Lawson's 2nd Birthday Party!

This is way past due, but posting it is worth my time as it was a big day!

On Saturday, May 29, we celebrated Lawson's 2nd birthday with a "Tractor" birthday party! It was such an exciting day for him and us, too. He understood that it was for him and his excitement was heart-warming.

The party began at 11:30 with lunch being served at 12:00 noon.




In addition to our family, many friends joined us to celebrate his birthday. We had a total 28 guests in attendance including both sets of grandparents... Aunt Julie... Uncle James Denton, Aunt Christy, Lanna, and McKenzie... friends Jon, Kim, Clayton, and Kayce... neighbors Tim and Arden... Pam and J.D... Alex, Sarah, Brenna, and Grant... and Jamie and Ava. We were happy to have so many here to help us celebrate.

Ava and Brenna

Grandmother, Granddaddy, and Emmitt

Grant pushing Lawson on his tractor... I'm not sure who was having more fun. :)


Lawson, McKenzie, and Kayce

Lawson and McKenzie

Aunt Christy and Emmitt

Grandmother and Emmitt

Emmitt sporting his Tractor Birthday attire

Granddad and Emmitt

We were so excited to have each of our grandparents join us from Martin, meaning Lawson and Emmitt had all five great grandparents here to help celebrate.

Granddaddy, Grandmother, Mama B, Granny...

...And Daddy Denton!

With the party beginning at 11:30, it allowed time for visiting and Russ and I enjoyed that very much.

On to lunch...

Serving lunch meant needing seating for the 45 people invited. The initial plan was to serve lunch in the kitchen and eat outside in the backyard. As we began watching the weather on Wednesday, it became apparent that the temperature was going to be too warm for eating outside in the full sun as our backyard has no shade during the middle of the day. Like last year, we moved lunch to the garage. I was slightly disappointed on Thursday when we made the 'garage decision', however by the time noon came around I knew we had done the right thing... it was very warm outside and surprisingly the garage was quite comfortable.

For lunch, guests enjoyed BBQ sandwiches accompanied with baked beans, potato salad, potato chips, and skewers of fresh fruit along with cold drinks.

It was really good!

The table decorations... this was a last minute change of plans around 2:00 A.M. the morning of the party. The initial plan was to decorate the table with pinwheels created out of colorful scrapbooking paper and skewers, placed in mason jars filled with sand. They were simply adorable and thanks to the guidance from a friend from home, I had successfully made a handfull of these cute little pinwheels. I had planned to finish the remaining 8 before going to bed, but I ran out of time and was exhausted. Julie Anne was here to help on Friday night and we couldn't have made it without her... around midnight as she and Russ were in the garage setting up tables, I went out to talk to them about the centerpieces and the need for them to be completed. They were not supportive in the least with regard to me staying up to finish the pinwheels although Julie Anne agreed earlier in the night that they were adorable. Russ talked me into doing something different. I wasn't sure what that was going to be and not to mention how were we going to do something different this close to party time... I was feeling stressed as the clock ticked and I became more tired. At 2 A.M., I went to bed with no centerpieces on the table... When we awoke at 5:30 to finish things up, I decided to send Russ to Lowe's to pick up a few flowering plants of his choice suggesting something white as not to clash with our green and yellow theme. He was supportive. He arrived back home informing me with a smile saying "I did good; you're going to like it". :) I wasn't convinced until he pulled out the yellow Gerbera daisies... and he was right, he did good and I was satisfied. Lawson's little tractors complimented them and I decided to be happy. Courtney- thank you for your help... I am determined to use the pinwheels for a later event; they are so darn cute.

For directions on the pinwheels, go to www.marthastewart.com/good-things/paper-pinwheels

The next few pictures are of family and friends enjoying lunch...

Granddaddy and Emmitt

The Birthday Boy enjoying a pickle with his lunch

And now for my favorite part... the birthday cake.

I love, love, love birthday parties, and I love, love, love birthday cake! I am one who requests a corner piece so I can have extra icing. :) And this cake was delicious.

On Friday morning, I dropped Lawson off at school and headed to Paris, TN with Emmitt to pick up the birthday cake. Jerry Joyner, who is awesome, made Lawson's birthday cake again this year. His cakes are the best tasting cakes I have ever eaten not to mention his talent. Last year's early morning trip to Paris was a breeze so I decided to do the same this year... this year's trip was far from a breeze. Traveling 2.5 hours with 4-week old Emmitt was quite the challenge. About an hour down the road, I was wondering what the heck I was thinking. But we finally made it to Paris after 3.5 hours. I hauled Emmitt in to pick up the cake and was shocked... the cake was enormous! So big that I was embarrassed. When I ordered it, I ordered a larger cake than needed so that we would have some left. Remember how much I LOVE birthday cake?! I couldn't believe how big the cake was. I ordered a cake to feed 55-60 as we had invited 45 and there were only 33 including the four of us. As I headed out to the van (which by the way, we did buy a new mini van right before Emmitt arrived and I must admit that I love my new Toyota Sienna, AKA the Mommy Mobile, Grocery Getter, whatever else I used to call them before owning one, but the space really is nice for traveling to TN). Anyway, as I approached the door, I realized the cake was not going to fit through the door. I was even more embarrased at this point. The sweet ladies at the "cake pick-up location" were so kindly helping me determine how we were going to get this cake out to my vehicle. I finally went out another door and then we COULD NOT get it in the van!!! Ugh. It was hot, Emmitt was crying, and I was frustrated to say the least. Finally, after 10 minutes I figured out how to lay the back seats down and we were able to get it in. At this point, I was questioning myself on ordering a cake that I had to drive 2.5 hours to pick up. But we were back on the road, arriving home around 2:00.

And by the time the cake was nicely on the table, I was happy that I had ordered it from him and decided it was worth the drive. And we didn't have as much left as I thought we would have, however we had enough to enjoy over the next few days. And as expected, it was absolutely delicious!

Lawson's little cake

The birthday cake table

Lawson was extremely excited about the cake

Lawson ready to eat!!!

Guests awaiting a piece of cake

This is slightly out of order, but Lawson was so cute as they were singing "Happy Birthday"!

Fun, Fun!

Friends Ava and Brenna eating birthday cake with Lawson

McKenzie helping Lawson eat, by the way he LOVES the icing, too!

Russ did a great job of cutting and serving the cake

And then to birthday gifts. Lawson received many nice gifts and we appreciate everyone's love and generosity. He had so much fun opening them and has had even more fun playing with them!

As a thank you for joining us to celebrate Lawson's birthday, each child received a little bag thanking them for coming. In the bag was a John Deere cup with John Deere fruit snacks, green and yellow M&Ms, and green tractor soap which was a big hit! I ordered them from etsy at www.etsy.com/shop/mommyslittlecritters, she has many different soap designs and fragrances. Communication was great and shipping was fast!

In addition, each family took home a bag of Johnny Pop Popcorn as thank you for joining us. The bags of popcorn have a John Deere combine shelling corn on the front. I purchased these, as well as his other party supplies from www.greenfunstore.com/.

And that was the Tractor Party!! Lots and lots of fun!

Lastly, with so many of our family members here to join us, we took two nice family pictures.

This picture includes our family with grandparents.

This picture includes all family here to celebrate!

Mom, Dad, Aunt Christy and Uncle James Denton, and Mr. Richard and Mrs. Jane, thank you for bringing our grandparents from Martin to be here with us.

To our friends reading, thank you for joining us for this special celebration!

Who knows what the 3rd birthday party will hold, but I can only hope it will be as much fun as the 2nd!