Andrew's 2nd Birthday Party

We celebrated Andrew's birthday last weekend with a Mickey Mouse themed party.  I love the fact that he is old enough to have interests, and Mickey Mouse sure is a big one!

In case you do not have a toddler, here are some things you need to know about the television show in order for this party to make sense.  Mickey opens every episode with, "Hi Ya, Everybody" and closes with, "See Ya Real Soon."  He also has a problem that he has to solve in each show.  To solve the problem, he calls on his friend named Toodles to bring him special tools.  When he calls for him, he says "Oh, Toodles!" We changed Toodles name to TWO-dles for the party.  Cheesy, I know! Mickey always says, "We've got ears, say cheers!" whenever he gets a tool that he needs. I'm not sure why.  At the end of the show, Mickey sings a song to celebrate solving the problem.  The song is the Hot Dog song, and any parent with a toddler can sing every word...

Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggity Dog

Hot Dog, Hot Dog, our problem's solved...

Here is our invitation. This copy is so blurry.  The real invitations were cute, but you can get an idea.  The top says, "Hi Ya, Everybody" and the bottom says, "See Ya Real Soon!"

On the day of the party, Andrew helped me make mini-hotdogs.  We called them "Hot Diggity Dogs."

 For the party, we rented out a daycare (not the one where our boys go) that had really cool indoor play equipment.  Here is Andrew in his Mickey birthday shirt.  He was really proud of it.

 When his friends entered, they put on Mickey Mouse ears.

 Party Favors:

We did cupcakes instead of cake, and I love how they turned out.  We had a variety of cute toppers.

 Here is Andrew's special cupcake.  Thankfully, Joey noticed that I only had one candle in it.  We added another one before he blew them out.

Hot Diggity Dogs:

 Pluto's Puffs:

 Goofy's Grapes:

The grown ups were good sports and wore Mickey ears, too.

Grandmommy, Grandaddy, and Joey:

 Aunt Susan and Cousin Amelia:

 Grandmommy and Amelia:

 Joey, Aunt Olivia and Uncle Steve:

 Paw Paw and Joey:

Grandaddy and Uncle Marshall:

Andrew was very excited to see all of his friends.  He welcomed each of them with a hug.  I tried to snap pictures quickly, but two year olds are pretty fast!  Here he is with ("sash-in") Ashlyn.

 Here is a hug for (yih-ye) Lily.

Lincoln is one of his big buddies from school.

 Here is his absolute best friend, Kurt.  He starts yelling for Kurt when we pull in the parking lot of daycare.  He calls him, "Cut."

All of Andrew's cousins also came to the party.  It is fun to watch all of them grow up together.  Here is John Marshall in the ballpit.

Cade, Ashlyn, and Andrew:

This may be my favorite picture from the day.  I love everything about this boy!

Wild cousins jumping in the moonwalk:

 Best Friends:

 Andrew with his buddies:

 Randi came to celebrate, too.

 Going up the stairs to the obstacle course:

 Andrew and Kurt:

 Here is Andrew's teacher, Amber. There are not enough words to describe how much I love this woman.  She is an answer to my prayers because she is so good to my baby!

Andrew tried to blow out his candles, but he needed a little help.

 He got some great presents.  Grandmommy and Grandaddy got him this awesome ("sauce-um") rocking chair.  We didn't open presents at the party because I thought it would be cruel to make the children get off of the fun play equipment to watch.  We brought them all home and let him open a couple each day for a few days. 

Andrew's actual birthday is Wednesday.  It is hard to believe that he is 2.  We love you so much, Buddy!