A Garbage Truck Birthday!!

Mason's first 3 days as a 2-year-old have been fit for a king....or actually, a garbage man. Rather than having one big birthday bash like last year (which turned out to be a little bit hectic), we decided to spread out Mason's birthday fun over the entire weekend with several smaller celebrations. Because I am a little over-the-top when it comes to my kids birthdays, I have been trying to decide what kind of birthday Mason would like this year. Last year was an easy choice with the Barnyard theme because that was clearly Mason's favorite thing. This year I couldn't decide if he'd like a Cars, Mickey Mouse, tool, or a sports party more. I decided to take him with me to Zurchers, the party store, to pick out what kind of party he wanted. As we walked down the isles I pointed out all the Cars stuff and enthusiastically asked Mason if he would like a Mater birthday party, to which he flatly replied, "Nope". We repeated this through every section I was sure he would love with the same response each time. Just as I was beginning think he might just be too young to understand or care about a birthday theme we passed a construction section that had big green dump trucks on everything. Mason's face lit up and he yelled out, "Green Gabage Truck!!" and ran over to the shelves to start pulling everything off. I asked him if he wanted a garbage truck birthday cake and party and he smiled a great big smile and said, "uh-huh!!!". I could hardly hold him back as we picked out the invitations and other party things we needed. He just kept saying over and over "green gabage truck, Masy's green gabage truck". I tried to make it more of a dump truck birthday, but in Mason's mind it was strickly a garbage truck birthday. We gave out these cute dump truck invitations. You can't really tell from the picture, but the bed of the truck swings open and shut like it's dumping to show the party information. The thing that I get most excited about for the party is the cake. You see my mom always made us awesome cakes when we were little. The one thing I can remember about every single one of my birthdays growing up is what my cake looked like. I started invisioning the perfect garbage truck cake the second we decided on the theme. I knew just what I wanted, but making it happen was another story. I thought I had it all under control until I had a bit of a pregnancy moment and started to get teary because it wasn't working out right. But Scott came to the rescue and saved the cake. Here is the final result. I have to show the back side with the waste management logo making it not just a dump truck, but a true garbage truck. I made Scott do all the detail work because he is a perfectionist and has a much steadier hand (because I have to reach 3 feet over my huge belly to even reach the cake). I love this man!!! Since Saturday was Mason's actual birthday I wanted it to be a fun day for him. Scott was on a business trip and wouldn't get back until that evening so I decided to take Mason to Kangaroo Zoo with a few friends that morning. Mason had so much fun on the "bouncy". A big thanks to our friends for making Mason's birthday so fun.

Here are Mason and Katelyn bouncing around. Mason loved all the giant slides. He loved this baseball thing. Mason, Halle, Katelyn, and Jackson. All that hard playing made the kids hungry so we had some PB&Js for lunch. After a morning of jumping around Mason took a good nap and when he woke up his daddy was home!! The birthday fun continued when we went out in the rainy, lousy weather to play in Mason's birthday present. He loves his "house" that has a blue door and an orange slide (on the other side) My parents came over to give Mason his present. Mason has been asking for a bike for the last month, the problem is he can't actually pedal any kind of bike yet so I end up bent over pushing him around on things. My parents gave him this awesome bike that has a handle we can push and stear with while he learns how to pedal and then it comes off when he can ride it himself. We have loved it so far and totally recommend it. My dad and Scott were adjusting the seat with a screwdriver and Mason thought that was better than riding the bike in the rain, so he spent the rest of the time "fixing" his bike. My parents took us to IHOP that night so Mason could get "panceeks" for his birthday dinner. Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

On Sunday we had Mason's true garbage truck party with my family. It turned out perfectly!! Here are the kiddos (Kennedy, Cannon, and Mason) in their party hats getting ready for the birthday dinner. Mason had fun opening his presents. I tried to find a garbage truck toy to give Mason, but the best I could find was a dump truck. Mason was more than happy with that!! He loves to load up all his Cars in the dump truck and push it around. Of course there were icecream cones. Whew! What a party!!, but we're not done yet.

Monday night we finished off by having cake and ice cream with the Murrays. With 10 kids sharing 3 new toys, things can get kind of overwhelming. Mason finally packed up his new chair (thanks Vance and Lisa) and tools (thanks Grandma and Grandpa) and went and sat in the hall by himself to take a break. Notice his dump truck jammies...very appropriate. Mama and Daddy with our birthday boy. It's been a great weekend, but by the end of the night a tired and sick Mason was ready to go home. I haven't mentioned that Mason woke up Sunday morning with a nasty cold that I think might be progressing to croup. He has been a trooper and hasn't let it slow him down, but he was beat by the end of tonight. Mason had such a wonderful weekend. I really liked having his birthday celebrations simpler and spread out over several days. He didn't seem to get as overwhelmed by everything. It was especially nice for him to just open 1-2 presents at a time and really be able to enjoy them. A big thanks to all our family and friends who shared Mason's birthday with him. We are so lucky to have so many people who love and care for Mason.