Astronaut Party
For Lincoln’s first birthday, we decided to do a space theme! I got the decorations from Amazon and Etsy and the cupcakes are from our favorite cupcake place in Springfield – Urban Cup. My husband and I are love puns so the “Rocket Fuel” (the food) consisted of “Crescent Moon sandwiches” (chicken salad sandwiches on a crescent roll ), “Saturn’s rings” (Funyuns), sun chips, and fruit rockets. “Galaxy Goodies” was for the gift table and it also included space themed treats like Moon pies, Milky way bars, and Mars Bars. I used a Cricut to make our tshirts and I bought Lincoln an astronaut costume for the smash cake pictures. I am sad to say that I don’t remember who baked the cake but we were trying to avoid giving Lincoln sugar before the age of 2 so her cake and the icing was sweetened with fruit.
Dinosaur Party
For Lincoln’s second birthday, I went with a Dinosaur theme. I started a tradition, and I am so glad I did, of taking a picture of Lincoln when he was 1 with the first picture I had ever taken of him right after he was born. And then when he was 2, I took a picture of him with that picture. I have kept up with the tradition and the pictures have turned out so cute. For the birthday party, I got decorations from Amazon and Etsy and found dinosaur toys at thrift stores. I then glued paper hats with pop pops to look like party hats on them. For the food, I made meat and veggie sandwiches for the “carnivores” and “herbivores.” “Stegosaurus spikes” were triangular cuts of watermelon, bugles were “raptor claws,” white chocolate dipped pretzels were “dinosaur bones,” blueberries were “triceratops poop,” and drinks were “Jurassic juice.” I made my own cupcakes and that was a mistake. I am not much of a baker and every year since this birthday, we have gotten cupcakes from Urban Cup. For the party favors, I made sugar cookies and using one of the dinosaur toys, I made tracks in the dough and filled them with sprinkles. I also used a mold and melted chocolate to make dinosaur chocolates. I also included some small rocks you could break open and find toy dinosaurs in them. Lincoln’s second birthday was bittersweet because it was my dad’s and my stepmom’s last birthday with us. My step mom had been battling breast cancer for several years and she knew that she didn’t have much time left. She rented a huge Airbnb to host all of our family members so that we could use Lincoln’s birthday as an excuse to have one last family reunion. She died less than 2 months later. My dad was in great health but his health declined rapidly after my step mom died. He died less than 6 months later.
