World of the Wilsons: Happy 2nd Birthday, Eli!!!

Eli's birthday invitation

Yeehaw! Saturday, November 6th, our family and a few of Eli's friends from school celebrated our little boy's second birthday. It's hard for me to believe that two years have already passed since he came into this world. The time has just flown by and I wish I could make it slow down just a little bit. Eli's going to be grown before I know it!

Hours leading up to the party, Mom and I were working like busy little bees trying to put the final touches on all the decorations and food for the party. We probably went a little overboard, but how often does your little boy turn two? I kept telling Mom that she needed to open a party planning service back home. She had lots of great ideas and I seriously do not know how I could have done that part (the decorating) without her.

Since Eli's theme for his second birthday party was a western/cowboy theme, we wanted to have the party outside so the kids could run and play and, also, so we could have a hayride. Mammy and Uncle Clare came to the rescue! They graciously offered us their house for Eli's birthday party. It was PERFECT! Clare even agreed to use his old tractor to do a hayride for the party guests. All the details were coming together perfectly!

I wanted to be able to focus on Eli on his day, so I asked my good friend, Torri, to take pictures for me. She loves being the photographer and she does a great job, too. With her handling that job, I knew I wouldn't have to worry about anything that day except enjoying watching my little boy have fun.

Everything about the party was wonderful. Our decorations turned out so cute. The food was yummy and delicious. The hayride was the hit of the party. Eli LOVED all his toys. I guess the only thing that might have dampened the mood was that the weather was little bit cooler than we originally thought it was going to be, but even that wasn't that bad. It was, simply put, a perfect day! Josh and I feel so thankful for these past two years with Eli and we are so glad we were able to celebrate the past year with our family and friends. We can't wait to celebrate more birthdays with our little man :)

*Note: There are TONS of pictures. Torri took about 300 and they were all good, so I tried my best to pick the best of the best for the blog :)

Mom created WANTED posters of all the grandparents to use as decorations at the party.
Everyone enjoyed reading about these dangerous criminals ;)

Mom also made a bookmark as a favor for the party guests of Eli. I think this is going to be her tradition every year. She does a great job and they always turn out so cute!

I got the idea of the doing the signature canvas from my friend Nicki. She did one with Jonah for several years and it's a great memento of their important day.

Here are some pictures of the decorations before the party began. I have to say a HUGE thanks to Megan Powell, our church's music minister's wife. She let me borrow so many horse/cowboy/western related items and they really made everything look great!

My crafty mom also made a cowboy/western banner for Eli's birthday this year. If you recall, she made a banner for him last year, too. This year's banner went right along with the theme. It was perfect and oh so cute!