Samuelsaurus turns 3

I can't believe my last entry on this blog is of Samuel's 2nd birthday party. How time flies.

This post is dedicated to my friend Natalie. She has taken great delight in my children and could not be at this party.

It wasn't hard to decide on a theme for Samuel's party this year. He is all things dinosaurs right now. Dinosaur shirts, dinosaur jammies, dinosaur coloring pages...the list goes on. It is a sad day when his red T-Rex shirt is dirty...and sometimes it is worn in a questionable state.

I host a weekly toddler time on Monday's. So when I checked the calendar and Samuel's birthday fell on a Monday, I decided to plan the birthday during that time. So three other little boys and one little girl came over for the party. We also let Matthew stay home from school that morning.

 We had the kitchen all set up for him when he woke up on his birthday. The table was set with T-Rex hats and dinosaur tails. He was so happy and surprised when he woke up.

 "I'm big!"

I wanted the party to be simple this year. Less kids should equal less work...right? Evidently I don't know myself very well. The projects I lined up for the party took more time than I anticipated. But they all turned out so cute. But in my defense, it was scaled down compared to other parties I have done for the kids.

 Patrick helped me make these T-Rex hats. We punched these scalloped circles and covered a box with them. Then added the nose and eyes. We lined the inside of the box with some foam so they would stay secure on the kids' heads. 

Samuel tried the hat on and his first comment was that the T-Rex did not have any teeth. So I spent the last few minutes before the party started adding teeth to all of the hats. 

 The dinosaur tails were so cute and so easy to make. I made a total of eight. One for each child and one for me and my friend Sarah.

Samuel asked for a scary T-Rex pinata. This is what I found and he loved it.

Pin the tail is such a classic birthday party game. Patrick drew this really awesome T-Rex on our huge magnetized chalkboard and we made some paper tails out of some scrapbook paper. We added a strip of magnets to the back so they would stick to the board. 

The kids were so cute as they started to arrive. They went right to the kitchen and started playing with their T-Rex hats. 

 This is Samuel's mean T-Rex face. Scary...right.

 This is Samuel's nice T-Rex face.

I don't know what happened to the T-Rex teeth. The hat started with five. 

After all of the kids arrived we had a dinosaur egg hunt planned in the back yard. We bought a couple of packages of miniature plastic dinosaurs and stuffed them in plastic Easter eggs. We also bought several inflatable dinosaurs like this T-Rex and put them all over the back yard for the kids to see. 

Here they are all lined up and ready to go outside. Aren't they so cute!

Samuel was the first out the door.

 "Watch out for the T-Rex!"

 I think he might be a little excited to see such a big T-Rex.

"Mommy, a T-Rex!"

The kids hunted for eggs and played with all of the dinosaurs. 

 I covered brown paper bags with some dinosaur scrapbook paper and finished it off with a dinosaur sticker.

The kids decorated the back of the bags with a variety of dinosaur stickers I found at Hobby Lobby.

After the hunt we went on a dinosaur walk around the backyard. The kids followed T-Rex and marched along the fence. 

 This might be one of my favorite pictures of Matthew ever!

 "Watch out for that herd of dinosaurs!"

After the dinosaur walk we went to the front yard for the pinata. 

We couldn't leave all of the dinosaurs in the back yard.

 This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole day. This kid really gave it all he had.

It took awhile to make a dent in the pinata and Patrick eventually had to tear it open for them.

 On your mark...get set...GO!

 I am sure all of the parents were so excited to get another bag of candy right after Halloween.

After they filled their bags, we headed in for pin the tail on the T-Rex and lunch.

The kids played pin the tail on the T-Rex while we were making lunch.

"Did I get it?'

 Here's Samuel patiently waiting his turn.

See this sweet man. All of the kids sure do love him!

I tried to keep the food really simple: T-Rex sandwiches, dinosaur nuggets, fruit, cheese puffs, chocolate dough nuts, milk and cake.

T-Rex sandwiches.

Dino nuggets.

I put grapes and strawberries in these green and white striped baking cups. It was an easy way to add color to the table and make individual servings for the kids.

I served the milk in Starbuck's frappuccino bottles. I decorated them with dinosaur paper and tied a piece of raffia around each one. As you can see I served white milk and Promise Land chocolate milk. No one drank the white milk.

I also made jars with dinosaur eggs for the kids to take home. I found the jars at Hobby Lobby and spray painted each lid to coordinate with the miniature dinosaurs. Then I filled each one with colored jelly beans and M&Ms. I thought they turned out so cute and it was super easy.

The cake was a super easy vanilla layer cake. I found the T-Rex at Hobby Lobby and RAWR stickers at Michael's in the Martha Stewart section. I stuck the stickers to long toothpicks. I used the T-Rex for the footprints all over the cake. I was really happy with how it turned out.

 I don't think he ate much but he sure drank all of his chocolate milk.

 Chocolate milk daze.

 Chocolate milk crazies!

After lunch, we opened presents.

I bought this gun at Target. It was in the Halloween section and marked down 50% because it was after Halloween. I was smart enough to buy two of them so that Matthew could have one too. 

 He also got a new Triceratops hooded towel. Who knew there would be so much excitement over a towel.

I know it is not Matthew's birthday, but I couldn't resist getting him one too. His is a shark.

This is Samuel with his pirate sword. After he opened this sword he wasn't really interested in anything else. He would not put it down and kept trying to figure out how to hold it while he did other things. 

Who needs more presents when you have a pirate sword. 

"It's mine. My own. My precious."

After presents, we had cake. It looks like we were able to get him to put down the sword for a minute. 

He did a really good job blowing out the candles. 

Here are a few more random pictures that I couldn't resist posting.

 Jax roaring like a T-Rex.

And that pretty much sums up our 3 year old T-Rex party. We had so much fun!

Dear Samuel,

You are such a sweet little big boy. You correct me if I say little. Each day with you is full of laughter, excitement, and discovery. You have more expression than any other kid I know. You love to cuddle and give kisses. You enjoy helping me around the house with anything and everything...sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, laundry, cooking and even pulling weeds in the yard. But I think your favorite thing to do is play with Matthew. You want to do everything he does and constantly follow him around the house. The two of you are very into super heroes and you play with Spider-man, Superman, and Batman all the time. You also spend a good amount of time on the trampoline. You just recently discovered scissors and I find snippets of paper all over the kitchen floor...good thing you like to sweep :) 

I am so glad to be your mom. I enjoy taking you places because you are so well behaved. You will sit quietly and work on coloring books or cutting when I have meetings at Matthew's school. Most people don't even realize you are with me. We enjoy taking you to the movie theater and you stay in your seat pretty much the whole time. 

You have a more diversified pallet than your brother at this age. You like peanut butter, green beans, peas, carrots and beans. You also love to have coffee in the morning and often wake up asking for it. I think your favorite thing to eat right now is sandwiches. You even ask for them for breakfast. And you always want to be snacking. Good thing you like healthy food. You almost never turn down an apple. 

We still have you in a toddler bed, mainly because we just haven't gotten around to buying you a big boy bed. You mostly sleep with Ellie at night but just recently branched out to include other "friends". 

You prompt us to pray almost every time we sit down to eat as a family. I pray that your love for God continues to grow. I trust that God has big plans for you. 

We are so thankful to have you as part of our family. You are truly a blessing to us and so many others. Your sweet smile brightens my day.

I love you!

Mommy