Tyler's 2nd Birthday!! (week 105 part 2)

Hey everyone! Whew, finally - the post for Tyler's 2nd birthday party!

It was quite a hectic morning as we scrambled to get things ready. We really are quite amazing procrastinators. After a quick stop to Costco to get the birthday cake and a veggie platter, we made it to Pump It Up right as guests were starting to arrive. Whew! They had us all gather in the (extremely hot and un-air conditioned) lobby first. Then they had the birthday boy come up! Happy Birthday Tyler!
Next we all watched a safety video. Waivers are only needed for kids 2-18, and the video is meant for them as well. I actually thought everyone needed a waiver regardless of age. Here's Mariam and Frank watching the video. Good! Paying attention! :)

I was actually pretty surprised that the kids were paying attention too. I don't think the kids that came late had to watch it though. There was a part of the video that showed kids jumping and Tyler and his BFF Vincent got up and started jumping too. Too cute!

After the video, the lady asked all the kids to line up behind the birthday boy... the kids all kind of looked around blankly. I don't know if 2 year olds understand the concept of walking in a line! Regardless, off they went to the Play Room!

Thank goodness the play area was air conditioned. It was SO hot in the lobby, quite ridiculous. Here's Tyler heading into the play area. He's so excited and ready to party!

They kids knew immediately what to do. They went straight into the obstacle course inflatable and down the slide! Here's a video of Tyler and his friend Dylan climbing in the obstacle course.

Tyler's first time through the obstacle course he went down the slide at the end without a problem. The second time in, he got to the slide, climbed to the top, saw that it was a slide...and turned around and came back out. He is NOT into inflatable slides! Here's Tyler after the first slide though.

More pictures of Tyler! The parents were all very involved (mostly the dads) and they were all in the inflatables helping the kids through. They were having so much fun!

An hour or so in, everyone stopped for a juice break. The kids were all sweaty and it seemed like a good idea to get them to take a breather. Tyler rarely gets juice, and when he does its super watered down from school, so this was quite a special occasion. After that day though, even I'm a fan. Juice boxes are so yummy and easy to drink! :) Thanks to Trina/Mariam/Frank for heading out and picking up some more for us!

Tyler's favorite inflatable was this big one where the kids could just run in circles. Plus there was a mushroom cloud in the middle that had air blowing out of it. Here's a video of Tyler with his friends in this inflatable. Some funny moments: 1) face plant and 2) climbing onto the mushroom and climbing OFF headfirst!

Here's a picture of Tyler just jumping around. It was great because the kids could fall and bump into each other and no one got hurt! Yay!

Everyone LOVED the giant slide inflatable. Everyone that is... except Tyler. The kids were CRAZY about it! They were going down it by themselves and with the parents. It was awesome seeing the parents having fun and going down the slide. Tyler? Not so much. I think he might still have flashbacks from that faceburn last month. ack! We tried to coax him onto the slide in the beginning but he was having none of it. Here's Tyler and Will - when Will would make a motion to get onto the slide, Tyler would tense up and dig his nails into Will's back. Kind of like.. a scared cat? Needless to say, we stopped trying pretty quick.

At the end of the playtime, we attempted to get a group photo. I wasn't there when they were getting the kids together, or I totally would have recommended that all the parents get in and hold onto their kids. It was mayhem! Here's a calmer shot before the chaos started. Tyler has the funniest expressions.

I finally had to get in the photo to get Tyler to sit still. Tip to anyone throwing a 2 year old birthday party - have the parents sit with the kids for the group picture!

Last year, when Tyler turned one, we were able to get photos with all of our friends that came to celebrate with us. This year, with so many kids, we really limited the guests to mostly Tyler's school friends and their families, and family and close friends. We didn't get the photos with everyone like we did last year. Oh well. Here's Tyler and our friend Heidi!

Aside from the inflatables, there was an air hockey table in the room too. We also had brought a small inflatable pool and filled it with plastic balls for the younger siblings to play with. Too bad Tyler isn't tall enough to play air hockey! Here's a picture of Tyler and one of his classmates' older brother.

They also had a couple plastic cars to play with as well. This was so cute. Tyler's BFF was driving while Tyler got a ride on the back - it was almost like a taxi service. Super cute.

One of the other inflatables was a large area with a basketball hoops. Once Tyler got in there, he claimed a ball as his own and wouldn't let anyone else have it. Here's a short video of Tyler with the ball. I'm taking it from inside, sitting on the side, so it's quite bumpy. Funny moments: 1) Uncle Andy gets Tyler to the basket to put his ball in, but Tyler won't let go, and 2) Uncle Andy's dad makes a hand motion for Tyler's ball and Tyler goes 'My Ball!' and grasps it closer to him.

Here's a picture of Tyler with his ball and the basketball hoop. He looks so tiny compared to it.

After playtime was over, we all moved over to the dining room. One great thing about Pump It Up is that they set everything up for you. I told the coordinator what I wanted (for example balloons tied to bubble containers on the table) and they took care of everything. Even the plates with pizza were all laid out on the table ready for the kids to just sit down and eat!

Sometimes at school they have pizza. I'm always a little... uh...not so happy about that. Not exactly the healthiest choice for a meal! But it's not very often, so not a big deal. Good thing that they've introduced Tyler to it before though, because he would never get to eat that at home with us! He was very happy with the pizza that day. :)

After lunch was CAKE time! Yay! Costco's cake was quite tasty, serves 48 and was only $16.99. You can't beat that! As soon as Tyler saw the candles he wanted to blow them out. I had to remind him to wait until after we finished the song. Here's a video of Tyler and his cake while they sang happy birthday. If you watch closely, you can see that Tyler is trying to blow the candles out the whole time secretly.

Before:

After! Tyler did great blowing out the candles. Some of the parents even commented that Tyler did great - I guess a lot of 2 year old don't really understand the concept? I told them that, uh, Tyler does a lot of blowing on hot things - cuz we, uh, use the microwave a lot. heehee. Hey, I'm no cook!

Lunchtime was quite chaotic too. I didn't realize we would have so many adults, and I think we even ran out of pizza. How embarrassing! We'll have to plan better next year. I think one of the kids threw up too. Yikes! As people started leaving, Tyler and his BFF Vincent decided that they wanted to take their shirts off. I'm not exactly sure what happened though. I think Vincent was getting his shirt changed, and Tyler saw Vincent shirtless and insisted on being so as well. Then they were slapping their tummies, and Tyler was yelling 'I'm naked!'. Then they danced all around shirtless. One of their girl classmates wanted in on the action too, but her mom said No. heehee.

After all that excitement, they needed a juice break. They're like a couple construction workers here with their pot bellies out.

Here's Tyler with Aunties Mariam and Trina. He LOVED their gifts! He was so excited about the Thomas sheet set. When he saw the Thomas stuffed animal he immediately grabbed it and ran down the hall with it pretending that he was riding it. And when he saw the Thomas coloring/sticker book - he went CRAZY! He's literally still crazy about that book and its 1+ week later. In the mornings he'll ask 'Choo-Choo book?' I loved the super cute Penguin little kid clothes. Perfect!

Here's Tyler and Trina! I'm bummed that we didn't get more photos of Tyler with the few other adults. I don't think there was even one of him with my parents or sister! :(

Here's a photo of Tyler and myself with my friend Sandia and her son Ethan. Sandia and I met when we were both still pregnant and taking birthing classes at our hospital. They used to live in Irvine but now are far away in Arcadia. :(

By the end of the party, we were all pretty pooped out. But it was so much fun! We even had some parents comment that it was the best party yet! I'm glad the adults had fun along with the kids and super glad we chose this venue.

Whew, at least we got a family picture! Happy 2nd birthday Tyler! Please don't expect every birthday to be this crazy! :)