A Toy Story 2nd Birthday Party

Two years old. I can hardly believe that my little baby is aging right out of babyhood. We kept the festivities fairly small, but I had a little bit of fun with our Toy Story theme.









Party City provided all of the Toy Story themed decorations. I assigned names to all the different food offerings, such as "Bullseye's Grazing Garden" for our veggie tray, "Mr. Potato Head's Spare Parts" for the chips, and my favorite, "Ken's Cool and Groovy Cheese Plate".



We had a party game: Guess the number of army men. The prizes were a foam rocket launcher for the kid contestants and a bottle of wine for the adults.

Since we are still dealing with food allergies, my husband prepared a dairy and egg-free cake just for Keagan.





And thanks to Pinterest pins such as this and this, I discovered the idea of creating a photo booth, complete with Toy Story characters.





But the true highlight of the party was seeing my little boy running around excitedly amongst his family, opening his presents and stomping rapidly with glee while clapping his hands. My pride, my joy and my love knows no boundaries when it comes to my son. I love him to infinity and beyond.

DIY: Sharpie-Colored Porcelain Mug

Ah, the holidays. It's that time of year where you scour Pinterest to find new ways to create gifts for all the special people in your life. I've seen lots of different ways to create personalized porcelain mugs with Sharpies in my Pinterest feed, so I decided to put it to the test.

Supplies

• Coffee Mug (I got mine from IKEA, $3.99 each) 
• Sharpies, multi-colored

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Draw with pens, create your own art
• Bake mug for 20 minutes

I wanted to find a way to bring my son's budding artistic efforts (read: stabbing at things with crayons and markers with unabashed joy) into the mix. After dressing him in old clothes that wouldn't be completely ruined by permanent markers, I handed over the pens. He went wild scribbling on the mug.





Once he decided it was more fun to throw the pens on the floor than color, I took over by adding Daddy's name and Keagan's signature.

I read online through some of my Google searches that while the paint bakes on, you shouldn't put the mug through the dishwasher. Since this was our test run, I washed the mug by hand with a sponge. I noticed that in one spot, where I scrubbed extra hard, the marker did seem to start to wear off. So when I create these as gifts, I'm going to include a note that gives washing instructions.

I love this DIY! It was easy, affordable and fun to create with my toddler. I'm considering other porcelain options for gifts from Keagan for Christmas - plates, bowls, flower pots, etc. Give it a try and enjoy!