Atticus: 2nd Birthday Party

Tomorrow, our baby boy Atticus, turns 2 years old. And, this past weekend we had some family come into town to celebrate. Everyone's schedules are so busy, but Vic's parents, sister Jill, and my aunt GG and sister Molly were all able to celebrate with us.

Although this was just a small family party, I love a theme. And, since Atticus is into everything "am-mulls", we decided an animal theme was appropriate. So, we had a jungle animal birthday party. See pics below for the day's events:

After his nap, Atticus woke up to find birthday decorations in place; this includes balloons which can entertain a toddler for hours on end. In fact, they are all still floating around the house to entertain him until they pop or the air slowly leaks out.

 

 

By the way, Molly and I made these cookies the day before. I was so proud of them; I had actually practiced decorating them earlier in the week, but Molly made them so much cuter with her creative touch!

Clearly, we hadn't put pants back on him yet. Oops! But, he loved the balloons and he would go into his tent that was turned on its side and we would put as many balloons as we could in it until he pushed them all back out and laughed and laughed!

We decided to have a shrimp boil, so we sat outside on the back porch to let Atticus open his first gift while Steve took care of the boil. I let Atticus have an elephant cookie and then GG gave him his first gift....a motorcyle trike. It was so fun watching him open it up and then just hop on and go. The seat even opens up to hold toddler treasures and before Atticus took a ride, he placed both his sippy cup and his half eaten elephant cookie inside it. Then, later, after his ride, he took it out to finish eating it. Such a funny boy!

 

After eating dinner, we sang Happy Birthday (twice) and blew out the candles (twice) and then proceeded to eat this delicious cake. Molly and I also made this cake, although Molly did all of the icing decorations and used the cute little "am-mulls" that Vic found for the cake. I love, love, love this cake! It was tasty too - two layer chocolate with cream cheese icing. Atticus also took a long time eating the icing off of the alligator, but it was pretty funny once he figured it out.

After this, we needed a bath....big time. So, after a bath and pajamas, Atticus opened the rest of his birthday presents. He got a table and chairs from GG, which he immediately sat down at. He also got some books including Lady & The Tramp, The Jungle Book, Dumbo and this really fun book called The Tickle Monster that comes with this set of monster hands that moms and dads can use to tickle little children! He got 6 stuffed puppies that you play a multitude of games with, a toy story nightlight and then some money. What a blessed little boy! I should also mention that Atticus LOVES books and loves to read. After he opened books, he thought he needed to sit down and read through them immediately. I love his thoughtful, yet serious focused faces he has when looking at a book.

And the last card Atticus opened was one of those musical cards that played the tune of The Chicken Dance. These pictures of Jill & Molly teaching Atticus the moves cracks me up!

 

And finally, he was off to bed after hugs and kisses to everyone. He also made sure to tell his animals on his animal poster (see below) "night night". I know I'm biased, but...ADORABLE. We had a really nice birthday weekend and I'm excited because Vic is taking the day off work on Tuesday so we can celebrate his actual birthday all day long. I think we have a picnic and the park on the agenda and if the weather is good, some water play with the water hose and a new sprinkler! Here are a few last photos!