Party Like a Rock Star!

Well, our little man is two. He even told the Doctor on Monday "Iain is two!", so I guess that makes it official! We had a rockin' party on Sunday night, complete with family he loves (but not all of you!), yummy food, and lots of fun presents! Of course, it was also accompanied by plenty of sneezing, coughing, occasional meltdowns and crying fits, from a sick little boy. Thankfully, the Birthday Boy is finally on the mend after a rough few days! I kind of wish we could have a "party redo", as I think he'd enjoy himself even more now! Overall though, it went better than expected!

The Theme: Rock all the way, man! Iain has been crazy abut music since he was born. Guitars and drums are his current obsession. So we rocked it out in red, black and silver, with multicolored accents, lots of stars, a homemade drum set, oodles of instruments and all things rock-related.

The Food: Top-your-own pizzas and crazy bread with a side of Caesar salad, star-cookies in red and black, and AMAZING cupcakes with gum-paste drums, microphones, stars, and Iain's name, concocted of course by Auntie Ashlee!


The "Reveal": Neil kept Iain downstairs while we got everything set up and ready, and then brought him up to see. He was a little overwhelmed at first, but then very excited! He went straight to the "band in a bucket" and nabbed his guitar to start playing! He even got to wear a guitar shirt of the occasion, and Liam followed suit!


Dinner: We ate our food, donned our party hats, and had a great time laughing, reminiscing and talking. Although Iain was reluctant to put his hat on, the rest of us sure had fun with them. Best two bucks I've spent!


The Birthday Cake: Iain was very excited about his special guitar cupcake. He even knew how to blow out the candle! But what he really loved was everyone singing to him! We broke out the band instruments and did a rendition of Happy Birthday accompanied by drums, piano, maracas, tambourine, harmonica and train whistle (and a wrist rattle for Liam!). It wasn't too melodious, but in his mind, we were better than the Beatles! We got a great video, but sadly, not many pictures.


The Presents: Iain really loved everything he opened: An awesome homemade backpack and a fantastic "Memory" game (made with all his family's faces!) from Uncle Stu, Aunt Becky, Coco and Calvin, a "bag of fun" with super cute books, a badminton set, a horseshoe game, and a super-soaker from Uncle Graeme, Aunt Ashlee and Baby Pitman, NEW golf clubs (right handed ones!) from Grammie and Grampy, and a Dr. Suess birthday book and guitar from Mommy and Daddy. However, here's another area where my photo-taking fell off the radar. We actually had to coax him to open up his gifts (he was getting pretty cranky by this point!), and all he wanted to do once he did open them was play with them...Liam was overtired, crying and barfing everywhere...it was somewhat of a madhouse! I did however, break out the camera to capture his utter joy and exhilaration after opening his new guitar. I have never seen him so excited!


The "Try-Out": Then, of course, we had to proceed outside to try all his new gifts. He golfed, drumed, horse-shoed and badminton-ed until dark, and went to bed happy and exhausted!


We had a good day. Of course, I can look at all the things I wish had gone differently: I wish that all of his family could have been with us...but we did get to talk or skype with everyone, so that made it a bit better! I wish that he had been feeling better, and could have actually enjoyed himself as much as we'd hoped he would...but he had a pretty great time. I wish the weather would have cooperated, so we could have eaten on the patio....but the food still tasted good inside, and we didn't get the storms that were predicted, so we even got to go out and play. I wish I would have taken more pictures...but I was busy enjoying the moments. I wish I would have remembered to update the birthday sign...but....better late than never!