Our Little Buckaroo is Turning Two!

YEE HAW YALL!!!  This weekend we celebrated Atticus' 2nd birthday with a western theme barnyard bash.  His actual birth-day is tomorrow, but we partied a little early :) 

Here are a few of the highlights...beginning with the escape of all of the balloons!!!  Yep, while we were setting things up the balloons decided to take flight and they never came back...oh well, I'm pretty sure no one missed them (except me!).

Here is the birthday boy enjoying a cookie before the party actually started...I think he may have had some help getting it off the table, I'm just not sure who his partner in crime was...with both sets of grandparents at his service, it could have been anyone :)

DECOR:

We held the party at our local park - it's a fabulous park with a perfect pavillion...except that it's a gross grey color and I'm sure noone wanted to stare at grey walls during the party so I dressed things up a bit to help get us in the western spirit.

The mood was set with lots of hay bales, wagon wheels, potted mums, a hand painted barn, dancing horse, fiddle playing cow, and some wild cactus!  Banjo music, a happy birthday banner, sunflowers, stick ponies, and fun centerpieces also helped transform the park into a western/farm style barn...I also threw in some pictures of the birthday boy in western style frames - so cute!

The centerpieces were made using metal paint buckets-I just filled them with various western items...sunflowers, sheriff badges, wooden horses and cows...and more!

FOOD:

We had bar-b-que pork sandwiches.  My mom and I made the pork ourselves and we individually wrapped the  sandwiches in aluminum foil for easy service.  We also had rabbit food (pasta salad) and cowboy caviar (a variation on corn & black bean salsa), along with peanuts, raisins, chips, and one of Atticus' favorites, cowtails. 

And what's a birthday party without birthday cake?!?!

And to go along with the cake I made these bandanna cookies.  This was my first experience with royal icing, but I was really happy with how they turned out and they actually tasted pretty good too (royal icing doesn't have a great reputation for being all that yummy)!!

PARTY GUESTS:

Our little buckaroo!

 Some of his buddies gathered around the hay bales for a picture...we couldn't pull them all away from the bubbles and sidewalk chalk...but really so thankful he's been able to make some great friends since we've been here.

Grandpa & Grandma, the birthday boy, and Nana &Poppa

 These are our library buddies - Sarah (Kolby & Chase), Mary (Brady & Conner), and Nicole (Maya & Isaac).  Atticus loves playing with these friends when we get to see them at the library.

 SOOOO blessed and thankful to finally live close to Kerri and Jessica - two of my best friends and college roommates!

 Our kiddos - Chase, AJ, Atticus and Molly - I love this picture - Yes, I know that NONE of them are looking at the camera :)  I did get a few others where they are all facing forward, but I still think I like this one best.

 PARTY FAVORS:

I made homemade apple butter for each family to take home and enjoy.  When we went to the apple orchard a few weeks ago I came home with 24 pounds of apples...I thought apple butter was in order but we certainly couldn't eat it all by ourselves!!  This was also my first attempt at "canning"...

It was all-in-all a GREAT day!!!  I'm SO glad we decided to have it at the park rather than at the house.  I think the kids loved having the swings, slides, climbing walls, and lots of space to run around!! 

Nothing like a family picture where we're all totally exhausted :) oh well...should have taken these pictures BEFORE the party started!!  

Happy Birthday sweet Atticus!!!  Mommy and Daddy LOVE you more than you could ever know!!

We are blessed by you in so many ways and are thankful God gave you to us!