..sammy's circus..

the other day on facebook someone posted that she couldn't sleep, so she was planning her kid's birthday party - 3 weeks in advance! that made me chuckle, because i've been planning sam's for oh, 3 months. haha maybe even longer, if you consider that i decided on the theme back in march, when i started planning finn's 2nd birthday party. hey, in my defense, this is the sort of thing i love. when you're a stay-at-home momma, birthday parties are a big deal to wannabe event planners.

i ordered a few things for the party in july, and bought things here and there in august. i didn't get really serious about it, though, until the first or second week of september. i remember thinking that his birthday was almost one month away and that i had to step on it if i wanted all my grand plans to become a reality.

over the next month, i worked day and night, designing then cutting out the gift tags and food labels, and all the letters for all the signs. making the banner and birthday hats and the list goes on and on. pretty sure it would be in my best interest (and my scissors) to invest in a silhouette or cricut. i'm now on a first-name basis with everyone that works at michael's, zurchers & hobby lobby. we have no money in our bank account and my kids probably forgot who i am (you know, since they've been sorely neglected. just joking. sort of.). but it was all worth it because everything came together and turned out mostly the way i envisioned it.

thank goodness for my mom who came down the night before. if it weren't for her, things definitely wouldn't have come together on time. i don't know why i always think i have more time than i actually do - probably because time speeds up the day of a party. a minute goes from 60 seconds to 30 seconds and bam! it's party time. let's hope no one needed to use the restroom, or if they did, let's hope they kept the lights turned off because i have no idea what state the bathroom was in come party time, it definitely didn't get cleaned by me! ;)

the weather ended up being perfect - praise the heavens on high. this party had to be outdoors in order for it to have the visual effect i was going for. thank you, weather gods, for granting my wish. it was a bit more windy than i'd hoped for, but nothing we couldn't handle, thank goodness. and for the most part, you didn't even need a jacket, it was perfectly pleasant.

sam was a total grump for the first 45 minutes. he literally just cried the whole time. i think it was mostly a matter of wondering who his mom had turned into (a stress-case child neglector) and why she, as well as his dad, were dressed weird. as soon as i calmed down and held him, he calmed down, go figure. and the rest of the party was wonderful.

lance and my amazing neighbors, reid and garrett, made my dream of turning the patio into a "big top," a reality. i had the vision - they had what it took to make it happen. it took a lot of time and effort (and duck tape!), but was totally worth it. all three of them also helped me make the ferris wheel. i saw the idea on pinterest, so i called a local bike shop to see if they had any old wheels they'd be willing to sell me. just so happens they had two and they gave them to me for free (score!). we then hit up lowes to find some rods to hold it all together. i found what i needed, no thanks to lance, who assured me this was going to be a "huge project that would cost a lot of time and money and probably wouldn't work in the end." despite his protestations, i had the idea in my head and it wasn't going away, so i insisted on spending the time and money to make it happen. it actually ended up being pretty cheap ($30 tops) and really didn't take a lot of time. lance painted the wheels and rods, garrett & reid welded the rods together to make the upside down "v" (the legs) and i attached all the "seats" with fishing line. it turned out to be a hit, so i'm glad we made it happen.

my amazing mom made the darling cake, frosted the cupcakes, made the caramel apples and did a zillion other things. seriously, what would i do without her??

and last, but certainly not least, HUGE thanks to the amazing jessica kettle (my friend/neighbor/most talented photographer ever) for photographing this special occasion. i spent so much time and money on it, that i definitely wanted to have pictures to show for it all.

here are some very non-professional photos (taken by me) of everyone "clowning around":

i was so grateful to everyone who came to support this special boy. he has brought so much love and laughter into our family, i don't know what we'd do without him.

one last time, happy FIRST birthday to our sweet sammy boy!