In my blogging absence, I completely missed Savannah 2nd birthday! I mean, I missed writing about it – we certainly acknowledged it in real life! :-) I was busy preparing for it in my blogging silence before her birthday, and afterwards I actually got really sick and ended up laying on the couch for three days straight. I even wrote her a 2 year old letter and didn’t get a chance to post because getting to the computer those days was just not happening. Anyways.

Savannah’s party came together very, very last minute. I spent way too long deliberating about where to have it – last year, we were outside at a park near our house. It was fun but also hot. Late August in Atlanta is unpredictable – it will surely be warm, but will the humidity be stifling or will it be okay in the shade? I inquired about having it at our church, but my emails were never returned and I was frustrated (and also dealing with some unrelated stuff at the time, and my mind was about burnt out!). Then 7 days before Savannah’s party, I was talking about it with a friend and she suggested using the clubhouse at her condo complex. Score! It ended up being PERFECT. I was SO grateful to her for helping me out.

I never actually sent out invitations since I didn’t even have a location confirmed until 4 days before the party. So it was all word of mouth and though not many came, I think it ended up being perfect (especially since we are a family of 3 introverts!).

As I said, we chose a Cookie Monster theme. It was fairly easy – I brought Savannah’s Cookie Monster doll with me to the store and looked for blue things (since it’s impossible to get Cookie Monster-only paraphernalia – Elmo and Abby Cadabby are all the rage right now!). I enjoyed playing with the possibilities of a blue party. Hobby Lobby, Party City, and Target became my best friends, and I think the decorations were fabulous.

Here was the main table. The food wasn’t themed – just various snacks, enough to be a complete lunch but still able to eat without being at a table. I made sure to get some blueberries as a nod to our blue theme! I printed off my favorite 8 pictures from Savannah’s past two years, and displayed them around the room. I also bought 3 small Cookie Monster dolls to use as decorations and later as favors for the three children who attended.

Blue themed drinks! I found blue Mountain Dew for the soda lovers and blue gatorade for the sports drink lovers. In retrospect, I wish I had removed the labels to make it slightly more classy. I used my glass pitcher and poured Cookie Crisp cereal in it for decoration – I was thrilled with how that turned out!

Next to the drink table was a shorter table with water bottles in ice. I meticulously removed all the labels from the water bottles, and was pleased with the look.

We also had a Cookie Monster photo op chair. I got a picture of each of our guests in the chair with Cookie Monster and wearing the feather boa. I will say, I am definitely going to repeat this – it was great to have on camera each person who came! Sometimes candid shots don’t get great pictures of everyone, so some posed shots are nice to have. Also, including the doll and the feather boa made people feel more relaxed and silly about the whole thing.

Here is our family at the party – what a fun picture!

Gift table. I got the basket because it was the perfect blue, and in the end couldn’t find a good place for it, so I stuck it here.

We borrowed a picnic table for the kiddie table, and it worked out great. We had three kids, and I had favors for each of them: a blue beaded necklace, Sesame Street coloring book, crayons, and Cookie Monster activity cards. (They each took home a small Cookie Monster doll, too.) These kept them entertained while we waited for the food and guests to arrive.

The whole room, with the streamers and balloons. We blew up a bunch of balloons, and ended up just leaving them loose around the room because we couldn’t get them to attach very well to the walls. That was a big hit!!

You can see in that last picture Savannah’s outfit – a Cookie Monster onesie with a pink skirt and sparkly silver shoes. She looked adorable! She also had a fancy blue bracelet that you can see in other pictures.

My favorite – these were the cupcakes I made (instead of a cake). They were surprisingly easy, and I had a lot of fun. There were several left over that Paul took to work, and I was told that pictures were taken by his coworkers and submitted to an iReport. :-) I served each cupcake with some ice cream topped with Cookie Crisp cereal, which was a big hit and a fun continuation of the theme.

We all enjoyed eating and socializing, and then it was present time. I’m happy to report that this year, Savannah did not have a meltdown and have to leave in the middle of her party. In fact, she was totally living it all up!

Fun family picture.

Savannah handed her gifts back to the person who gave them to her. I think she was a little confused. ;-)

When she opened the present from my mom (“Grandma!”), she handed it to the person in the room who most looked like my mom, which I thought was really cute!

She’s silly!

By the end, all the toddlers were helping her unwrap!

She loved her new baby doll and the diapers I made for the baby.

Happy birthday, Savannah! You can see all the pictures here, mostly taken by my brother-in-law, Tim. Here’s a birthday party tip: hand someone else your camera! I got much better pictures than if I had tried to host and photograph at the same time. He did a great job!