A party fit for a King!

Here they are in perfectly reversed order- Arthur's birthday party! We finally had a party to celebrate his 2nd birthday. We waited until we had arrived back in England, so it was like second 2nd birthday for Arthur! Our theme was King Arthur and with Chris' creative help and a few late nights we pulled off a party fit for a king!

Enjoying the frosting- this is how kings eat cake!

Blowing out the candle

We made 'dragon's egg' pinatas and let the little ones go wild with a rubber bat! It was adorable!

Some of the kids really got into the spirit and came in costume, like this adorable princess!

Arthur came down with a bad cold the day before the party and although he was feeling pretty miserable on the big day, he still managed to have some fun! I am so glad that he was a good sport for all of it (I'm sure he didn't mind it too much- when else would I let him eat cake and ice cream when he is sick?)

In consequence of him having a cold, we weren't able to capture many good smiling pictures of Arthur from the party. But we loved the look on his face here- this is a knight ready to heed the call of a brave quest!

The kings of the bar b que pit!

King Arthur checking out the fierce dragon!

What cute boys!

Arthur and his Grandad

My sweet king Arthur!

Alright, here are some 'beauty' shots of the cake. It took most of the day to bake all four of these cakes, and then there was cutting them, leveling them, stacking them, cooling them, setting them, frosting them, re-frosting them, smoothing the frosting on them, decorating them...and I began to see why so many of us order our birthday cakes! I actually did have fun, although I don't think I could ever have a calling as a baker. I found the ceramic castle on clearance at our near by craft store with the paint your own ceramics, so about $2 later and a little brainstorming I was in business for a mighty castle birthday cake! Thank goodness for craft stores!

Anne and I getting into the party spirit!

Some of our castle decor. Chris created these shields for me and helped me hang about 100 streamers!

Arthur's great grandad. We are so lucky to have such fun grand parents!

All dressed up and ready to conquer the world!

More of Chris' handy work....meet our resident party dragon! I love how this turned out and the little extra touch that it added, I especially love how he just lounged on top of the swing seat for the party!

Months ago I booked a bouncy castle for this party. There are a lot of young families in our ward that we are friends with and a lot of young kids running around, so we thought it would provide adequate fun and entertainment for all. A few days before the party the man that owns the castle rental company we had booked through called and canceled on us, ahhhh! I scrambled around and after confirming with EVERY party rental company in Southern England that there was no way you can book something like that the week before the party I was lucky enough to find this alternative. We rented this soft play gym and the kids really loved it! It was fun for the little ones to climb all over and the bigger kids got a kick out of building forts from the pieces and scaling the ensuing 'mountains'!
Arthur was a great little model for me before the party started, I knew I wouldn't be taking many pictures once all the kids arrived, so that's why he looks so lonely here! This is the before shot, and if you can imagine the after looking a bit like a bomb had exploded you'll be on the right track!

This is Arthur's baby cousin, Seth. His mom made this dragon costume for him just for the party- what a sweet dragon he turned out to be!