I finally got around to collecting every one's pictures from Jaydons 2 year old construction themed birthday party. Here they are in no particular order.
The pinata was a big hit (haha) unfortunately it wasn't until after all the kids and parents tried smacking it that we realized it was a 'pull the ribbon' kind that opened a secret door.
Apparently you weren't even supposed to hit it just pull ribbons - what fun is that? I guess we'll read the instructions closer next time:)
Here's Annie, Heidi, Eliza and Sara all being good sports and (almost) posing with their hard hats on.
Currently Jaydon's favorite color is orange which worked perfect for theme.
So he got orange cupcakes with orange frosting (of course when Steve saw the cupcakes he asked why I put pink frosting on them... after 20 minutes of mixing red and yellow food coloring they looked orange to me).
We brought the ball pit out to the party and added balloons to the fun.
Steve trying out how to juggle 2 munchkins at a time - good practice for later.
Here's Jaydon, Jacob, Oscar and Tristan having fun filling tractors with goldfish. For decorations we brought all of the tractors Jaydon owns and it was enough to have tractors as decorations on every coffee table in the clubhouse.
We never realized how many he had until we collected them all up for the party.
Sophia and Shamia enjoying the fun, watching all the kids run around on their sugar highs.
Nathan and Heidi sporting their party hats.
Jaydon just as cute as ever, Heidi brought him an early birthday present which is the orange dump truck shirt he's wearing - the perfect outfit for this party!
Jacob helping everyone find their way to all the fun at the party.
When we finally got the pinata open all the kids had a great time collecting up goodies, however Jaydon was very concerned that the pinata was now broken and the insides had come out.
It's taken a couple parties since then but he now understands that you re supposed to break the pinata.
Rebecca and Nate enjoying the fun.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAYDON!
Once it was all finished he had more interest in the strawberries and maple syrup but I was able to put the extra waffles in the freezer for later. 
The previous night Jaydon got to open his presents from us. 
Steve used the opportunity to buy Jaydon the biggest set of duplo leggos he could find. 
They spent the night building and destroying towers. 
Jaydon also got a big kids tricycle. 
Steve spent 2 weeks looking for one but could only find poor quality ones. He finally found this one and was hoping it would be small enough (age said 3 and up) but Jaydon's legs are still just a little too short. He will just have to grow into it.
Next task was decorating for the party. It must be Jaydon's birthday if he's having cupcakes while still in his jammies! 
The theme for his party was construction tractors. Living in Doha has really taken it's toll on Jaydon - he loves digging and scopping and flatening and crane and any other kind of tractor out there. 
My mom was able to find some great decorations for us back in the US and filled up an entire suitcase of stuff for when we met up with her in Spain. 
She even found kids size plastic construction hard hats and Grandpa took the opportunity to personalize Connor Construction logo stickers for each hat. 
Steve borrowed a few cones from his job site and with a bunch of orange ballons (Jaydons favorite color) and way too many cupcakes we were ready for a big birthday bash. 
Heidi brought Jaydon a tractor balloon which was a big hit at the Bennigan's playground. 
Here's Jaydon making friends with it and loving all the attention he's getting. 
Steve and Jacob are having a good'ole time, actually I think Steve is trying to avoid getting speghetti thrown on him. 
Jaydon's blows out his candle and Abby is thrilled to be able to help him with his ice cream and brownie.
Three families were able to join us, a few are still a little young to eat 
Jacob brought along his uncle who was in town for the weekend. 
Heidi enjoyed munching down her baby food in the new place full of distractions. Abby and her little brother Nat also joined us but I never got a good pic of the 2 together. 
The highlight was 
Jaydon got to start his birthday fun a little early and opened up his gifts from the Forte's. 
With all the practice at Christmas he's getting much better at tearing open wrapping paper. His first gift from Grandma and Grandpa was a neat toy train that spells his name. 
The next gift was his favorite BOOKS and these books even read themselves. 
Jaydon's Aunt Sarah found these neat books where you can record yourself reading the story page by page. The book has a sensor so knows which page you're on and plays the correlating recording. Sarah got Uncle Mike, Cousin Ian and Great Aunt Bun to join the fun in recording the stories. Jaydon thought it was great and we got a video of him discovering the fun in the book. (For the longest time he thought there were buttons he had to push to get the voices started so you can see him trying to push the buttons on each page)
We realized that carrying him from the bathroom to the Bedroom after bath time just wasn't part of the routine anymore (especially since mommy is trying to get Jaydon to walk rather than being carried). 
To keep him from getting cold after the bath and while brushing his teeth Steve and Jaydon picked out a new bathrobe. Which he of course looks just adorable in.
The boat was able to hold 6 people but we didn't think Jaydon would put up with several hours on the boat so Steve invited some of co-workers and friends along. 
Since it was right around the holidays only one ended up making it (Maurice) that morning but I think the boys had fun anyway. As you can see from the catch they brought back it was a very different fishing experience then what we are used too. 
Apparently they just bottom fished and kept everything they caught. The guide didn't speak much English but was happy to take the fish and sell them since Steve and his Dad knew that we wouldn't be up for gutting and eating a bunch of little boned filled fish.
For New Year's we (myself, Steve and his parents - Jaydon was home and asleep) decided to visit one of the new restaurants on the Pearl (Doha's equivalent of Dubia's Jumeria island - all reclaimed land built to attract the high end tourists and seasonal travelers). Since we had our fill of authentic Italian while in Rome we tried a Chinese restaurant. Unfortunately, the night didn't go as well as planned. We forgot the camera (so no pics - sorry), most of the courses had shellfish of one type or another (problem for both Steve and his Dad) which we knew so I had asked them do an alternate menu ahead of time. Well their substitution choices were disappointing (e.g. chunks of tofu instead of scallops). They also had a bar next door to the restaurant that started playing techno music in and apparently thought it would add to the ambiance if they piped it directly in to where everyone was eating. I asked several times if they could turn it down and finally resolved to eating our dinner without conversation rather than try to yell over the music. So we were easily home by 11 and in bed long before New Year's arrived.
