Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Rich!!!! Chase and I love you very much! Rich wanted to spend some quality time with Chase outside on Father's Day. They played in the pool awhile and then Rich tried to teach Chase how to hit off the baseball tee....which was a birthday gift from Rie-Rie, Rich and Haylie. Chase enjoyed his time with his Daddy. To end the day just right, we ate at Outback.

Presents

Chase was so excited when I told him it was time to open his birthday presents from his friends. Aunt Rie-Rie came early and she brought 2 presents that were wrapped in Cars paper....he was so desperate to open the presents, but I insisted he wait until his friends came. He listened and was patient. As soon as it was time to open the presents, I totally forgot about the Cars paper presents and handed him another gift, he handed it back to me, got up out of his chair and walked to the Cars wrapped presents and said, "Chase open this one." He opened those first and then proceeded to open more. I thought it was so cute how he read his birthday card. He received a lot of great gifts. To mention a few: Yo Gabba Gabba Guitar, Monogrammed shirt and sippy cup, Bubble blowing lawn mower, Thomas the Train small travel set, Playdoh set, Thomas the Train pop-up tent, Elmo fleece blanket, Elmo Pjs', Parents Art Desk, Squeeze bottle paint brush set, Wooden ABC blocks, Sesame Street K'nex sets, Carolina Panter Hat with his name on the back, a new/taller Basketball goal, a new/taller green slide, a picnic table, and some great books. Oh, don't forget the Lightning McQueen car he got a couple of weeks back.

Wilder Fun Park

In our backyard for Chase's party we offered many activities for the kids to do: Pool, water table, sandbox, 2 basketball goals, 2 slides, a jump house, a playhouse, and other small outside toys. I think overall, they had a great time. It was so hot, but the water play was perfect for them. The adults were offered lots of drinks and shade provided by the two tents, house and the side of the fence. I guess we couldn't expect any cooler temperatures considering it is June.

Party Details

By the way, all of the decorating, cleaning, preparing, etc....was all done by Friday night. YIPEE! We have done this the past 2 years. I feel it is hugely important to help prepare kids for a crowd, transition, etc, so we always decorate while Chase is awake the day before. There was only one thing Chase didn't see before he went to bed on Friday and that was the big poster and the tablecloth. I did want those to be a surprise to him Saturday morning when he came down for breakfast. I think preparing early is wonderful. I had nothing to do on Saturday except hang out with family prior to the party. The only thing Rich did Saturday was get the cakes, balloons, and bring us back some lunch. It was nice to sit back and relax prior to the party.

Food Details

Planning the party food was so much fun for me. I wanted the food to correspond to the characters' color, favorite food, shape, etc... so my brain went into overload thinking of all the different characters and how I could make kid friendly snacks for the toddlers. The party was at 3:30pm so I didn't need to provide a lot of food, just a couple of snacks....oh I had list of every Sesame Street character with a possible food next to their name, but we choose a select few that made it to the party table. I also offered Sesame Street juiceboxes for the kids (Grover, Elmo, Bert & Ernie and Big Bird)

Here's what we did:
1. Big Bird's Gummy Worms---I used a basket that looked like a bird's nest, crushed Oreos to look like dirt and added gummy worms.
2. Ernie's Bathtime Lager----We used a punch bowl, added Orange punch, Ice, and of course, His rubber duckie.
3. Oscar the Grouch's Garbage Grub---We used a large pot with a lid that looked like a trashcan and I created a variety of snacks/chex mix
4. Telly's "Triangular" Snack----We offered triangle shaped chips with two different dips
5. Dorothy's Goldfish Crackers---We used a fishbowl and added crackers inside
6. Cookie Monster's Famous Cookies----I used Chase's Treat Jar, which is an actual cookie jar and added yummo cookies

Cake Time!

I am such a creature of habit and most times can't stand change, so therefore, I set up Chase's birthday cake eating experience the same as his 1st birthday. I wanted his highchair in front of his birthday banner and wanted him to have his own special cake again. He loved the birthday song and the attention.

Bryson couldn't wait for his piece of cake and ice cream, so he helped himself to Chase's until his piece was ready!

Birthday and Party Shirts

Finding Chase the perfect birthday shirt did not exist this year. Rich and I both searched high and low in the Internet for the ideal Sesame Street birthday shirt. We wanted Chase to have more than a few characters on his shirt and most of them were fairly cheesy or they only had one character. After weeks of searching, we just decided to make his shirt and we were able to buy our shirts at local stores.

The Big Birthday Cake!!!

Having the perfect birthday cake was essential to me this year. I loved Chase's birthday cake last year. I thought the bakery did a fantastic job and truthfully I was surprised. You see, I have a HUGE problem with "creating images in my head" and then trying to convey that image to someone else to make a reality can sometimes be hard and I end up disappointed. Well last year for his 1st birthday, I gave them the color scheme and a Mylar balloon and told them to decorate the cake using that.....it was *perfect* and I was thrilled that someone finally produced what I envisioned.

This year, I feared I wouldn't find or create the perfect cake image in my head and if I couldn't think of it, how in the world would someone else help me. I found an idea that I like, but didn't like it enough to actually have the cake made that way, so I improvised and created a 'vision' and the bakery delivered *perfection* ---2 years in a row, I'm on a roll. I was nervous to say the least. I even called the day before to confirm the order and I insisted I talk with the main cake decorator and I asked her, "do you need to me go over the decorating details again?" She said, "I wrote what you said word for word." Below is the cake.....ta da!

We put the birthday banner and balloon candles on the divided side of the cake so that the people entering the kitchen from the living room would see Elmo and Cookie Monsters face and those people entering the kitchen from the backyard would see Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch's face.