Fenn's "Little Man" Birthday Party

In the photo above, L-R:  Jacob, Cam, Fulton, Fenn, Noah, Audrey (on lower step), Morgan, and Miles.

Yesterday was the big event ~ Fenn's 2nd Birthday Party.  I decided to do a "Little Man" theme after finding this blog post about a set of triplets' 2nd birthday party.  'Little Man' is one of several nicknames we have for Fenn.  {We also call Boone 'Little Man 2'.}  That party was actually called the "Mr. Man Party", but I borrowed a ton of ideas from it.  I actually left a comment on Christina's blog and she graciously emailed me and shared many of her sources with me.  Thanks, Christina!  Get this... she has twin girls AND triplet boys!!!  I'm impressed with how organized she seems to be.

Brace yourself!  This is going to be a long post because there are so many cute photos from the party.  {If you would like to see all of the photos from the party, look over in the right-hand column of the blog under 'More Photos of Fenn and Boone' and there's a link to 'Fenn's 2nd Birthday Party.'  There are tons more great photos to see!  What I have here in this post is only a small sample of them.}  I actually hired a photographer for the party.  And it was worth every penny! 

A friend down the street recently started her photography business.  I wanted to be able to enjoy the party and not be worried about taking pictures the whole time.  I think she did a great job of capturing all the special moments.  Her name is Angela Acker and you can go here to see her blog.

I think this is a nice contrast to the previous photo. It is more typical when trying to get a family photo with a baby, a toddler, and a dog.

We invited all of our immediate family, but knew most of them wouldn't be able to make it this year.  Everyone lives so far away and December is such a busy month.  But Grami and Poppy made it up from north Georgia.  We also invited some of our neighborhood friends with kids around the same age, some people Dan works with and their kids, and the kids from Fenn's class at school.  We ended up with 7 kids here, plus Fenn and Boone, and lots of parents.

We had all the food set up in the dining room, and then had the basement designated as the play area, which included a pop-up tent and tunnel, a Radio Flyer horse, a slide, and an inflatable castle ball pit {which was a huge hit!}.  I also think the kids liked it because the static electricity was making their hair stand straight out.  The castle ball pit was a hand-me-down from Fenn's cousins, Piper and Sydney, and very much appreciated.  If you're wondering what's wrong with the castle in the photo, it apparently has a small pinhole somewhere that we need to get around to finding and patching.

Angela arrived a little before 3:00 p.m. to take some photos of Fenn before all the chaos started.  We went outside, but it was really cold out there and we weren't able to let Fenn stay out for too long.  People started arriving and the fun began.  That's the most kids we've ever had in this house.  It was totally wild and out of control, but so much fun.  I'm still looking for some pieces to a few toys. 

I think the kids had a really good time playing downstairs.  And all the parents enjoyed hanging out and chatting, too.  The wine and beer we had for the adults helped!  The plan was for the kids to play for the first 45 minutes or so and then come upstairs to sing Happy Birthday to Fenn and have some cake and snacks. 

We had limited the party to 2 hours, so we decided to wait and open gifts after everyone left.  Otherwise, that would have eaten up all the time.  We thought the kids would much rather play than watch some other kid open up a bunch of presents.

By the time it was all over, we were exhausted.  I'm glad this is the last party (for Fenn) we plan to have at home... at least for a while.  And it's the last one where I get to choose the theme.  I always said the first two parties are really for mommy.  After that, the choice will be Fenn's.  And we'll have the party somewhere else, such as The Little Gym, Chuck E. Cheese's, etc.  Whatever Fenn wants to do!  As long as it is simple!  But I have to admit I enjoyed planning Fenn's first two birthday parties, and look forward to planning Boone's.

Anyway, Fenn had a great time.  He was still talking about having his friends here the next day.  I need to get better about inviting people over for playdates.  I tend to keep waiting until the 'house is clean'.  But in reality, that never seems to happen since having kids.  Also, I'm not much of a planner.  I tend to wait for people to invite me to do stuff.  I need to change my ways and become more active in that respect.