Happy 2nd Birthday Tristan!!!

Exactly two years ago, I became a mother. Jean-Louis became a father. Tristan came into our lives and nothing has been the same. There are tons of adventures every year and it's just amazing when you think about what has happened so far.

Every year we celebrate Tristan's birthday with a big splash. For us, it is a huge milestone. We threw a birthday party for Tristan today. Today is his official birthday and it worked out great that today is also Saturday :) We invited friends and family and had a good time eating. There wasn't much more we could have done since at two, kids are not old enough to follow instructions and play actual games. We'll maybe try some games next year.

Initially, we had a Thomas the Train themed party in mind but when it became too hard to get supplies for the theme, we just went with a theme-less party. Well, we didn't totally scratch the theme. We did have a birthday cake with a piece of Thomas the Train chocolate on top and we found stickers of Thomas the Train to throw in the loot bag. That was all though :( Again, I think at this age, themed parties are not that important and birthday parties are really still for the parents. As parents, we thoroughly enjoyed it :) Kids were well behaved, food was plentiful and good, and Tristan seemed happy.

Surprisingly, we didn't take many pictures or video. There just wasn't much happening and we mostly just ate and socialized while the kids played around. The party was from 11-2PM but nearly everyone arrived late. It was great for us though because I was very late with all my cooking. Sadly, I had to cut a lot of vegetables while Tristan clinged onto my leg and whined. Jean-Louis was out picking up the birthday cake at the time. It was a bit stressful but in the end, everything was done and everything turned out good. I did skip one dish on the menu since by then it appeared we had more than enough food. I also meant to cut up fruit and serve some Mexican candy but I forgot to do that too. Oops :( Unlike last year, where we bought a lot of food, this year I made everything on the menu, except for the cake and drinks.

PARTY FOOD MENU

Appetizers:

• Spinach dip with sourdough bread & assorted veggies

Main dish:

• Stir-fry chicken chow mein
• Stir-fry barbecue pork chow mein
• Pesto chicken panini
• Turkey/basil sourdough panini

Pop, apple juice

Dessert:

• Taro Cake
• Homemade birthday cookies

THE LOOT BAG

Contents:
Puffy stickers of vehicles, Thomas the Train stickers, birthday cookies (one of each kind), Mexican toys, and Mexican treasure chocolate coins.

It was the first time I assembled a loot bag. We didn't have any last year because I didn't know much about them and there weren't that many kids. There weren't that many kids this year either but the kids are older and I thought it would be nice to give them out as a "thanks for coming" gesture. I did try to invite a couple of Tristan's friends from daycare but none of them could make it :( Too bad for them because they missed out on these cool loot bags! Well, at least I thought they were cool.