Luke's 2nd Birthday Party--Construction Zone Theme

Every birthday party has a theme.  I've been known to go overboard on birthdays, but I thoroughly enjoy it!  After Jack's monster birthday party last February, he says to me, "Now we have to start planning Luke's party!"  That's my boy!  Jack actually really likes looking at Pinterest with me and getting ideas. So, we started planning.  Jack picked the theme.  He said we had to have trucks cause Luke "loves trucks."  The construction party is what it turned into because I didn't want to do monster trucks or fire trucks (because that was Jack's 2nd party theme).  I really didn't go overboard planning.  Truth be told, his birthday snuck up on me and the fall has been insanely busy with school starting and all.  I knew what the cake was going to look like, but all the other plans actually came together the few days before the party!

This year the cake needed to be chocolate because of the "dirt" needed for the theme.  I don't like chocolate cake or chocolate frosting, so that's why I normally stay away from it.  I used boxed cake mixes, but made homemade chocolate buttercream frosting.  I'm known for my frosting, so I wanted to have really good chocolate frosting too!  All three boys had to be my taste testers.  Evidently the cake was a hit!  I made yellow cake cupcakes for me and any others that don't like chocolate cake!

As far as other decorations, they weren't hard.  I always get a big balloon bouquet.  That's a must for any party.  Then we bought some CAUTION tape for decorations (and I used it for the cake board).  I then used my Cricut machine for a dump truck die cut for the party favor sacks.  My mom always gives me a piece of fabric for the table to match the theme.  This year trucks, of course!

The birthday boy was so happy and cute!

Happy Birthday to You!

Luke's 2nd Birthday

We've started a family tradition that the morning of the birthday boy, we'd have a special family breakfast with candles!  Then the boy could open presents from mommy and daddy.  This year was no exception.  We had a butterbraid courtesy of a school fundraiser.  It was awesome because I just needed to bake it!  Luke woke up on his birthday saying, "TWO. TWO. TWO."

Such a happy birthday boy!!!

The Great Pumpkin Patch

Annually we go to The Great Pumpkin Patch in Stockton, MN.  It's in the river valley near Winona.  We happened upon it years ago before we even had kids.  We've gone annually ever since.  This year it was really warm outside and super sunny.  The warm part was nice, but the sunny part makes for bad pictures! (Or, just not as great of pictures.)

Homecoming Parade & Football Game

The coronation part of the junior royalty gig was on a Tuesday afternoon.  The parade and homecoming game were that Friday night.  Jack got out of school a half hour early to get dressed for the parade.  He got to ride in a pedi-cab with one of the girls on the court!  He had a great time throwing candy and strutting his stuff!

Jack got to ride in this cool pedi-cab!  I would not want that job!

Tessa giving Jack knucks!

Luke got the chance to sit with Jack and Tessa at the end of the route!

It was a lovely evening for football.  At halftime, the royalty court was announced.  Jack and Ava got to walk hand in hand with the king and queen!