Candyland Party

This last Saturday, we had a special birthday celebration for both Anna and Brad. I had the hardest time deciding what to do to celebrate the BIG birthdays of Anna (2 years old) & Brad (30 years old) in the month of March. First off, I knew that I could not easily pull off two parties in one month, so instead, I tried to think of a theme that would work for the both of them. After much thought, I finally came up with the PERFECT theme, Candyland!

It took me quite a while to think of the "perfect" theme, so I had a lot less time to execute the plan for the party than is "normal" for me.  But in the end, I had so much fun planning the candy buffet, activities, and making our house look "candy-festive"! Everything fell into place, with time to spare, with the exception of a couple of mini-disasters that occurred the day of the party.

First off, the weather was absolutely stinky the day of the party.  For the two weeks leading up to the party, the weather was blissfully perfect, so I planned to have the kids do the craft and games outside.  In my mind, I had visions of us capturing beautiful photos of the children playing outside in the green grass.  Instead, we had to settle for our "space ship looking" unfinished basement as our game room for the party.  :-(

Secondly, probably the worst disaster that could occur did occur, the birthday girl got sick!   The morning of the party, Anna threw up! Earlier in the week, we had been exposed to the stomach bug and my prayer all week was that if we had been infected that we would get it early on in the week! But instead, the morning of, Anna threw up.

Thankfully, many of our friends had already been exposed, and even some of the friends who hadn't were willing to take the risk and come to the party anyway. So we decided to carry on with the party.   In total, eight families had planned on being at the party, but three families (understandably) opted out that day when they found out about Anna's little episode.  In the end, Anna did not get sick anymore  and ate everything she possibly could at the party.  She had a wonderful time at her planned Candyland party and Brad was completely surprised that the party was in the celebration of him too! :-)

Welcome to "Anna's Candyland"!
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Candyland with the Candy Buffet which included: Pretzel M&M's, Twizzler's, Starbursts, Smarties, Starburst Jellybeans, Sour Patch Kids, and (regular) M&M's, along with Gingerbread Men, cupcakes and the most deluxe Candyland Cake EVER!!! 

"Happy 2nd Birthday Anna" - My sweet friend Michelle made this AMAZING cake for Anna. Michelle told me to pick ANY cake my heart desired for little Anna and this is what I chose for her from a photo I found on-line.  Michelle completely surpassed all my hopes for Anna's birthday cake; she seriously knocked my socks off with her creation!  I couldn't keep my eyes off this FUN, COLORFUL cake. :-)

The "Real Food" Buffet (with a couple things missing in the oven and refrigerator): Cranberry Meatballs, Texas Queso with chips, Black Bean Salsa (a new recipe from my Smith's cookbook!), Pigs in a blanket, Cheese and Crackers, and Spinach Ranch Dip with Vegetables

Special photo memories of Anna from this past year, as well as the Bible Verse we chose for Anna as a baby:  "For you are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for you to do. " Ephesians 2:10

The "Chocolate Swamp" with Rice Krispie treats, chocolate chip cookies, Oreos, small pretzel rods, bananas, strawberries, and marshmallows.

Right next to the "chocolate swamp" was a bookcase; I decorated the top of it into more chocolate fun with Brad's candybar cake and some Hershey Park memorabilia!

When our guests arrived, first, they were asked to guess the number of gumdrops in a jar.

Then, we all went downstairs to our unfinished basement to decorate gingerbread men with glitter glue and colorful pom-poms. 

After our craft, it was game time! 

I tried to keep the games simple, so Anna and the other two year olds in attendance could easily participate, but most of the little ones wanted to be held as we did the Lollipop Walk. :-)

Brad created a great playlist of songs from iTunes: "Lollipop"; "A Spoonful of Sugar"; "Good Ship Lollipop"; and "Candy Man". 

Hooray for Naomi and Oliver! Our objective was for everyone to be a winner, so Brad was handing out lollipops left and right to everyone whether their color was called or not. :-)

The kids played like they were elephants...

and bears too! 

Then, we did our next game, the "Peppermint Relay"! 

It was a simple game in which the kids had to balance a peppermint on a spoon and "race" around the bucket. 

I love these two photos of Anna sucking on her lollipop while concentrating on the peppermint relay. 

All the adults thought the kids were pretty adorable; it was super cute to watch! 

Then it was time for the "Gumball Throw".

After all of our games, we all went back upstairs for more birthday festivities.  Brad was the last one to get up the stairs but upon his arrival, I made a grand announcement that all of us wanted to honor a very special 30 year old!   When I made my announcement, Michelle came out with the candles lit on Brad's very own dark chocolate supreme cake.  Brad was completely taken by surprise and the fire alarm was too (you can see Lindsey looking up at the alarm going off!).  

Brad was concerned that all of his blowing would cause Michelle to fall down the basement stairs! 

Meanwhile, the alarm was still going off because the candles were TRICK CANDLES! Michelle kept the trick candles as a surprise from me too. So, I kept saying to Brad, "They're real candles! They're real!" but Brad quickly caught on anyway, because she had done the same thing to me for my 30th! 

In the end, we extinguished the candles in the sink with water, but the big joke for the big day was Brad was getting so old, he could bring down the house with all of his candles. :-)

The Candyland Party theme was the perfect choice for my two candy-loving March birthday babies! 

Then it was Anna's turn for us all to sing "Happy Birthday" to her! She happily sang along with us. 

And then in only a couple of blows, she blew out her birthday candle.  Reed told me Anna looked completely shocked when she got out her candles so quickly, she thought it was going to require more "marathon blowing" like it did for her daddy. 

Our sweet little two year old. 

And my amazing, wonderful 30-year old hubby! 

After our birthday singing, it was time to eat.  Anna enjoyed a chocolate dipped strawberry. 

Andrew, Lucy, Faith, Michelle, Reed, Lindsey, and Anna all comfy on floor eating some goodies! 

Joanna, Little M, and Josh

Ava, Jillian, and Madeline

The Chocolate Fountain was a BIG HIT with all the guys! 

Reed and some of the girls were playing a mini-game of tug-of-war with Buddy! 

Then, to take a break (before eating cake), we let little Anna open birthday presents! 

The first present Anna opened us was a new Little People Zoo Talkers set from Michelle, Lindsey, and Reed. 

Anna ran over to Lindsey to give her a big hug. 

And then she quickly returned to all the fun of opening presents. 

Here Anna is sitting in her new princess beach chair "reading" a nice card from the Glenn family!  All of the presents were super sweet and the birthday girl felt very special! 

Then it was CAKE TIME!  

I was so, so sad to cut into the cake; I think I would have been happy to keep it on display forever! But Michelle rightly insisted that we needed to eat it and she did the "honors" of cutting the cake for me. 

I had the fun of helping Anna eat her cake!

And then Reed had the fun of helping the birthday girl "FLY"! 

Anna said over and over again, "Again! Fly!" She had such a fun time at her birthday party. 

And then after the party, it was time to play with some of her new toys. Michelle set up Anna's new zoo.  She has had so much fun learning the name and sounds of new animals and helping them go swinging and sliding!  It was a very happy birthday celebration.