second birthday party theme and decorations

We had a very fun birthday party day on Saturday!

The theme was wheels on the bus, car, plane, digger, monster truck, fire engine, garbage truck . . . you get the idea!  

Large moving wheeled vehicles are my son's passion right now so we made sure to have plenty on hand for the guests to play with!

I recycled cardboard from our ikea cabinets that we're using in our basement remodel to make places for the cars to drive.  

I ordered the "road tape" here.  

(She has lots of amazingly wonderful stuff and I was very impressed with her customer service!)

On this sheet of cardboard I just used black marker to draw a simple road for the bigger cars.  

Very fun car carrier that was a birthday gift from Nana and Ducca.

Lots more cars

We also played a fun little game where each guest got to put their picture up on the bus.  It was kind of like pin the tail on the donkey but with two year olds we didn't use blind folds or anything else, I just handed them their picture and they enjoyed sticking it!

I found the vintage airplane toy at the Just Between Friends sale for only $2! Sold!

This is a verse I displayed at David's Baby Dedication lunch and have kept and displayed at both birthday parties thus far.  

This little "tree" was not a planned decoration but just sort of happened and it was one of my favorite things.  

(Thank you, Brenda, for the flashcards!  Remember when you found them at that garage sale for me?)

a glimpse of the food table (another post on that coming)

It is so nice to have a yard to gather flowers from.  So very different from apartment living and I am thankful.  These yellow flowers that smell wonderful are from a plant we bought at a plant sale last year before we'd even closed on our house.

Once again, I chose a book that fit the party theme (this one was one of my favorites when I was teaching and I thought with his love of every way I can sing "The Wheels on the Bus" song that he would like it too!) to use as a guest book.  I got the idea from Erin.  

Adrian made these paper airplanes for me and I made the clouds from this tutorial

I made a garland (which you can see in the background of the last photo) from brown packing paper that came in David's birthday present from his Grandma and Granddad.  It was perfect for a garland tied with various ribbons and pom poms (making another appearance from last year's birthday party!) and embellished with train and bus shapes cut out of old maps, inspired by this.  

Inspired by some of our friends from our church in Texas, we decided tell guests that in lieu of gifts we would be collecting something to donate.  Our friends have collected snuggies for children going through chemo treatments in conjunction with a drive at our church, travel size toiletries to be given to school kids who lack basic hygiene items and yarn for knitting baby items for a hospital.  We really wanted to not just soak in the excess of stuff but to share with others.  We chose the foster care ministry in Colorado Springs Hope and Home.  

I tell you this not to pat ourselves on the back or brag in any way but because I am inspired by others who think outside the box and look at the things we traditionally do in a new way and I hope that by sharing what we've been inspired to do by others that someone else may be inspired as well.  

God uses us in the ordinary, not just the extraordinary.

And back to the decorations, 

another table centerpiece

Pinwheels from David's baby shower & fabric from a closet clean out when I was teaching - one teacher's trash . . . 

balloons and books rounded out the decor and I think everyone had a good time

And once again, I took Megan's advice to take a photo of the birthday child with the parents.  

Special thanks to my sil Mandy for reading the note I'd written myself on the fridge and reminding me to get the picture and then taking it!