Party like a TWO year old.

We had Eva's 2nd birthday party on Saturday at a park in Trophy Club. About a minute after her 1st birthday was over I saw on another blog an idea for a You Are My Sunshine themed party. I thought that was so cute and over the months began pinning lots of ideas. I decided that it made perfect sense to have a sunshine party at the park.  Then I began making a guest list. It started with immediate family only, which was about 15 people. I slowly began adding more friends and more family to the list and it quickly became over 40 people. I had many wonderful conversations with my husband about how many people we actually felt like would be a good number - husbands love having conversations like this by the way. Then about a month before her birthday I actually went out looking for a few crafty items for the party....things to make it a cute and creative Sunshine themed party. I saw some cute Elmo stuff....and I thought about how much Eva LOVES Elmo. I thought about how she would definitely be excited for Elmo decorations, and how maybe she wouldn't care as much about my original idea. And I began thinking about what Eva would want for a perfect party for her.....close family, the park, presents, cookies. It was a pretty simple list. SO THEN (after lots more "well, what do you think???" conversations with my husband) I decided that we would keep guest list to just immediate family, and that maybe I would keep the decorations simple, and that we should definitely have an Elmo theme. All because this is what I felt like my little girl would love the most :) I have posted way more photos here than some might want to see, but I don't care. It was my baby's party and I want to share all the fun photos! I am also going to skip most the narration because the photos tell the story best. Here is Eva's Elmo Party!

Table 1: I made a 8X10 Happy Birthday Eva sign with Elmo in the background. That was about as much crafting as I did for this party. Then I bought 2 balloons, which sadly flew away towards the end of the party. You can't even see how cute the balloons were and Eva didn't get to play with them afterwards....but life goes on.  I decided to do a cookie/brownie dessert tray instead of cake because all of the homemade cakes with Elmo's face looked creepy and had too much red frosting and it wasn't in our budget to do a catered cake - Eva was perfectly happy eating a giant M&M cookie! I did get Sesame Street tablecloths because they were an inexpensive and easy way to add color and Elmo.

{I do want to make it clear that I am in no way against super amazing, creative birthday parties with tons of laughing children. If that's what you feel like doing, then go for it! And invite us!} 

Table 2 had Eva's tickle me Elmo and the rest of the food. About 2 days before the party I even changed the time of the party (which you can do when you only invite 15 people) so that we wouldn't be outdoors during the hottest part of the day....which meant that I also changed up our foods from lunch to more snack foods. I know there are amazing pinterest moms out there shaking their heads at the simplicity of this party set up. That's okay, because it was really so great. Easy food. Easy decoration. Extremely happy toddler. Happy and peaceful mom and dad. No regrets.

We had talked about her party for a few weeks but the morning of the party we didn't mention it. My mom came and stayed with Eva for a little bit while Ryan and I set everything up. When she arrived at the park we yelled "Surprise!" and she took off running for us. It was an incredibly sweet moment. Even though she knew the party was coming she didn't know it was right then and her surprise was so joyful! 

She was excited to see all the Elmo's. And of course she wanted to eat a cookie and open presents immediately. Waiting is so hard for a two year old!

How did she know that we got her a hoola hoop? We wrapped it so well. 

Wait a minute. That looks like a regular old big kid walking down the sidewalk. She is only two, right? 

Giant giggles and hugs for her cousin Mallory. 

 Take a close look at those blonde curls. She may not have much hair, but oh how I love those curls.

Play time! Covered playgrounds are the best thing ever. The whole time we were there we only saw two other kids, so basically we had the entire park and playground for just our family.

All four cousins. These little girls are some of her favorite people. 

Kayden wanted her picture taken like this - what a cheeseball! 

Swinging with both grandfathers. 

Blowing out her Elmo candle on top of her giant cookie! We practiced blowing out candles ahead of time so she did it just right.

 Haha, why do these girls look so worn out? It looks like we are forcing them to eat their treats.

 Time for presents!

A baby doll stroller from Mallory, Aunt Amanda, and Uncle Brian. 

Baby doll bunk beds from Mama and Daddy. I bought these at the TC garage sale in April and have been dying to give them to her since then. I did a good job waiting :) 

Big button toys from Mamy and Grandpa. 

And a Boo doll from Nana and Papa. Good thing this girl loves playing babies. 

 Mallory got right to work putting Elmo to sleep.

Eva pushed Boo all around in her stroller...

 And then Mallory pushed Eva and Boo around in the stroller :)

 All the girls played with Eva's counting bears and balance.

 Kayden showed off her cartwheel skills.....

 And then Ryan showed off his cartwheel skills!

It was a super fun birthday party! At the end when we were all cleaned up I stood in the pavilion and thanked God for such a special morning. We are so blessed by HIS GRACE that we even got to be with our wonderful family, on a slightly cloudy day, in a beautiful park, celebrating the fact that our daughter has been with us for two whole years!  I think Eva was happy to be with all the people who love her most!