G's second birthday party!

Before I post about our trip, I want to backtrack and make note of G's birthday party ... and stay in sequence for my OCD tendencies.

As I've mentioned before, we decided to do a joint party with some of our good friends.  Their littlest is only eight days older than G, so it worked out perfectly!  We split the duties and financial costs, which was also a huge perk, and we saved most of the crowd from having to attend two parties back-to-back.

It is hard to have a summer birthday party outside in Texas when it's usually 100+ degrees.  Unless it is a pool party or something involving water, outside is nixed automatically.  Our friends suggested The Little Gym because their daughter had really enjoyed taking classes there.  We were members of Gymboree for a long time and had also tried out other similar gym type places, but The Little Gym was a new experience for us.  I would highly recommend having a birthday party there, or even joining!

We brought our own decorations (because we had a theme and wanted to), but they did all of the set up and clean up.  That alone was a huge burden lifted and allowed me to actually enjoy myself and the party!  We had an hour of structured gym play, a half hour for food and cake (G's favorite part, of course!), and then we paid extra for another half hour of free gym play.

And now for picture overload!!

Zac, G's older cousin by two weeks! 

Sweet O, the birthday girl!

Birthday boy!  Shirt specially made by Lindsey Barnes

I LOVE this picture of Woods.  He was in G's infant class at school when I went back to work teaching full-time. 

Kai, one of G's playgroup buds.

Bethany Grace, my sister's oldest.  G adores her!

He was obsessed with these red bars and played on them for most of the party.

Little O and her mama with matching sock monkey ears that she brought.  :)

SO thankful for these girls!  They all came even though none of them have little ones {yet!}.

Guess who was happy when it was finally time to eat?!?  Hehe.  

Banana cookie thank you gifts.  Little sign by Luvalexa and cookie label by Memorable Moments Studio.

Sock monkey personalized tattoos by Sew Woman.

Personalized print by Divine Mrs. Em Designs

Personalized print by Divine Mrs. Em Designs

"Hmmmm..."

He was the last one at the table - STILL eating!  Haha!

Typical me... who said kids are the only ones who can have fun?!?

As you can tell from the picture above, it was substantially less stressful than his first birthday party.  :)  I often need to remind myself that less is best ... I tend to go a little overboard on décor once I start looking at etsy and pinterest.  While all of that is cute, it is just "stuff," that quite honestly, often gets overlooked at parties anyway.

I am grateful for all of our wonderful friends and family that helped make G's party so memorable and for my amazing photographer/best friend that captured the photos.