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.

nana came to visit.

back at the end of may, nana came out for almost a week to play with finn. she said it's her most favorite time she's spent with him so far, probably because he can talk back to her & they love to do the squabble, tickle, laugh dance together. finn, surely loves it because nana gave into him on whatever he wanted, as she thinks is her grandmotherly duty.

here are a few pictures from her trip.

nana even let him eat dinner while watching a movie.
matt & melissa had us over for a little lunch & swim play date!



& then the next day was movie day & we went to the marketplace splash park afterwards.


thanks for coming nana, we love you!