Hayden's "Po Po" party

Our sweet little Hayden turned 2 this past Wednesday!!! I know it's probably over said, but it really does seem like yesterday that we were rushing to make it to the hospital for him to be born.  The days are long, but the years are SO short! Can I get an amen?  Well I should preface this post by saying, I completely bombed at taking photos for the party! I feel terrible about that-- I need to be more intentional about pulling out the camera, but it's just difficult to be in the moment, or be facilitating the moments, and then also be the camera person.  I'll just say, I was enjoying myself!

So let's start with his invite-- we purchased the invite from Etsy, and had them printed through Shutterfly.  We requested the words be changed a bit, (along with some coloring) because we personally didn't care for the original words, but the seller was very accommodating and quick with our changes and we were/are very pleased with how they turned out. 

** Our address covered for privacy reasons of course.

Then of course he needed a police birthday shirt from our favorite shirt maker on Etsy, Ooe & Auti.  Daniel and I debate about the birthday shirts.  They started with Leeland when he was turning 1, and we haven't stopped since, but I guess eventually they'll outgrow having shirts with their names and ages on them.... And I will be sad. Haha! (Her shop is on vacation mode for now, but she will open again in march.) 

Can't sing enough praises about Ooe & Auti! We've been very pleased every year!

Now where I failed, is that I didn't get any photos of the food.... And we had some serious grub... I mean brunch.  I even had laid out a black table cloth with a strip of blue table cloth in the middle to make a "thin blue line" on the food table.  The menu looked a little something like this:

- Fresh strawberries and blueberries

- Turkey Sausage and Cheese Quiche

- The Pioneer Woman's "Cowboy Quiche"

- Ham and Cheese Hawaiin Rolls

- Banana and Walnut Baked Oatmeal

- and donuts! ....

You can't have a "po po party" without donuts, right?  Daniel was slightly offended by this, but at the end of the day, he loves donuts and can't deny it.  Since we were doing brunch, we opted to do donuts instead of cake.  I know! I know! You're probably in shock that the cake lady didn't make a cake, but it just made since this way.  We picked up donuts from our favorite donut shop, "Donut World", and stacked them into a pyramid on a serving platter and put a #2 candle on top. Hayden LOVES donuts, so it was pretty perfect!

Lastly we put out some blue and silver balloons, and I whipped up this thin blue line burlap wreath yesterday afternoon to hang on the wall.  (And I love it so much, that it's going to permanently be on the wall for a little while.)

And the kid really racked up on gifts.  He was in heaven! Two is the perfect age to understand birthdays and presents.  (... And Leeland was in heaven too, because ultimately he gets to play with all the cool stuff too.) 

And because it's birthday tradition, another one of those things that started when Leeland turned 1, I also made candies/chocolates to send home with guests as party favors.  Chocolate police badges for the "po po party."

Happy Birthday Hayden!!! We love you more than words can express!