We had Jonah's birthday party last Saturday. We were going to have it outside at our house, but the weather didn't cooperate. It was supposed to be sunny and a high of 49, which was all fine, but there were 20 to 30 mph winds, so it was freezing. Quite the kink in our plans. Thankfully, I had reserved the youth room at our church in case of rain, so on Friday, Matt's mom and I starting taking stuff over there and began setting up. Then, my mom, sisters, Kathryn, and Aunt Melanie all chipped in early Saturday morning, and by 11 we were ready.
We did a construction themed party this year. Trains are, of course, Jonah's first love, but he had a train cake last year, and I didn't really have any ideas for a train party, so construction it was. Next to trains, he's all about the excavators, dump trucks, cement mixers, and bulldozers. It was a GREAT party, and it really wasn't chaotic at all, even with us all being in one room. The kids were so great, and it was so fun. I loved Jonah's first birthday party for so many reasons, but I got to be so much more present for this one. Last year was just really small and family only, so this was the first "formal" birthday party since the birthday party of the century. And it was just about as perfect as it could be. Jonah had a blast! He smiled and laughed and giggled the whole time (except when he started crying when we announced it was lunch time and thought we were going to make him eat - we didn't!).
Jonah's wonderful feeding therapist and our friend, Jeanette, made a wonderful birthday cake. We had Subway subs (PB and J's for the kids), chips, fruit, and pasta salad for lunch. We got some balloons, a construction themed happy birthday sign, some construction table cloths, and I made some construction signs to go along with our different play "stations." Thanks to some stuff we had/bought, some stuff Debbie got, and some toys my mom had, we were able to come up with some different play areas. I made construction related signs for each station. There were blocks for building ("Construction Zone"), trucks and cars to drive around ("Watch for Trucks"), a house to paint ("Wet Paint"), small construction vehicles in bins of corn ("Heavy Machinery"), a Play-Doh table ("Falling Dough"), construction books to read ("Reading in Progress"), a hammering and tools table ("Hard Hat Area"), and construction sticker sheets. Each kid got a hard hat, an apron, and some tools on their way in.
And that was about it. It was all just "play as you will" except for lunch time and delicious birthday cake time (carrot cake with cream cheese icing, if you were wondering... mine and Matt's favorite... when you have a kid who doesn't eat, you get to pick YOUR favorite cake... just an FYI.)
Anyway, super great party. Super fun time. These photos are out of order because they were taken on two different cameras (thanks Katie and Shaina!) and there are over 50 of them. Sorry. I couldn't narrow it down anymore. Thanks for praying for Jonah and being part of our lives for the last three years. I hope you feel like you were there too. :)
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