The Adventures of Jeff and Jen: Happy 2nd Birthday Caitlin!

Our little girl turned 2 a little over a week ago, on the 14th! I'm still in disbelief. I actually sobbed several times the day of Caitlin's birthday because I just couldn't believe my little girl is 2 already. If the first 2 years went by that quickly, I don't want to know how fast the rest of my life will pass.
I felt so out of control.

Me 2 years ago (March 10, 2012). Wait, are you trying to tell me this photo wasn't taken yesterday?!

But enough about me.
Caitlin had 2 birthday celebrations to celebrate the big 2!
She had an intimate dinner and cake with the grandparents the Sunday before her birthday, and a pizza party playdate with Caitlin's little friends the Sunday after her birthday.

At the grandparents house, I brought over Thai food take-out and my sister brought over good ol' Kee Wah Bakery strawberry cake. Lots of eating and hanging out, the way a birthday should be!

For Caitlin's party with her friends, I was initially reluctant to throw a party because I'm terrible at hosting parties. I get all anxious at the thought of having to entertain a lot of people together at one time and figuring out the guest list is always a big point of stress for me too. After some convincing from friends, I decided to throw a party, initially called a "glorified playdate". But knowing me, if I do something, I gotta do it right! I had to throw the best 2-year-old party ever. I needed to have good entertainment and good food! We just recently fixed up our backyard so our yard was the perfect venue to host the playdate party.
I rented a Sesame Street bouncy house (it was harder than I thought to find Sesame Street) for our "main attraction". Caitlin's new playhouse and Cozy Coupe were also fun toys that kids could enjoy at her party.
I stopped by the local Dollar Tree and Party City and picked up all my party supplies: bubbles for party favors, party favor bags, table cloths, construction paper, and mylar balloons. Party finger food was from Costco and Trader Joes (veggie sticks and dip, hummus, fruit salad, rice crackers, pretzels, potato chips, goldfish crackers, vegan "chicken" tenders, and butter noodles) and pizza was from Pamore's. Drink selections (from costco) included bottled water, coca cola, Hansens soda, and Fruitables juice boxes (fruit and veggies in every box!). I borrowed 2 tables from my sister. Every thing else you saw at my party was stuff I already had around the house.
My good friend and I spent all of Saturday (the day before the party) making awesome Cookie Monster and Elmo cakes and cupcakes. Everyone was impressed with our cakes. We should really be bakers. I tried to keep the Sesame Street theme tasteful and not too over the top. I got a lot of ideas and inspiration from Pinterest.
The party was at 4pm on Sunday so I assigned Jeff the task of getting Caitlin out of the house Sunday morning so I could finish last minute party details and also to wear Caitlin out, to ensure that she takes a good long nap before the party. Jeff took Caitlin to Noah's Ark at Skirball (which she loved, and ended up taking at 2.5 hour nap!), while I worked on the veggie platter, fruit salad, waited for the bouncy house delivery guy and picked up 9 mylar balloons. My good friend arrived at 2pm to work on backyard buffet table set up and any other last minute details. I assigned my sister to take pictures and bring serving spoons, and my brother in law the task of picking up pizza at 5:15pm. It takes a village to make a ~~glorified playdate~~ party happen! hehe!

Overall, I think the party went well. People were well fed, the turnout was great (about 40 people), kids were entertained, and Caitlin had the best day of her life. I know Caitlin won't remember this day and has yet to understand the concept of birthdays, but I know that she had a great time and she knew that we did something very special for her. That is good enough for me.

Birthday Cake with the Lin Grandparents

The cakes my good friend and I made. It took us 6 hours to frost them:
We had to make 2 extra trips to the store to get more food coloring and I was *this* close to giving up and buying grocery store sheet cake. I'm glad we didn't.
I also made these cupcake tiers out of 3 different sized paper plates with a paper cup glued in between each plate. Convenient and disposable!