Cue the tears and the wailing “how is my baby TWO already!?” You know how it goes.
Well, technically his birthday isn’t for a few more days, but we had a party last weekend for the family and this is how it went down….
P.S I’m using these pics for my 10 on 10 photo post – where I talk less and show more. Ooh, boomchickawahwah, that makes me sound really sleazy. But you get my drift… I share 10 photos from one day and at the end, I’ll give you a link to another blogger who has done the same thing and you can hop around to a great group of much more talented photographers than me.
Thud had a construction themed birthday. His favourite thing to scream in my ear as we drive the streets of Canberra is TRRUUUCCK! We are also surrounded by construction with three houses being built on our street right now, so he’s a bit fond of all the big machines and noise.
So there were yellow and black balloons (obvs). I considered hiring a helium cylinder which we did for his first birthday, but I decided the first birthday had been so OTT that he didn’t need helium balloons for at least the next five years. Kinda glad we went the cheap and cheerful option because nothing gave him more joy on his party morning than running up and down the hallway kicking the balloons.

Happiest birthday boy alive. Lots of squealing.
And here we have the cake.
Last year I went all out. We had a jungle themed party and I made a fondant cartoon monkey by myself (which, I’m not going to lie, was spectacular) but there was no way I was spending 8 hours on the 2nd birthday cake. Sorry mate.
This year it was a plastic truck stuck on top of the cake. Some boulders and rubble, with a couple of road sign cookies and we’re good to go.

Was delicious. All cakes should come with a side serving of Violet Crumble and Maltesers.
I like cookies. I like cake and cookies. #Idon’tquitsugar
I made little road sign cookies for the party. The ‘2’ is a speed sign. Which is sort of hilarious because Thud is more of an 80km/h type of kid.

Road sign cookies slathered in royal icing and fondant #diabeticcoma
Thank you Pinterest for this idea. No thanks however for the mini-tantrum that ensued when we showed Thud his new truck and then took it back off him to use for party props. In hindsight, it was a pretty cruel thing to do.
He lived. And he enjoyed the corn chips.
I’m all for party food like pies and sausage rolls, but when I saw the recipe for BBQ ribs on Shannon’s Kitchen, I knew that’s what we’d be having. They were amazing.
We also served up some beer-can chicken, a sublime potato bake made by the Sarge and some sausages for the kids. And a salad to make it look like we are somewhat healthy people. No one ate the salad.

Warning. You need to cook these ribs for three hours in your oven. The smell will reach every corner of your house and will drive you mad with desire until you are willing to sell your body for a taste of that sweet, sweet BBQ tang….
And then presents!

Why do we make faces like this? Do we think our kids will be more excited if they see us flipping out over a toy lawnmower?
Luckily Thud had his cousins on hand to help him work his new mower.

Boys and machines. It’s genetic.
And then cake.

Cake was almost lost to a bear attack. It survived.
Happy birthday to you! It was sung three times so he could blow out his candles three times.
He was not happy I said no to a fourth rendition, but you know… boundaries.

sniff…. blowing out those two little candles….
And then an awful lot of cake was eaten. Blergh…..

He looks so gentlemanly eating cake with cutlery, but in actual fact, he was just scooping the icing off the cake so he could eat that. Cue a sugar high for the ages.
So there we go. Little Thud’s 2nd birthday party. Such a big boy!!!!
Now it’s time to head on over to my gorgeous friend Sasha’s blog at From the Left Field. She’s a much better photographer than I am and she has two totally adorable little girls. You’ll love them xxx