celebrate and once the last guest left and the last present was opened, I think this picture sums up what happened next:

Nap time!