Planning Jackson’s second birthday proved to be just as much fun as planning his first. Again I picked a theme that described him. . .TRUCKS! While Jackson loves anything that moves, we went with construction vehicles as our focus. I was able to steal many ideas from Pinterest, but I must take all of the credit for the taco bar and the connection of each food item to construction in some way! Amazon was a also a big help when it came to finding construction themed items such as the construction hats and construction vehicles.
We chose to make his 2nd birthday smaller than his first, mainly inviting our close friends, his friends and our immediate family. I loved being able to invite more of his friends because the house was full of excitement and play! One of the major highlights for me was watching Jackson push the trucks full of snacks around to his friends, asking them if that “want some?” He takes being the host of a party very serious (just like his mama), at one point he was hand delivering Capri Suns to any of his friends who didn’t have one. It was really very cute and melted my heart.
Since we had his party the weekend after Spring break Jared, my mom and I were able to do all of the cooking and set up the day before. I had so much fun making his cake and thanks to my inability to bake the cake overflowed the pan, which made the perfect construction site. He was so excited when he saw his cake and all of the decorations it made all of the hard work worth it.
We asked for no presents and said that any present brought would be donated to Golisanos Children’s Hospital. Now we understand that it is his birthday and that he should be opening presents to celebrate, trust me between his grandparents and he was in no way been neglected of this pleasure. There are two reasons that Jared and I made this request. One reason being that we have a tiny house and way too many toys already. The second reason was the importance of teaching Jackson to give to others.
It is very hard to help a 2 year old understand that the presents that he has been looking at in the trunk of Jared’s car for over 2 months (yes it took us that long to donate them because every time we were scheduled to bring them we would get a call from the sitter that Jackson was running a high fever and had to be picked up) were for other children. Every time he saw them he would say “my toys? me play?” and we would say, “no those are toys you are going to give to other boys and girls.” Well that idea must have finally worn off on him because on the day we went to donate the toys he did such a great job “leaving” them with out having the usually 2-year-old fit! We were truly proud of our little man and look forward to making this a tradition for him and his sister.
Sorry for he long video. . .but after forgetting to video tape his 1st birthday I had some making up to do!
Trucks. . .Trucks and More Trucks!
Enjoy the photos. . .
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