Braden's 2nd Birthday Party

Braden's 2nd birthday was just awesome! It was everything I'd hoped for and more. He slept in and was SO happy that my Mom was still here, as she came the day before and slept over. "POPPY!!!"

Jay and I got him his Thomas Power Wheels and he was excited at first, but then when he was riding it the sound of the battery kind of scared him! But he was over the moon about his first wooden track set and all the little trains that Mom brought for him.

I really didn't go above and beyond with my Thomas decor for the party. I bought the hats, banner, and cupcake wrappers on eBay for ridiculously cheap...and I am so glad I did. I had plans to make a "Braden is 2!" banner from Thomas scrapbook paper...but I just didn't have it in me, and that's okay!

All of Braden's cousins were here, his friends Katie, Tessa, and Sophia were here too. There were 12 kids age 7, 6, 4.5, 3.5, 3.5, 22 months, 22 months, 17 months, 14 months, 14 months, 1 month, and our 2 year old...and you know what? They were GREAT! They all behaved so well! I have a "no running" rule when there's so many kids over, they all (for the most part) listened to that, there were hardly any tears, no meltdowns, no fighting...they were all AMAZING!

Braden found Gus...can you spot him?

And then it was time for cake! I made this Thomas cake from a Wilton train pan before we left for Maui and I froze it. I'm so glad I did...it was all ready to go!!

Thanks, Natalie, for taking the videos with our iPad!!

A little Thomas humor...my niece Danika wanted to eat his head!

What a little sweetheart, that Sophia!

And then it was time to open presents!

He got a lot of great Thomas stuff, he's starting to collect the wooden trains for his train table that he doesn't know he was yet! He also loved this Cookie Monster from his Rayton cousins!

I didn't take pics of the goodies...but I just bought these blue treat bags from Walmart, put the treats inside with a Thomas sticker on the outside - voila! I made Thomas cupcakes for the guests to go home with and the other goodie bag had a Thomas train whistle, a few chocolates, a Thomas coloring sheet, and these Thomas crayon holders from Etsy with crayons included. Very reasonably priced! I didn't even do treatbags last year...oops!

And, since Grandma & Papa will probably never be here to celebrate Braden's birthday, we had an early celebration in Maui too! Lucky boy! I went to Safeway, got a $9 cake on sale, and she decorated it "Maui" style for free. And it was YUMMY!


We love you so much!!

Now we're linked up for Toddle Along Tuesday! Hi Growing Up Geeky readers!