Manny's 2nd Birthday Party

Manny turned 2 on May 17th, but due to the birth of his sweet little sister, his birthday party was a little delayed. After much agonizing back and forth, I swallowed my mommy guilt and decided to just throw him a little family party. Yes, I'm aware he doesn't care, but I still had a hard time arriving (peacefully) at that decision. Plus I really do enjoy throwing a party, so was kind of bummed to miss out on planning something this year. And that statement alone is proof that I was doing this more for me than him. :) But this was the best decision given our lives right now, and it turned out to be a great choice.

We decided to have a joint birthday party for Manny and my sister's son, Zeke, at my parent's house last weekend. We went with a theme of cars & trucks, and just used lots of bright colors for decorations. We ordered the cupcakes from SAM's. They are like $13 for 30 cupcakes and they taste really good!

I designed and printed cupcake toppers, and also cut cupcake wrappers with my Cricut. We ended up not using all the cupcake wrappers though because they were too tall for the cupcakes, so they didn't sit right in the stand and I didn't feel like cutting them all down at that point. I picked up a pack of little cars in the party favor section at Hobby Lobby, and set those on top of some of the cupcakes too.

My sister saw this idea on Pinterest, and I thought it was so cute! I found these trucks at Toys R Us for $2 and the cupcake fit perfectly in it.

When I saw this banner at Target for around $5, I knew it was the way to go. I loved the colors and prints, and the fact that it was already assembled meant less work for me. I picked up two banners, and cut the letters out with my Cricut to add to it. The lanterns are also from Target. They also had some cute striped ones but I decided they were too much with the banner.

I also got the plates at Target, and the napkins are from Wal-Mart but coordinate perfectly.

I didn't really get a good picture of them in their outfits I made, but they looked so cute. As I'd hoped, you couldn't really tell the imperfections (that much) once they had them on.

The boys had fun opening presents, and I was cracking up at Zeke. He had his tongue out the whole time.

Manny surprised me when it came time for cake. He was so shy and did not care much for being sung to. Luckily Gabi was nearby to save the day. Once the singing was over, he was happy to just play with his truck. He did eat some of the cupcake, but didn't dig into quite as much as I thought he would. Especially given the epic meltdown that occurred when I picked the cupcakes up from SAM'S and he proceeded to wail "Caaaaaaaaake!!!" and flop around like a fish out of water the whole time we were standing in line to pay for them.

Zekey, on the other hand, was all business. He had a great time diving into his cupcake. He was less than thrilled when they tried to take it from him though. :)

While all of this was going on, my niece Laci was taking care of Maeva. She is SO in love with her and it's just adorable to see her hold her. She is actually really good at calming her down!  

And of course, we had to try for a family picture. We were exhausted and not feeling well, so it probably wasn't the best idea, and we gave up after 4 attempts. Can I just say though that Patrick had his eyes closed in ALL 4 of those?! He is the worst at that...so funny.

So there you have it! My baby boy is "officially" 2 and I can check his birthday party off my list. Now to decide on a theme for next year so I can start planning! Just kidding. Or not.