Over the summer James has become obsessed with machinery. It started out with just cars but has since expanded to trucks, buses, tractors, planes, trains…basically anything with an engine that moves. So when I was searching for a theme for his birthday, I decided that we couldn’t go wrong with cars. I had a lot of fun designing his invitations and the accents like menu cards, thank you’s, a plate, and a t-shirt. I was excited to finally see it all in action for his party at our house!
I stuck with a simple decorating plan..spread his beloved trucks and planes throughout the house. I also got a few balloons which ended up being a big hit also!
After James got a birthday crown at school the day before his birthday he was ecstatic about his birthday. When I asked him a few weeks before his birthday what he wanted for his birthday he quickly replied “CAKE!” so I knew that the cake had to be a priority. I went back to Cakes, Etc where we had gotten his one year old caterpillar cake and asked for a sheet cake. I didn’t even specify how to decorate it but just sent her the invitation and let her be inspired from it. And it turned out perfectly!
By the time guests started arriving James was beside himself with excitement. We decided to break out the outdoor toys to give everyone a chance to see he and Charlotte play outside. It was a touch cooler that evening which was nice but it was still hotter than I would have liked. But since we just invited family over and they rarely get to see the kids in their own space doing their own thing, I think it was still a hit for them to get to watch C & J enjoy the outdoors!
We came inside to eat dinner that we had catered from Taziki’s. I’m so glad that a friend (thanks Lindsey!) pushed me to try Taziki’s a number of years ago. Their food is so wonderful and I feel like it’s so much healthier for me than regular fast food. The chicken roll ups and roasted potato salad was a huge hit for all ages at our party! And just an FYI, the large chicken roll up platter that it says will feed 20-24 people, fed our 30 people with enough for me to eat it for lunch the rest of the week too!
After we ate we brought out the cake. James wasn’t sure what we were doing singing to him, but he was sure that he wanted to eat some!
And then it as time to open presents which might have been my favorite part of the night because James got SO EXCITED about EVERYTHING! He hated to put a present away to open another one but as soon as he opened a new one he was just as excited about it! Our families were so generous and he and Charlotte have been playing with new things ever since then!
Hopefully you can tell from James’ happy dance in this picture how excited he was the whole night! 🙂
As people left I had 4×6 pictures from our most recent Erin Cobb session for people to take home as a party favor. It was the least I could do and I figured that our family would appreciate a recent picture more than a matchbox car.
Even though he spent the entire party trying to do a backflip every time I tried to take a picture with him, by the end of the party his sugar had worn off and he was just exhausted enough to give Mama what she’d been wanting a day…a picture with her sweet, handsome, grown up birthday boy!
