Max's Little Blue Truck Themed Second Birthday

On January 26, my little Max turned two!  We celebrated by having family and close friends over.  This year has been all about reading The Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle at bedtime, so a Little Blue Truck theme it was!  I wasn't sure how popular the theme was or what ideas I'd be able to find, but pinterest came to the rescue!  I created a board and married several ideas together.  I'm really happy with the results.

I hung this sign on our front door to welcome people to the party.  I laid out all the food in the kitchen and put several toys in the family room for the kids to play with.

Max had received the barn for Christmas and it was the perfect toy for a Little Blue Truck party as the Little Blue Truck is from the country and farm animals are his friends!  I also used the "farm" theme in the food:

Fishing hole:  goldfish crackers
I also bought truck cutouts from Hobby Lobby and set out crayons and stickers so the kids (and adults!) could decorate a truck.

Tumbleweeds:  barbecue meatballs
Pig Pen:  pigs in a blanket

Farm Fresh Eggs:  deviled eggs
Veggie patch:  veggies and dip

Chicken feed:  chips and salsa
Orchard:  clementine oranges

 Shovels and pitchforks:  forks and spoons

Our island was our dessert table.  I made chocolate cupcakes and displayed them on 2 stands plus in the wooden blue truck.  I found the truck for $3 at a thrift store and spray painted it blue. Not pictured are hay bales (rice krispy treats) and mud (chocolate pudding mixed with cool whip, chocolate chips, and crushed oreos.)  I also made a "watering hole" for drinks.  I served sodas, lemonade, and water.  Drinking glasses were mason jars and the straws had blue polka-dots, found in the dollar section at Target.

When everything comes to together it looks so simple, but I had been working on everything off and on since September.  I found most of my supplies at Michaels, including alphabet stamps...only to find similar stamps in the dollar bin at Target later!  Oh, well!  You always find what you need when you are not looking!

Max got a cd player from his Abuelitos.  He loves it.  I'm not sure I can say the same for the adults in the house.  Not even a chocolate cupcake could entice him away...

It was the perfect day to celebrate our little man turning two!  He is our greatest blessing and we are so happy he is ours!

Max's First Trip to the Zoo

This little turkey says guess what I did over Thanksgiving?!?  I went to the zoo!

We were up in Maryland over Thanksgiving and took advantage of the freezing cold temperatures to traipse around the National Zoo.   I was so excited to see what Max would do when he saw animals up close.  (Yes, you can actually see animals up close at the National Zoo, compared to the NC Zoo where the habitats are so large you need binoculars to see the elephants.  For realz).
Our first stop was at the elephant house.  Max LOVED the elephants!  Unfortunately, we don't have a picture of him loving them, but we do have pictures of a panda bear, orang utan, and an I -don't-know-what:

PLUS ALSO!  No zoo trip is complete without pictures of fake animals!

One neat thing that happened was that the lions started roaring back and forth!  It was so cool, especially since the lions aren't usually active at all!  Max started roaring with them.  It was adorable!

I told Max that he could choose one special treat to have at the zoo.  Of course, he chose the carousel and I made sure he had an elephant to ride!

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 It was so neat to take Max to the zoo for the first time and then go back to my parents' house and look at pictures of my first zoo trip at the same zoo.  I remember going to the zoo several times growing up and for a field trip in 7th grade...and now I'm walking around the zoo with my own child!  Crazy!