Happy Birthday, Jude!

Somehow in the midst of our crazy life, our Little Boy Who Was Once The Bean turned two. E-freaking-gad! I have no idea how he is a two year old who is over three feet tall, driving trains and singing "California Dreamin'." It's kind of insane. He is one of the oldest in his little kid crew of 12, so of course we had to have a party. Inspired by his current favorite book, I'm Dirty, we went with a construction truck theme. And yes, I gleaned the internet for everything truck-ish, Pinning as I went, until I had a plan. E happened to be out of town on business the entire week before the bash, so I did one thing each day to keep The Boy and I busy, and to prevent a stress-filled weekend of last minute mania. Here's the picture laden run down...

The invitation: A big ol' dump truck complete with coloring page envelopes and washi caution tape. 

They are not yet in the shop, but just hit me up if you are interested until I post them:)

We asked Jude's friends to make donations to St. Jude's Children's Hospital instead of bringing him presents, since with an in home day care in our basement, he pretty much has everything a kid could ever want. This is definitely going to be our annual thing. St. Jude's is the best childrens' charity ever.

 The decor: Jude and I built a paper mountain to cover the oh-so-pretty wall AC unit that currently resides in the dining room. He had a blast rubbing glue sticks on paper (and then his face) while we worked on it. 

The food: Dirt cups, pretzel lumber, Pirate's Booty, a bacon jalapeno cheese mountain, a tool box veggie tray, dried pineapple rocks, Boulder Cookies, and a Chocolate Mudslide Cake. 

I will try to post a few more of those recipes soon!

 

A closer view of the cake, decorated with chocolate graham cracker crumbs and malted milk balls.

I made a table runner from the coloring pages left over from the invitations.

Luckily we had gorgeous weather, so the kids got to play with the split pea and rice sensory boxes on the deck. It took only minutes for them to start tossing it, so I am thrilled we didn't have to do it inside!

In case of rain, we set up a demolition city in the basement playroom. 

It was great motivation to get my craft room in order and unpack the last lingering boxes from our move!

I painted this dump truck based on the one from his invitations. I think it will hang around a while!

He actually ate sweets! Well, this is yogurt, but it has chocolate crumbs on top!

This morning I finally let him pull some of the decorations off the walls. 

He has been driving cars on this road all day!

Best.Party.Ever!