william's second birthday party

will's birthday is just around the corner. in 2 days he will be 2 years old. it's crazy to think that will has been with us for 2 years now. where did the time go? it seems like just a bit ago we were cleaning up the house and throwing will's killer ninja party, fully equipped with a team of ninjas.

well one year later, here we are doing the whole thing all over again. this year, we kept it a lot more simple and went with a cliche Cars theme. it had nothing to do with paying homage to pixar's steve jobs. instead, will sorta picked the theme all by his own almost 2 year old self. as you can see, he loves Cars. here he is carefully decorating for his party.

what can i say. he loves mater ("meh") and lightning mcqueen ("keen"). so cars was fitting. it's also super easy since there is cars paraphernalia at just about every store you walk into. so we bought red and brown balloons, emily made this killer cake, and we waited with great anticipation for will's cousins to show up to start the shindig.

i'm not sure when he figured out that all those boxes were for him and totally full of things he loves. but it was fun for him to run up and punch them in the meantime.

when everyone showed up, will went into party mode. for the first 10 mins he didn't stop running around in circles around the living room and kitchen. i think he knew something awesome was about to happen, and i think he might have known it was going to be for him. at least he figured out pretty quickly that everything was going to be perfectly suited for his likes.

the first game we played was pin the buck teeth on mater. will waited with excitement as each cousin took their turn, took the spinning, and stumbled forward to pin the buck teeth. finally it was his turn, and he nailed it.

next, we played chew the "tire" (chocolate donut) off the string: kids version and adults version. it was pretty fun as you can see for yourself. zach and steven were crowned champions, like father, like son.

and the video footage.

finally he got to open presents. he absolutely loved everything he got. except for the bat and ball he got from emily and me. he had no idea what it was or what you do with it. but he loved his tractors, his choo choo bike (thomas trike), his plasma car, and his mcqueen grand prix race track. i think the other kids and a few of the adults loved his toys too. it made for an awesome toy-fest manic crazy town at our house for the rest of the night.

it was near impossible to pull will away for a moment to get him to sit by his cake so we could sing to him and blow out the candles. but he was kind enough to oblige.

before his cousins went home, we gave them their silly eyes and had more laughs all around. it was a great night and a really fun birthday. will was pooped at the end, but i think he had a great time too.

william was definitely king for a day, he ruled the roost, and at the same time, he wanted to share it all with all of us too. he's such a sweet boy. he loves having fun and wants everyone to have fun with him too. we can only hope he wants to keep sharing all his things as well as his kingdom, especially some time around april 14th, 2012 too. time will tell.