Desmond's Panda Party!

Desmond is TWO!

I admit we phoned it in a little when choosing his party theme, but he was such a big fan of Kung Fu Panda that we just decided to go with it.

Here is his fun day in pictures:


First, the invitation. As usual, I spent entirely too much time on this. In all of his recent pictures, he is dirty or has food on his face or has boogers, so we tried to get him to pose for a suitable invite photo. 76 pictures later, this was the best we could do.

As usual, Anita Schmitt made a gorgeous and delicious cake. (Always my favorite part of the party.)

Kung Fu Panda stuff proved surprisingly difficult to find, and 99% of it was for Kung Fu Panda 2, which came out earlier this year. But since I couldn't find much from the original movie, and because I knew I would be the only one who knew (until now), we got Kung Fu Panda 2 stuff. The banner is one. Plates & napkins were also technically from the wrong movie. Oh well.

Happy Birthday banner, which was hung in Desmond's

bedroom (long) after the party.

Bulk Chinese takeout boxes 

+ Kung Fu Panda (the orignal movie!) stickers 

= great party favor holders.

 

Plenty of people came to celebrate with us.

And of course, the movie played a couple of times during the party.

Patronized a local Chinese restaurant for our party fare. It was good, as usual.

Kung Fu Panda (2) plates. 

And more takeout containers for people to bring home leftovers. Which no one did.

The birthday boy ended up eating alone in the corner, but he was cool with that. 

Note the Thomas the Tank Engine pajama top, which he would NOT take off. Grandma had made him a really cute t-shirt with pandas embroidered on it, which he liked very much and wore several times - just not for his panda party. I guess that's being 2 for ya.

He eventually got some company. 

Presents!!

This guitar ended up being perhaps the best present of all. Who knew?

Panda Pillow (from Grandma & Granddad) immediately became Desmond's actual bed pillow.

Cake!

The aftermath.

Hey, look! It's Dexter! In pajamas! 

Note his absence from all previous pictures. He had a high fever for the whole party. He tried to tough it out for a bit, but instead threw up on the couch in the middle of the party. He spent the rest of the time in his room watching a movie on the laptop. Dad and Mom and Tootsie took turns keeping him company. His fever broke right as the party was ending, and he was good as new.

What a mess.

But the birthday boy sure is happy. :)

He looks sick, doesn't he?

Post-party cake? Don't mind if I do!

Finally, a simple thank-you note:

Dexter's M Party!

Ever since Dexter started receiving m&m's ("two m's!") as a reward for successful potty usage, they have seen a dramatic increase in popularity around here. While we were visiting Tootsie and Pop in August, Tootsie, Dexter, and Desmond had an "M Party" - siting on the sofa eating m&m's together. It was then that Dexter enthusiastically decided that his birthday party should be an M Party, too.

Easier said than done - would you believe there is almost NO m&m-branded stuff out in the world anymore? Just big things like towels or boxer shorts - not really stuff for a 3-year-old's birthday party. Somehow, though, we managed to pull it off.


The invitations:

The day started off with his "big" present - a big wheel from Tootsie & Pop. We wanted him to have a chance to enjoy it before the party craziness started. Desmond also got his big birthday present - a tricycle - a couple of months early so he could enjoy some time with it outside before the weather got horrible.

While they were riding around and having fun, party setup began in earnest.
There was an m&m bar, featuring eight different varieties of m&m's  - plain, peanut, peanut butter, dark chocolate, pretzel, dark chocolate peanut, coconut, and almond.

Favor bags were set out - just a small m&m plush doll and some fun size packs.

We had a couple of games. Memory with m&m images and "Guess how many m&m's in the jar" - with 3 jars (plain, peanut, and peanut butter).

Paulina tries her hand at m&m memory.

At the end of the day, Mary Klein won 2 out of 3 with an exactly correct guess of 333 m&m's. Emma won the third, but she didn't really want to brag about it.

Given the lack of availability of branded merchandise, decor was quite a challenge. We burned through a LOT of ink on the home printer, making all of these little cards with the m&m characters on them.

But what mostly saved the day, as you can see in many of the photos, was Granddad's lending us his m&m dispenser collection. The one next to the cake (within reach of many little fingers) saw the most use.

Other than the m&m sampler bar, the food was unremarkable. But we had to throw in the theme just a little bit anyway.

There was fruit punch. Dexter rrrrrreeeeeeeaaaaallllllyyyyyy liked it. Can you tell?

People! Lots of people came to the party! We had a lot of fun turning everyone into a walking m&m.

Dexter opened a BUNCH of presents!

CAKE!

And ice cream!!

And m&m characters made out of rice krispy treats! (They were better than Desmond makes it seem. Pretty much every kid gnawed on one for a while.

OK, some kids ended up taking turns gnawing on the same character. Sharing is good, right?

HAVE to include this picture.

He wouldn't let us put the m on the front of his shirt, so we sneaked it onto the back. Desmond also lost his left shoe very early in the day, and it never made its way back onto his foot.

Dexter wound down post-party with some of his new toys.

And we managed to get Thank You notes made, written, and sent within about 2 weeks. Woot!

All told, it was a great party. People had fun, the cake was delicious, and there were a LOT of m&m's left over. But most importantly, Dexter was happy. :)

But really. From now on? Only parties with themed merchandise easily available. Geez.