finn's second birthday party...

i had this crazy idea that we'd have a painting party. we'd line our kitchen walls with recycled paper & i'd have a big tin of paint out for the kids & let them have at it. it would be washable paint & we have tile floors, so whats the big deal! oh my son. my messy, messy, creative son! it really wasn't a big deal, they had a blast! a few grown-ups cringed, bryan included, but the kids had a blast.


i'm not a huge fan of party favors, finn's never cared for what's inside the goody bags & even if he did it was thrown away a couple days later. so i wanted to give out something that was lasting & useful. so i headed to sas & bought some jean fabric and made art smocks for the kids. i had so much fun with this project. the pattern was simple & i simplified it even more by not sewing & instead grommeting the neck straps. i'd wanted to add pockets, but ran out of time & steam.

so here's the set-up.
we let the kids play in the other room with the cardboard house & balloons for quite a while.
& then we called them in & explained to them what we were about to do.
then heather, mom & i handed out the smocks.

they were all timid at first...

with nice little brush strokes!


& then they got into it! i was so proud of how messy emma got- she normally likes her wet naps & clean hands :) i made a comment that i'd never seen emma get so messy! & stoli's response was "we don't let her get that messy!"
mixing...


hand prints galore!
daddy grinning & bearing it.
the start of some messy thoughts entering his mind...
hmmm...
want a hug?
or maybe just a kiss for finn.

what mom?
i posted this on facebook & a friend said it looked like he was trying out for the little people's braveheart.
& then this happened.
so we had fun with it & tried to put hand prints on the belly.


he was definitely having fun -which was the point!!
but, then dad said it was time to clean up.
so all the kids eventually followed us outside to be sprayed off.

with a new outfit & somewhat tired kids, we had lunch. pizza bagels for the kids & chicken salad sandwiches for the adults.
emma & finn.

& then cupcake time! organic chocolate & yummy powdered sugar icing! that organic/non food coloring dye is expensive. i'm gonna have to invest one of the days, but dang!

finn had like three pieces of cake...
tom & finn talking boy stuff.


michael & jill, thanks to jill for coming early & helping set-up! (heather too!)
finn & kyan reading together.
i can't believe how big kyan's gotten! so excited for him to start crawling & playing more with finn!
nana's flight was a few hours after the party, so as the party started to die down, she started her goodbyes.


thanks for staying for the party nana! love you.