C is for Cookie

I love parties. I don't so much love the chaos that runs rampant the day of the party but when all is said and done, I love the outcome and the memories of it.



This year our invites for Campbell's party were a joint effort. Normally that is 100% Justin but this year he did the design in Illustrator and I cut it out and assembled each one using my Cricut. Between all my summer projects and this party, my poor cricut has been smokin'. Love.that.thing.

 
And if you turn the cookie over, we put all our information on the back of the cookie. Pretty cute until we realized that we never put Campbell's name on the invitation...smooth move, huh? Oh well! 

Have I mentioned how 99% of the things you see on the blog are not my original ideas. Almost always they are stolen, but I always give credit where credit is due. That makes it better, right? When I saw this blog last summer, I knew immediately that I wanted to be a big fat copycat and do the same.


Mostly because I didn't have to use brain power to come up with this. Someone else already did the ideas I just had to do the rest. Even just doing the rest was enough work to make this pregnant lady want to ditch the ideas and go take a nap.

Of course wouldn't you know that the day of the party it was in the forecast to be 105. Yep, anything under 100 at this point of the year is considered a "cool front".

I got these cookie jars from the Dollar Tree and filled them with cookies of course.

The hats were compliments of a hot glue gun date with some googley eyes and the mouth was another cricut invention. I told ya it was smokin'.



This shirt was bought sometime last fall when I knew I wanted a cookie monster party. I would try it on about once a month and cookie monster's head just kept getting bigger and fatter with my growing belly. With each passing week I kept telling Justin, "Maybe we should move Cam's party up. The thread on this shirt is holding on for dear life." But I made it even though Campbell told me, "Your cookie monster is mean." I think it just looked mean from being stretched. But I made a really good prop and looked like I had consumed a whole jar of cookies myself.

The kids made cookie monster hand puppets and surprisingly most liked it and were into it. We used them later for the kids to take home their goodies from the pinata.


I was dreading going outside but we had to for couple of games. We turned our playground into a cookie monster head. It's amazing what some butcher paper and some paper plates can transform something into. The kids took turns tossing cookies into cookie monster's mouth.

Next came the pinata. We hadn't really planned that one out. So you know what that means. Dad standing on the playground sacrificing his knuckles for the enjoyment of the kids.

'

At this point, we've only been outside for about 15 minutes but the deodorant is kicked into high gear for everyone and the only ones in the sun are the kids who seem to be oblivious that we could actually bake some real cookies for Cookie Monster and toss them into his mouth.

So once everyone had their turn, Justin pulled an Incredible Hulk so that outside party could quickly move inside. Everyone was such a good sport for going outside.

Next up...cupcakes. My cake lady isn't doing birthday parties anymore, only weddings and larger cakes. I might have to just invite 100 people to the next birthday party so I can use her again.



The cupcakes turned out so cute just like always even though we got a bigger cupcake from a bakery that got a little smooched.



Campbell apparently thought it was his first birthday again and went to town on that sucker. My friend Carlynn put it perfectly, "He eats a cupcake like I want to eat a cupcake." Well said, my friend.



Campbell is so not shy at home but sometimes when we're going some place new he puts on a good act or when a lot of people are looking at him, he shuts down. But not this day, it was his party and even singing him "Happy Birthday" with all eyes on him couldn't send him to shy land.

I love at birthday parties for kids how all the kids are practically with their heads in the bags trying to see what's in it even if it's not their birthday. This isn't their first rodeo....they know that good stuff comes out of those bags.

 I'm so thankful that everything went well. And the fact that we had it over a week before his actual birthday (TODAY!) makes it nice that I could take these last few days of 2-year-oldness (yes, I know that's not a word) and savor every second.

 
 Love this boy so much.