Celebrating Grayson!

Sorry for Grayson overload, but over at the Poe household, we make a pretty big deal about birthdays.  I LOVE birthdays and love celebrating, so that’s just what we do.  I basically force it upon the rest of the Poe fam.  Grayson had a huge birthday celebration weekend, with school being cancelled on Friday and a birthday party on Saturday.  If you follow me on IG or FB, you may have seen our fun day of activities from his actual birthday.  We had to make the most of our 3rd “snow day” in a row and plus, it was his birthday, so we went all out (in a toddler kind of way).  We started the day at Waffle House for a family breakfast and then Crawford, Grayson, and I headed to meet some friends for a morning of fun and chaos at Kangaroo Jax.  If you live in Greenville, and have toddlers, you definitely need to check this place out.  All the kids had a blast!  For lunch, we headed to Moe’s where Grayson devoured and made a mess of cheese dip.  But hey, we survived the morning without an epic meltdown from either child, so WIN!

On Saturday, we had a small birthday celebration with immediate family and a few of Grayson’s toddler friends.  I honestly love planning birthday parties, but being so close after Christmas and with how busy we have been lately, planning a huge party was just stressing me out, so we went simple for TWO.  Because let’s get real, he doesn’t even really understand or care yet.

When planning the boys’ birthdays, I first decide the theme…usually after a quick pinterest search.  But for this one I decided to reuse Crawford’s 1st birthday theme of Little Red Wagon, so that I could utilize some of the things I saved from years ago, like banners, napkins,etc..  After the theme is decided the first thing I do is contact @IsabeeCookies because I seriously use her for everything! She is SO talented!

The party was at 4pm on Saturday, so we decided to make it simple and just do a variety of desserts…and of course we threw in a couple of cheese plates too, because who doesn’t love a good cheese plate?

These cake pops from Let Them Eat Cake Pops are amazing!  Check out her IG page to see how talented she is! I unfortunately contacted her a little late, but if you give her a good notice, she can get really creative  with the cake pops! Regardless, they are delicious!

Mini cupcakes are PERFECT for toddler birthday parties and The Bakery off Augusta always does a great job!

As for the cheese plate, here are my GO-TO cheeses:  St. Andre,  Balsamic BellaVitano, any vintage Cheddar, and Manchego.  As for the meat, I’m not going to lie, it’s not my favorite part, but it’s always a hit – sometimes I put some simple pepperonis on the board, as well as prosciutto, chorizo, and hard salami.  I added some grapes and olives from the Fresh Market olive bar to the plate to add some color and for some variety.

We got these cheese knives for Christmas and I am obsessed!

I’ve been making these “number” boards since Crawford’s 1st birthday and just can’t break the tradition.  I love to look back on the last year and how much they have grown! 

I failed to get any family pictures, but at least captured the birthday boy looking precious blowing our his candles.  We had a BLAST celebrating this sweet boy and are so incredibly thankful for him and his bold personality and sweet heart.

I should probably start planning Crawford’s 4th birthday (April 21st) NOW, since I tend to procrastinate and wait til the week or so before to actually get stuff done.  Let me know if you have any fantastic birthday themes for a 4 year old! I’m thinking superheroes…or planes. Shoot your ideas my way!

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!