Aubrey is TWO!

This past week we celebrated Aubrey's second birthday. For some reason, I was really looking forward to his birthday. Maybe it was his party or just knowing how much he was going to enjoy eating cake...I don't know. But both were FUN!

On his actual birthday, we woke him up and had his favorite breakfast...Pioneer Woman pancakes!

He was so cute to watch while he ate them. He smiled the entire time! And when his plate was almost clean, he said "more please!". Soon, we will have to double the recipe to feed our family of three (and a half)!

That evening, we had my parents over for dinner and had another meal that Aubrey is fond of...Pioneer Woman's meatloaf! Yum!

I wasn't sure, though, if he was actually going to eat because before dinner he found the cupcakes on the table and broke into them! I could hear him from the kitchen saying, "Yummy. Good." But, he did eat dinner and, then, devoured his cupcake! I wish I had a video to share because it was SO funny. See his excitement!

He blew out the candles in the middle of the birthday song, immediately pulled out the candles and stuck the end that was burning in his mouth, ate the icing and top half of the cupcake and shoved the entire bottom half in his mouth! When he had enough room in his mouth, he asked for more! This is the same kid who last year would barely touch a cupcake! I think he does have my sweet tooth!

I was super excited about his birthday party this year since he can actually enjoy it. One of his favorite songs is "Old MacDonald" and he sings "E I E I O" often so I figured a farm theme was perfect (I actually created using a straw wreath wrapped in bandana material with "E I E I O" on it to welcome guests). There were SO many fun ideas to go along with the theme which is another reason I had so much fun planning. I reused a lot of stuff I had accumulating/stashed around the house and bought most of the other stuff at Hobby Lobby on sale.

The day of the party was rainy so we had to bring the party indoors. The games/activities I had planned adapted easily to the change (PTL). It would have been fun to been outside though. I was planning on making a barn out of cardboard and putting bales of hay straw next to it but glad we didn't get to those projects since it rained anyways and there was NO room indoors for all of it. Instead, we just enjoyed the cake barn. It was yummy. This idea was from Pinterest and Betty Crocker. I had the cupcakes made by a local bakery because I knew I would not have time to make them myself. They were SO cute but, unfortunately, did not taste as good as they looked (which is a big bummer to me, a lover of good cake).

The menu consisted of pigs in a blanket, animal crackers, "chicken feed"(a mixture of Cheerio's, pretzel sticks, and raisins), and a "Farmer's Market" (fruit and veggie trays). For activities and games, there was a "petting zoo" (little stuffed animals from the dollar store), horse riding (we borrowed an ole school bouncy horse and animated rocking horse from the grandparents), pigs out of the pig pen, hay (wagon) rides and horse racing (I made these horses but didn't get a pic). The decor was EASY and fun to make.

I have to include that half way during the party planning stage, Seth said, "why aren't we having a pony or something at this party? We always had pony rides at my parties!" I was shocked and almost offended. lol  First off, I never knew this about him. (I didn't know that boys wanted pony rides at their parties) But, he was really into cowboys when he was young. Second, I am not a fan of petting zoos and would never not invest in hosting one at my house. :) Third, I knew he really didn't mean it because there is NO WHERE to bring a pony, trailer and/or petting zoo in our neighborhood. The end.

Aubrey and the kids really enjoyed the cupcakes. Can you see him getting mad at me for holding the cupcake while we were singing to him? He saw us put out the cupcakes right when the party began and he almost didn't leave the cake table to go play with his friends!  

We all had a fun time at his party. The kids were so fun to watch play and ride the horses. Each child was sent home with their own cowboy hat, "Wanted by God" pin, and goodie bag filled with farm animal stickers, Dum Dums, farm theme bracelets and playdoh.  Even though the weather was wet and yucky, we enjoyed our indoor barnyard bash! 

Happy Birthday to our sweet boy!