Our Baby is Two!!

When it was time to start planning Parker's 2nd Birthday Party, (so like a week after his first birthday, haha), I wasn't really sure what to do.  I don't like when people go totally crazy for kid birthdays, and I personally don't like attending boring kid parties, so I started to brainstorm.  What does Parker love to do that everyone else can also enjoy?  Well, the first thing that came to mind was... DRIVE!  The kid loves driving anything and everything with wheels, especially tractors, combines, skid loaders, rangers and 4-wheelers.  So, why not have a party that includes a few of these things?  

Two years ago, my dad and his brothers bought a new field that has about 90 acres of woods (aka, The 100 Acre Wood) and a big open grassy area with picturesque oak trees.  The woods were kind of overgrown, and my dad hates messes, so he and his brothers cleared it out and made some really cool paths through the middle for horses and 4-wheelers, etc.  Then my mom wanted to hang a swing and build a fire pit, and now it is everyone's FAVORITE place!

Okay, back to the planning process.  So Parker likes to drive he likes being out in the country.  He also happens to enjoy the show "Word World," and I just so happened to have found the "Word World Farm," at  re-sale shop last October.  So, it was later decided that he would have a World World-themed party at the woods.  

Time to execute the plan.  For those of you who are out of touch with children's television, Word World is a show that makes everything out of letters. So, the barn looks like a barn and spells barn.  The pig spells pig, etc.  Here's a visual.

Alright, so obviously the cake is going to spell CAKE!  We started by making two large round cakes (and by "we" I mean mostly Ryan.  He dominated this cake!).  I made some frosting and we successfully stacked the giant circles.

Meanwhile, Ryan made an outline, and then started carving.

Then we gave it a thin layer of frosting to seal in the goodness, and resumed the next day.

We decided to go with a different color for each letter.  My mom, Ryan, and Deb did most of the frosting.  It was hard for me to stand back, swallow my pride and let my amazing husband take all the credit for the masterpiece, but I'm really more of a cupcake kind of girl.  Here's the finished product.  Tada!!

Party day came and the weather was AWESOME!  It was probably 60-70 degrees, calm, sunny and altogether beautiful.  The trees in the woods were all changing and there were lots of crunchy ones on the ground.  Everyone showed up at the woods around 4:00 and we played!

The kids loved this big swing!

Parker and all of his cousins!

Time to eat!  To go along with the Word World theme, we had Alphabet Soup (made and prepared over the fire by my mom!), Alphabet Cheese Nips, and Ham and Turkey Sandwiches?  Okay, they didn't go with the theme but they were super good.

And much to our surprise, my brother-in-law, Nate, brought some black bear burgers from his recent (successful) hunting trip in Canada.  They got great reviews!

"Cake time!" as Parker would say.  They had a little trouble lighting the candle.

Boy was that cake ever delicious!!  Let's open presents.  

Parker finally got his very own big red tractor and wagon.  He was thrilled!

What a perfect night.  Everyone had a great time, the weather was perfect, most of our family was able to make it...I think we just might have to make this a birthday tradition.  (Actually, I think I'm going to start planning Parker's wedding for out here)! The night ended with a HUGE orange moon coming over the horizon.  A-MA-ZING!



Here is Parker playing with all of his toys the next day.  It was so fun watching him re-discover everything he was given.   Thank you everyone for loving our little boy and making his birthday so special!!