Evan's Dinomite 2nd Birthday Party

Planning Evan's 2nd birthday party was so much fun! In January I was perusing the Zulily website and found they were having a sale on children's party supplies. I was so excited to find dinosaur birthday party supplies match the theme of his room. I purchased all of the Meri Meri dinosaur supplies for a steal and used my $20 credit for referring a friend!!! I booked his birthday venue a few days later and was lucky to snag the last spot on the day we wanted. As his birthday got closer, I wanted to plan something a little different for Evan and his little party guests so I decided to create an Adopt-A-Dinosaur station for his birthday. I found 13 plush dinosaurs for Evan and the other children attending the party. I also picked up a few packs of mini-dinosaurs to put in the gift bags and on the table. I also put dinosaur stickers and bubbles in the gift bags.

I started searching for a baker a couple months ahead of time and found Two Ladies Baking on Facebook. I sent her a few pictures of different dinosaur cakes I had found on Pinterest, and she added her own little flair to it. His birthday party turned out wonderfully. All of the children invited showed up, and we had the place to ourselves. The Monkey Bizness staff was very friendly and did a great job setting everything up. I had no idea how complicated the dinosaur centerpiece would be to put together. The dinosaur centerpiece even roared! The cake and cupcakes looked amazing! They even made two sugar-free cupcakes for little Mia. Everyone had a great time! I is everyone could have stayed for the group picture!

Thank you to everyone who came out! Also, thank you to Lisa for helping with the cake and my mom for helping with the venue although she couldn't be there! :)

Pictures Continued From Evan's Second Birthday Post

The Blogger App wouldn't allow me to post all if the pictures I wanted to on one post so here are a few more pictures from his birthday. :)

DinoQuest

To kick off Evan's birthday celebration, we took him to the zoo to see the DinoQuest 2 exhibit. I had heard mixed reviews from friends and family who had seen the attraction in previous years, but was surprised to find that it was very interesting and a lot of fun. Evan liked seeing seeing the model dinosaurs...or most of them at least. He was actually a little frightened of the loud noises coming from the Tyrannosaurus rex near the end of the exhibit. He called many of the dinosaurs "kota" which is the name of his favorite toy dinosaur.

Evan's 2nd Birthday!!!!

Time seems to fly when you are having fun! We have been so lucky to have such a well-behaved little boy. I wanted to make his birthday special, so I snuck into his room the night before and filled his room with balloons. Arranging the presents in his room was a little tricker. I had to be very careful to keep him from waking up before the presents were all arranged. I knew that when he woke up, he would run straight over to the presents and start opening them. My inspiration for the morning surprise actually stemmed from a picture from one of my birthdays when was younger. When he woke up, he was so excited to see all of the presents he had waiting for him.

After he was finished opening his presents, I took him to JumpZone for his birthday. Unfortunately, Chad had to work as his birthday was on a weekday, so I took several pictures and videos of the JumpZone fun. On our way home, he had a major meltdown, because he had missed his nap. We don't encounter meltdowns very often, but I let it slide as what was his birthday.

After a nice long nap, we headed to Mellow Mushroom for dinner. When we arrived at Mellow Mushroom, there was over an hour wait! Chad was so exhausted and didn't want to wait that long to eat, so we took Evan to Kobe for dinner. Evan really enjoyed the show. It was a great ending to an amazing day.

Evan's Playroom

Here are a few pictures of his playroom. Since Evan just had his second birthday, it is packed to the max with toys. These pictures were taken when we first put his playroom together. I still have yet to make the cover for his window bench. I will get to it sooner or later. I used an ikea bookshelf for the window bench and a fabric shower curtain for the playroom window. Target has so many cute patterns for playful curtains, and they are actually thicker than you would expect. I picked up the cute moose hanging storage for free from GreenCupboards for sharing their Facebook page!!! I picked up almost all of the accessories for his playroom and bedroom on sale.

Evan's Big Boy Room

When it was time to put Evan's big boy room together, I wasn't quite sure what direction I wanted to go in at first. I considered doing a sports or pirate theme for his room. One day I went to Home Goods with my stepmother and found this adorable dinosaur bedding on clearance for $15.00! When I went home and looked up the collection online, I discovered that the bedding was going for over $100.00 at several children's boutiques. I went back and purchased the bedding and several accessories on clearance at Home Goods. I found baby dinosaur decals online at Walmart for under $15. I picked up several accessories for his room including an ikea lamp, bug light, and dinosaur piggy bank for a fraction of what I would have to pay if I had purchased them from the retailer. I was even able to get his bed on sale during ZooStores Cyber Monday sale. These are pictures of his room when it was first put together. It is a little more out together now than it was in these pictures so I am going to be taking new pictures of his room soon.

I'm back and ready to blog!

It has been a while since I have posted anything. I am so happy to have a free moment to sit down and blog. We have been so busy the last few months. There always seems to be a holiday or important event going on!