BALLS!!!!!

Since we were having Tommy's birthday party on Saturday, I thought I'd just pretend the whole day was his birthday and let him do whatever he wanted.

First thing in the morning he found some party-supplies and was properly thrilled.

After picking them up and dumping them out roughly 25 times he decided it was time to watchee-show. Fine by me since I had plenty of birthday business to attend to.

Josh had racquetball class and then had to work, so I wasn't really counting on him to be much help. I was just hoping he'd show up before 3 (when the party started). Since I knew he'd be unavailable I begged my mom to come early and help me set up and she brought an entire setup crew with her, so everything was perfect!

We had loads of ball-shaped treats. (Have you ever wandered through a grocery store looking for a shape instead of a type of food? It's eye-opening.)

And I set up games with balls all over the gym of our church. 

We had a ball pit (balls in a kiddie pool)

We had bowling (2 liter bottles & a basketball with a lane marked with painters tape)

We had 4-square (painters tape on the floor)

We had paddle-ball & clic-ball-catch (thank you dollar store)

We had "Throw the football through the PVC pipe frame" (a games I just made up - can you tell?)

We had ping pong blow (blow the ping pong ball from one corner to the other without sliding off the table)

Plus we had punch-ball baloons floating around for the sheer pleasure of it (and maybe a little for some slow-man's volleyball)

When it was time for cake & ice cream I wasn't sure what to expect from Tommy - he's never really blown out a candle before and I wasn't sure he'd get it. But since he had a meltdown the night before in Walmart, Daddy taught him how to take a DEEEEP breath and blow it out. So he did. Just needed a little help aiming it in the right direction.

Why is it that the pictures with priceless faces on my boys are always really crappy quality? Oh yeah, because we were in a gym and I have no idea how to do anything cool with a camera.

Although Tommy wasn't hungry for lunch an hour earlier, he was miraculously starved when it came to cake & ice cream (smarty) and apparently he inherited the gene from Josh's family that says frosting is delicious.

When it was time for presents I was pretty sure we wouldn't get him out of the ball pit, so we just dragged the ball pit over to the crowd and let him open presents in there.

If I thought my boy was rotten - it would be because he's spoiled that way.

I'm glad Josh caught this face on camera, because it's one of my favorites that Tommy's been making lately. It's his "excited and surprised!!!!" face.

This pillow and blanket is from Grandma Reilley and Tommy & Lucy had a great time playing "nigh-night!" and taking fake naps for the next 10 minutes. 

It was a blast and we were so glad that people came and played the games and were good sports.

By the time we got home and unloaded I was pretty sure I was going to die. And maybe have a baby too. Which would have been awesome since I'd only have to do 1 birthday party/year if both my boys shared a birthday.

Eh well, you win some you lose some. (win some = awesome b-day party for the 2 year old; lose some = still pregnant. and huge.)