The Tiny American Turns Two

I love to throw a party.  I love the planning and the organizing I enjoy the baking and cooking that goes into a celebration.  I have always thrown parties for the boys for their birthdays and never really worried too  much about who would come or not come and that the food would be a hit and everyone would have a good time, I pride myself on being a good hostess.  Just a few weeks out from the Tiny American's  Birthday John started asking me what I was planning for his party, I was at a loss.  We have no family here, the backbone of 2 year olds party.  We have just started making "couple" friends and Zane and I have a group of friends that we participate in a playgroup with but those are still really new friendships and I wasn't sure about inviting them to a birthday party....I didn't want them to feel obligated to come and at the same time I was worried that none of them would come. I thought about just having his party during our regular playgroup time, but then John would miss it.  I was really struggling with what to do, so I was doing nothing.

Finally I decided to have a small gathering on the evening of his birthday and invite two other families, both of which have a child that Zane really enjoys playing with and of course Venus.  I have never waffled back and forth so much about what to serve for a meal at a birthday party.  We don't have a grill which would be the go to good for a fall birthday.  Hamburgers and hotdogs, you can't go wrong.  I also worried about if our Taiwanese guests would like the American food I fixed, I think I am just a worrier. At the end of the day I don't think anyone really but me cared what I served.  I settled on pulled pork sandwiches, pasta salad and fresh fruit. I planned to make homemade chicken nuggets for the kiddos, YUM!

For the theme I had no idea what to do.  He still loves Mickey but we did that last year. (Of course Tucker had the Batman theme for at least 4 birthdays!) I never imagined that finding party supplies would be an issue here, honestly I kind of thought all of that stuff was probably made here.  But it was a challenge and presented it's own set of problems. Toys R Us  had a small section of supplies but nothing really reached out and grabbed me.  IKEA had some things that I liked and so I went with their Woodland Animals theme.  I was not really excited about doing a cake that went with that theme, but my desire to have my theme come together was nagging at me. I could have had a cake made, I have had some of the boys cakes made in the past, but I really prefer making it myself.  SO  in the end I decided to veer from the theme and do a construction cake...please do not try and connect the dots and assume I am suggesting through my theme that we plow through the woods and knock down trees, in Taiwan I just have to go with what I've got to work with. The Tiny American could careless about the theme, I know this is my issue.

All my worrying was for not.  The day before his birthday he started having a runny nose and didn't sleep well, by the morning of his birthday he was in full blown cold mode..runny nose, runny eyes and total grump!  We decided that subjecting anyone to this version of the birthday boy would not be in ours or their best interest, we canceled the party.  His birthday was great anyway.  He woke up early and I had the apartment decorated with balloons and his presents from family back home.  Before John left for work we let him open his gifts.  When Daddy got home we had dinner and birthday cake.  He loved the candles and we had to lite them and blow them out twice!

 Next week we will go to Hong Kong Disney and celebrate some more.  He will get the chance to meet his favorites in person!  The Tiny American has had an amazing second year....I can't wait to see what adventures year 3 brings!!