An Elmo Breakfast Birthday Party!

My sweet angel turned two last week. I keep pinching myself about it, because it's super emotional to think back over the past two years of his life. But he's so funny, you guys, because he asked for an Elmo birthday party. With an Elmo cake. How does he know to ask about these things?! We weren't going to do a party for him this year, because honestly, we threw a big shindig last year and it was tons of fun (please tell me you remember my hand-made fruit pirate ship) - but also tons of work. And I wanted to just give myself a pass on this one. However, when Everett asked about his birthday party (we've been to several birthday celebrations lately), and said, "want Elmo cake", everything in my mama heart said, "You got it!"

Thank goodness Publix makes a mean Elmo cake. Twenty balloons, a carton of Starbucks coffee, and a bag of Panera bagels later, we were in business. This was a great, eeeeeasy birthday party. We just invited our families over for a 9am breakfast (because we are a big family!), let the kids run through the sprinklers and it was the perfect amount of hoopla and celebration.

Oh, and the birthday boy got to pick a special donut for breakfast. Because apparently you can't eat healthy on your birthday around here...

Cousins table!!! Many thanks to Travis & Liz for gifting us this amazing kid's picnic table.

I was a tiiiiiiny bit nervous about having him blow out the candles. I mean, that fire was close to his face. Thankfully, his cousin Wynn helped him out with the task. And Everett couldn't have cared less, because he was super enamored with the birthday song. He is still asking me to sing it to him, every day when he wakes up. "Bird-day song, mom?"

"It's my party and I'll cry if I want to"

People ask me all the time, "Why did you guys move from NYC?? Don't you miss it?" and of course I do. But when I see these photos of my son tumbling in the grass with his cousins and getting loved on by his grandparents and getting affirmed by his aunts and uncles, I am more sure than ever that we made the right choice. Everett is the happiest boy, so loved by everyone around him, and it's such an honor and a hilarious joy to be his mom every day. Happy 2nd birthday to my bright, beautiful boy!