I had grand plans to have a fun-filled day of activities with Henry today, but life (work!) got in the way. The daycare was closed on Monday, so Matt took the day off and all of them went to Chuck E Cheese for an early birthday treat! I managed to make time to meet them over there and even got some play time in during my lunch hour. (And a cute photo for my wall at work - I love the photo printing machine more than any game!)
Since Henry was going to be at school for his birthday, I decided to take him cupcakes for their afternoon treat so he could have a mini-party with his friends. Plus he just moved classrooms and there is no better way to make friends that with cupcakes, right??
And in order to make friends with the teachers and fellow parents, I tried to make slightly healthier cupcakes than previous years. I found a recipe that used applesauce and apple juice and no eggs or fats. While it sounded dismal to me, the blog post I found it on swore it tasted like an apple fritter.
Yeah no... Whatever, it was decent enough I figured toddlers wouldn't notice if it had a little frosting on it.
Plus I made him Minion cupcakes and what little kid these days doesn't love Minions?!? I was pretty proud of how well they turned out - especially the one where the liner pulled away and I managed to turn it into a cool hairstyle. Soooo clever!
Of course, I totally forgot from the Elmo cupcakes two years ago that black cookie glaze icing will spread overnight and the cupcakes looked significantly sadder by the time the kids got them. They didn't even seem to notice, so it was really just my decorating pride that suffered...
I made sure to show up early enough to not miss the start of snack time and this little guy was super excited to see me. As a side note - standing behind him is one of the other Henry's at school. Who knew there would be three of them?? Anyhow, shortly after I took this photo, my Henry got tired of waiting for the other kids still in his class to wake up and started pounding on the window.
Sigh...
So much for taking the awake kids to the adjacent gym to let the other ones sleep. "/
While his teacher, Anna, was rounding all the kids back up, Henry and I went down the hall to go get Thomas. I asked him if he had wanted to join the fun and he was super excited! (Probably mostly for the cupcakes, but who knows?) Also, Anna had made these super cute table covers while the kids were napping after lunch.
Have I ever mentioned how much Henry loves Anna and vice versa? The two of them have been best buds pretty much since Henry started there. Sometimes I would come to pick them up and Henry wouldn't be in his usual classroom - because he had somehow convinced Anna to come get him. So he has been super thrilled this week with his recent move to Anna's class. I certainly love knowing he's with someone who really cares about him. :)
Anyhow, back to the party - the kids are ready for some cupcakes!
Thomas even wore his Minion shirt for the occasion! Henry doesn't have one yet. He's in the same size shirts as Thomas, but I haven't convinced Thomas to send a Minion one Henry's way yet. I guess I could go buy him one, but a little waiting is good for the soul, right?
Obviously the cupcakes were a little messy and Henry was covered in icing. He never cared about how dirty his hands were until a few weeks ago. Now when he is eating, he hollers "Napkin! Napkin!!" at the tiniest amount of food on his hands. This mess was a little bit more than a napkin could handle, so we washed him clean in the sink. He's also becoming quite the pro at washing his hands - that's some independence I can get behind!
Happy Birthday Henry! There's more fun to come tomorrow, but I didn't want you to miss out on having some fun for the correct day. Between Monday and a party tomorrow, this is a birthday week celebration!