Birthday Rundown

Wow! Did we have a great party!

J-man's party went quite well. As well as a party can go with a two year old who didn't take a nap. :) Seriously, the cake turned out pretty ok. It wasn't my first choice of designs, but it was well received by the guest of honor. We made a large rectangle cake for the base, and then stacked a nine inch round cake in the center of that. Atop the nine inch round was one of J's Thomas engines, and we decorated it with various swirls, squiggles and dots in Thomas themed colors. It was cute and gaudy, and Jonas wasn't understanding why his favorite toy was perched atop food, but it managed to remain there until he blew out his candle.

For decoration I bought three yards of Thomas print fabric to drape over the table. It's currently in the washer and will become a fitted sheet and pillowcase for his bed once it's clean. (I'm a big fan of double-purpose stuff)

Instead of those little paper noise-makers, we had little wooden train whistles. For party hats, we all wore blue striped engineer hats, and there were also train shaped lollipops. There were the pre-requisite balloons, and we also made railroad crossing signs with various phrases on them. The one behind his cake read "All aboard the "J" train". The one outside at the mailbox read "Woodruff Station", and the ones at the front door and on either side of the garage door said "Choo-Choo! Turning Two!".

Jonas really wasn't big on all of the attention, and spent quite a lot of the time outside playing on the porch where it was more quiet. That's my boy- he's noisy and loud, but he doesn't like a lot of commotion.

When it came time for presents, he was overwhelmed. He hasn't quite grasped the concept of opening all of his gifts. I guess that is a little weird- I mean you open something up, there's a really cool goodie inside, and then instead of getting to play with it, they expect you to set it down and open something else. He wasn't having anything to do with it and turned a little teary. Ok, so he broke down into a foot stomping fit. But Donna, the mail carrier, arrived just in time with a big box for him. We opened it up, and inside was a child sized fold-out Thomas couch from Aunt Mellie. It came at just the right time! He unfolded it, laid down with one of his new toys and calmed right down. Still, I think it would be a good idea if people un-boxed their gifts and tucked them down into a gift bag. All those wires and ties that hold gifts into their packaging are just frustrating to a two-year-old that wants to touch and play with a toy NOW! I'll keep this experience in mind for upcoming friend's children's parties.

He had a great time cutting (to be read "demolishing")his cake, and seemed to love having Happy Birthday sung to him.

After cake, he, and the adult males of the party, returned to the livingroom to play with his incredibly cool new train table. I've always known that the train tables were a hit with the younger crowd since every time we go into a store that has one on display I have to literally drag J away, but I think everyone really had a lot of fun with it.

Still without a nap, Jonas finally gave in to his exhaustion around 7:30, curled up in Granny's lap.

What a big day for my little man.

And it took both of our cars to get his presents home... and that didn't include the train table, which will have to come home in Granny's truck. BTW, a great big thanks to Granny and Daddy Dave for the awesome toy, and to Granny and Steven for assembling it- all 200 screws! YIKES!

So, I stayed up most of the night clearing out J's toyboxes and making room for all of his new stuff. We also took abot 1/3 of his new toys and set them aside to go to Abuela's so that he'll have some fresh and exciting toys to play with there.

J woke me up at 4 this morning asking for one of his new toys, and I had no choice but to oblige. There's nothing like sipping coffee at 4 am while watching "Here Come the ABC's" and listening to a toy drill take apart a truck all at the same time.
(BTW, Amanda, he's afraid of the "e" for some reason. Maybe he thinks it'll eat him? But he's big on the robot saying his ABC's, and loves the pink lamb-rocker-dude in the vowel song.)

He has just now crashed for his nap. I've hauled a load of stuff out to the shed to make space for the massive train set that will be coming home soon. I can't wait! Seriously, one of those toys that'll get hours and hours of use.

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from the party. The ones taken with my camera are pretty crappy, but Mr. Jim was there, so of course, I'll have the good ones in a few days. :)