It’s crazy to think that we just celebrated Joey’s 2nd birthday last week.  It feels like yesterday I gave birth to him.  Time is going by so quickly!  Joey has turned into quite the toddler these past few months and I have a sneaking suspicion the terrible two’s are upon us.  Especially since his favorite word is “noooo”.

Joey loves playing with anything that has wheels and loves to do puzzles.  He also loves anything Juliana is currently playing with.  He is doing so great potty training and now wears big boy undies out when we run our errands.  His favorite foods are macaroni and chicken cutlets.   He also has a bad granola bar habit.  We are trying to cut back.  haha!

We had our friends over to the house to celebrate last weekend.  Luckily the weather was perfect!  It’s been sort of back and forth here, and it’s been raining a lot.  But we lucked out!  The weather was ideal for an outside BBQ.  Joey was so excited to wake up on the morning of his party and see that Grandma Nancy + Grandpa Pat came to surprise him and celebrate with us!  (Juliana was also so excited but she waited up until 10 pm the night before to see them arrive!)

We had such a fun afternoon with our friends hanging out, watching the kids bounce and eating some yummy bbq food!  After being indoors for so many months during the Winter, it was so enjoyable to just hang out on the deck and cook out.

I served my “cheater’s sangria” and it was a total hit!  All you need is a bottle of Sangria (I grabbed a couple at Costco) and a bottle of Sprite/7-up.  I filled mason jars with ice and some sliced fruit (lemon, lime, orange).  Then poured the glasses half full with sangria and topped them with sprite.  I decorated the mason jars with ribbon and finished the drink off with a colorful paper straw.  They were perfect!

Monday was Joey’s actual birthday and the celebrations continued.  He opened all of his presents from family and I cooked a huge dinner with all of his favorite foods!  The kids stayed up so late playing with all of his new gifts.  I would say his birthday celebrations were a total success!

The party details were super easy for me, and I’ll tell you why.  After each party we have I take all of the leftover, unused decorations and pack them away.  I pack away bowls, serving dishes and even banners I have made.  I knew I wanted to do a primary color theme for Joey’s party and when I looked in the boxes of what I had and saw all of Juliana’s Sesame Street party decor, I saw that Joey’s BBQ was already half done!  The “Happy Birthday” banner hanging on the drink table used to say “Happy 1st Birthday Juliana”.  The “Joey is two” huge banner that we hung on the deck used to say “Sunny Days” (Sesame themed, remember?).  I found yellow and red plastic bowls and a few unused table clothes.  So I really didn’t have that much to buy in order to decorate!  As I told Mike, this is when my hoarding tendencies come in handy.  

For the party favors I used my silhouette cameo to personalize cups for all of our party guests!  I love the way these came out!  I just filled them with some colored paper filler that I grabbed at the dollar store.  They took no time to make and I just love giving little personalized gifts.

I did want to make a small balloon arch to hang over the front door.   Luckily for Grandpa, he was the only one in the kitchen when I pulled out the helium tank and got stuck helping me blow up, tie, and string 50 balloons onto a piece of fishing wire.  Ha!  He was such a trooper!  Unfortunately it was so windy that it was really hard to hang the way I wanted it, so I just tied it outside on the deck as one big balloon column.

Joey got a bounce house from Grandma + Grandpa for his birthday gift and the kids had a blast jumping in it!  It really was the greatest idea to just buy one to own instead of rent.  Obviously, it wouldn’t work for a ton of kids/and or/larger kids, but it worked just fine for our party.  It was just a bit more then renting one and now we will have it for future parties/playdates/rainy days (because you know I’ll plug that in right in the living room..haha!).  I linked the one we got here but I also loved this one, and this one!

Happy Birthday Mr. Baby Joey!  We hope you had as much fun as we did!  XO

 Hope you enjoyed partying with us!

XO Danielle

I love to connect with my readers on social media, so feel free to share this with a friend, and find me on Instagram and Facebook.

Joey had his last bottle tonight.  At almost 15 months old.  I know the recommendations.  I have read the books.  I spoke with my pediatrician.  I know it was advised that I take the bottle away at a year.  But I wasn’t ready.

I wasn’t ready to give up that 10 minutes of snuggle time each night.  In a room lit only by the soft glow of his lamp.  My sweet boy in fresh pajamas.  The smell of baby lotion can be intoxicating to a tired mama.  It was my time with him.  His time with me.  Our time to just be the two of us.  We rarely get moments like those.  So I’ll admit, I clung to them.

The nighttime bottle is one of my favorite times with my children.  It’s the wind down time.  The sprawl out in mama’s arms time.  When I could just look at their little faces and hold their little hands in mine.  Their eyes searching in my own.  Too young to speak but their eyes say a thousand words.  Their little mouth drinks so eagerly.  In the spot they are most comfortable.  My arms.

In the past months every night Joey would get his sippy cup of milk with his dinner.  He would splash in the tub and get scrubbed clean.  Clean of marinara sauce, mashed potatoes and if he was lucky, a taste of chocolate pudding.  Into his pajamas he went and we would climb into Mini’s bed for a story.  Afterwards, like clockwork I would head to the kitchen and fill a bottle with milk.  Knowing that it wasn’t necessary.  He wouldn’t cry for it.  I knew my sleepy boy would just lay down and fall asleep.  But I needed it.

I was the one who needed that moment.  Likely more so than him.  To stare at his soft skin and be reminded of when he was just big enough to fit in the crook of my arm.  To think that now his head fits where his whole body once sat.  Legs dangling over the side of my body.  Tiny toes wiggling as I hum to him.

Tonight we sat in that big chair, just me and my boy and I realized I am ready.  I am ready for what’s to come next.  I can’t keep him my baby forever.   Although I sure would love to.   And it’s nice to do things on my terms.  Not according to some textbook.  I felt that we needed that extra three months of nighttime bottles.  And that’s o.k.  I’m the mama and I make the rules.  And that feels good.

We had such a great time celebrating Joey’s first birthday yesterday!  I still can’t believe I have a one year old!  I wanted his party to be sweet and fun.   I loved the idea of a dessert only party.  Simple, easy and full of sugar.  I decided to base the theme around Cookies + Milk.  There are SO many cute ideas on how to make this theme unique.  From milk jugs to cookie buffets, it is adorable.

I love to make desserts so this theme was right up my alley.  I must have baked (and ate) a billion chocolate chip cookies!  I dipped everything under the sun in chocolate.

Strawberries + Pretzels + Marshmallows + Oreos.

Seriously, everything is better when it’s covered in chocolate.   I threw in some cannolis and cream puffs to round out the table.  Absolute sugar perfection.

In the past I have designed all the invitations/cupcake toppers/water bottle labels/etc myself.  I wanted to take an easier approach with this party because we have just been so busy travelling and with school and work that I didn’t want to go crazy trying to pull this all together.  I found an incredibly sweet Etsy shop that had this printable party pack ready to go for me.  Um, why did I not know about this before?  I love a good DIY as you know, but time has been limited these days, so this option worked perfectly!  The party pack had everything I needed to create the perfect party!

I was able to spend some time creating the dessert stands that you see pictured.

It is a super easy DIY to do for parties.  Simply wrap canned food items in white cardstock.  I use cardboard cake plates for the top.  Glue down a piece of scrapbook paper in the color of your theme.  I chose this plaid to add some extra colors to the light blue/brown of the theme.  Glue a thick ribbon to the edge and there you have it.  Super simple party stands made to match any table and seriously cost next to nothing to make.  The 3 stands took about 15 minutes of time with my glue gun.  Love an easy project. 

We had such a great afternoon celebrating with some of our friends.

I couldn’t have wished for a more perfect party for my sweet one year old.

Happy Birthday Joey.