Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Big T-W-O

Yesterday, Leo turned two years old.  Initially, our plan to celebrate this milestone was to basically try to recreate his first birthday party - because we had all had such an awesome time, and much of our family is in Pittsburgh.  So months ago we reserved the same pavilion in the same park (for this Saturday) and planned to head to Pittsburgh at the end of this week to recreate the magic - from the menu to the piñata .

Unfortunately, we recently lost a family member and his memorial was scheduled for the same day.  We didn't want to miss the memorial (which is in another city entirely, so doing both was out of the question) and we didn't want family to have to choose to attend one event over the other, so we cancelled Leo's birthday party.  Bummer on every level.


We considered rescheduling but between a packed schedule before bug arrives and a tight budget for another out of town trip in addition to the ones already planned - it just didn't seem possible.  Instead we figured we could do something low-key at home.  I offered to host our playgroup on Leo's birthday (built-in baby party!) and invited jb's brothers and a couple other friends.  We didn't have big expectations - just wanted to have a roomful of people to sing "Happy Birthday" to him on his big day - but it turned out really well.

In the morning we had pancakes for breakfast and worked on cleaning up the house.  jb was home from work for the day (!!!) and Leo's Uncles came by early to help get ready.  Leo and I took a short nap and when we got up the guys were each doing different jobs: jb was baking a banana cake (Leo's request), Uncle Daniel was chopping veggies for snacks for playgroup, Uncle Jared had gone to pick up a helmet to complete Leo's birthday present, and Uncle Julian was putting together a tuna casserole for dinner after playgroup (also Leo's request).

Soon guests arrived - we had 13 adults and 7 kids in our little home at one point!  Leo had a great time and when we finally all sang "Happy Birthday" and he blew out his two little candles - it seemed like the perfect party.  The playgroup crowd thinned out and the Uncles and a couple of our closest friends settled in for a nice dinner.  Leo had two adult-sized bowls of tuna noodle casserole.

The cherry on top of the day?  A brand new (to us) tricycle.


 I'm sure the second round of banana-chocolate-chip cake with peanut butter frosting was a close second.  


6 comments:

  1. Sounds like he had an incredible day!! And what a wonderful gift!! I'm so glad you guys enjoyed yourselves

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  2. Anofferingoflove5/18/2012

    happy 2nd birthday leo! how is he 2 already!?!?

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  3. MarthaPA5/18/2012

    Happy TWO Leo Sounds like a great party!

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  4. I know! I think the same thing when I read up on your family or others I was TTC with - it's a blink of an eye!

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  5. Thank you! It was lovely and I think he felt really special :)

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  6. Just wish the rest of the family could have celebrated with us.

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