ledger's monster party...

we celebrated ledger's 2nd birthday this weekend with our family. it's easier to do the week before thanksgiving before all the holiday craziness sets in! his actual birthday isn't until the 27th. i'm the crazy mom that starts thinking about my kids' parties 6 months in advance. this summer, we saw the monster party stuff at target and i fell in love with all the fun colors and silly monsters. it was an added bonus that we call ledgie, our little monster!!

last week was spent on party prep and cleaning my house from top to bottom, every single inch. i completely overdid it, but now it's done and i just have to maintenance clean until the baby is born. lane teases me saying that i care more about boys birthdays than they do. it's probably true, but i LOVE making their parties special! it's my mom in me :)

i was so sad i didn't get more pics, but with my camera on the fritz and playing hostess, we just had to take some when we could with lane's. here we go...

i found the boys' shirts here on etsy. they are in LOVE with them! and they looked pretty darn cute wearing them, too.

we had chick-fil-a for lunch for 2 reasons...SUPER EASY and ledgie's fav!! we got a nugget, chicken salad sandwich, and fruit tray. i made some fruit dip and opened a bag of chips and lunch was served :) (sidenote: everytime we ask ledger what he wants to eat, he ALWAYS says chick-fil-a. needless to say, he was a happy boy!)

i'm most sad that i didn't get an upclose pic of all the different kinds of monster cupcakes there were. i took our favorite bakery a plate for inspiration and asked them to make 3 or 4 of the different kinds of monsters. they looked EXACTLY like them! i was so pleased with their work....again. the party favors were "monster cookies" in jar. i used this recipe. lane made the little thank you tag and then we printed the directions on the back. we haven't tried them yet, but they looked cute!

after everyone ate, the kids worked on an activity. my boys are really into "projects" right now. the activity that went along with the party stuff were these cute little foam masks.

we then read a book that lane and i got ledger called "tickle monster" by josie bissett. it's an interactive book that was so fun! each kid sat with their tickle partner while lane read the book.

next, we played pin-the-eye-on-the-monster. the boys liked it. the girls were more interested in playing in the playroom at this point! we still have the poster up so the boys can play.

there is nothing in this world that ledger enjoys more than reading/looking at a book. instead of bringing a toy, we asked everyone to bring a children's storybook to add to his library. now that the boys are more into following along with stories, our very babyish library wasn't cutting it! he was pretty focused and solemn when it came to opening up his presents, but when he was finished and we announced it was FINALLY time to eat cupcakes, he came alive!!

he looked so embarrassed while we sang happy birthday to him. he actually managed to blow out his candle! i can't believe he's already 2!! he's still so baby to me, but i guess that will change pretty quickly once mr. knox is born. i hope ledgie always loves his mommy and cuddling as much as he does right now :)

getting down to some serious business...

the shirtless brigade...

happy birthday, sweet little monster!