Matthew's birthday party has FINALLY arrived. I say that because it also falls on the first day of my summer vacation, and we all survived my being back at work for 5 months. Everyone just adores Matthew, and so most of our family made the trip to celebrate his party. The Moran Grandparents, Tia Suzy, Tio Mike and Aunt Rachel, and Tio George and Kelly came for a long weekend and stayed near the beach in Clearwater. Aunt Lori and Matthew's best bud, Noah, made the trip and stayed with Granna for 6 days. We even had all of our Gainesville family come too- Jen and Milo, Jaime and Ron, and Zac, Josh, Brooklyn, and Ben! They stayed at the beach for a night too, so we all got to hang out some more.
Since summer was upon us we had to go with some sort of a summery theme. Since our house is hardly big enough for our family of 3 plus Maggie we knew we couldn't have it here. So we decided on Lake Park for a summertime picnic theme. We bought picnic table cloths, and some red, white, and blue picnic decor, with little Alligator and Ant accents. The park installed a brand new playground that opened just one week before the party. We rented a pavilion and set up table to eat at and had a buffet of pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, my version of Milo's baked beans, chips, watermelon, sweet tea and lemonade, and of course.... cake! We had a great time just talking to all our friends and family. Most of the kids spent their time on the playground. We even had a clown couple come and make balloon animals and do face painting for the older kids. Matthew did not want any part of face, or bicep painting as we tried, but everyone else thought the clowns were a great touch.
Here is Matthew with his balloon sword. He loved it!
Matthew ate pulled pork for the first time which he loved. He also devoured watermelon right off the rind. When Mama Adina and I tried to slice the watermelon it feel apart in the middle, which isn't so great for slicing watermelon, but it means it is super juicy and very sweet. When the watermelon fell apart we were able to salvage it, and it made little baby-sized pieces. The kids loved it!
When it was time for Matthew to eat cake he was so excited. Everyone stood around singing and taking pictures, and laughing at Matthew, who in turn laughed at everyone laughing at him. There is no doubt he is Alex's son. The boy likes cake!!!, just like his daddy. Poor thing cried when we took it away and cleaned him off.
We had so many wonderful people come to the party, and they generously brought so many nice gifts. There were so many that we took them home with us for Matthew to unwrap later. We will be swapping out some toys because we have so much. Daddy is out pricing storage units as we speak. I am not kidding! Some of the neat things Matthew got for his birthday are: Large construction/dump trucks which Matthew loves to put things in the back of, fire trucks, puzzles, sports balls, beach toys, clothes, books and crayons, bath toys, remote control cars, a helicopter, plates and forks for my big boy eater, musical toys/stuffed animals, a basketball hoop, play fruit, a play tunnel, bathing suit with sunglasses and sandals, annual passes for our family to the zoo, and swim lessons for this summer! We sent our guests in their way with little beach pails, complete with bubbles and a rake and shovel.
All these great people came to the party: Granna and Papa Jack, Aunt Lori and Noah, Mama Adina and Grandpa Neno, Tio Mike and Rachel, Tia Suzy, Tio George and Kelly, The Bobcat babies: Jack Campo and his parents Christine and Mike, Cohen, Jane, and Kate Lucas and their mommy Sabrina, Piper Nickerson and her mommy Stephanie, Ella Peters and her parents Heidi and Dustin; The Davis family- Milo, Jen, Zac, and Josh, and The Thomas family- Ron and Jaime, Brooklyn, and Ben; Shepherd Duff and his parents Jenn and Sean and Stella Shaw and her mommy Laura; Savannah Rollo and her parents Sean and Michelle; Jason and Mya Smith; Bonnie and Gary Garrison; Jocilyn Martinez; Baby Anthony Caramanica and his mommy Vanessa; Janice, Darryl, and Jacob Heiden; and Annalise and Rene Tyus who visited us at home after the party.
Here we are at the park with our birthday boy!
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