We celebrated Jack's 2nd birthday on his actual birthday -- just like we did last year. As is my typical tradition, the theme for the party was chosen months in advance. I like to have time to ponder ideas and scour clearance racks for decorations and party favors. And, I try to plan enough time to involve the kids (mostly Sophia right now) in crafting projects.
I have enough parties "under my belt," so to speak, that I am able to reuse decorations and color schemes more than once. For example, with the Curious George theme for this party, I was able to utilize yellow decorations from my sister's baby shower last year in conjunction with red decorations leftover from Sophia's sock monkey birthday party and her Olivia the Pig party. I just love mixing and matching and creating new looks with things that I already have.
One of the craft projects involved using black electrical tape (since Steve is an electrical engineer, we had loads of this on hand) on the cups so that, when placed on top of the plates, they looked like the Man in the Yellow Hat's hat ... Sophia absolutely loved helping me with this.
Sophia and I also designed the traditional backdrop together that hung above the dessert table. Honestly, the canvas picture that normally hangs in this spot has stood the test of time, as I have -- too many times to count -- covered it over with some sort of paper and designed something to go with the party theme. The striped wrapping paper, perfect for my theme colors, was in my wrapping box and the pictures were simply printed for free off the internet on my color printer. Easy and free. Yes, please.
With the dessert table:
Speaking of the dessert table, it's a known fact that I make and decorate all of my own cakes and cupcakes. It's something that I truly enjoy, even if I have to go to Plan B or Plan C when I am decorating them. I spent Saturday night, after the kids were in bed, piping a monkey on the top of this cake and Jack loved it. Time well-spent.
The wagon was a clearance find and I put it together the week before the party, letting Jack play with it all that he wanted before I displayed a few cupcakes in it.
I found a quote by Walt Disney about being curious and printed it on yellow cardstock paper. I added a monkey and a banana, stuck it in a red frame (again, left over from one of Sophia's parties) and put it on the dessert table. After all, Jack is one curious little boy.
One of the other things that I love to have at a party is fresh flowers. It's a great way to add an extra pop of color into the displays, while also allowing me to keep them around in my house for a few days after the event. I found these yellow carnations with red tips (how perfect!!!) the day before the party and couldn't resist them.
And you know what?! These carnations lasted for over ten days in my house. I had forgotten how long carnations last ...
I love having a banner over the fireplace. Sometimes I design my own and sometimes, I find them for too cheap of an amount to forego the ease of simply buying one.
One of the seating tables:
Sophia helped me stuff the favor boxes for the kids, complete with all sorts of Curious George items. I then used a box that was left over from my sister's shower (so was the tablecloth) and filled it with red and yellow tissue paper and propped George on a stick coming out of it. Cheap, but colorful and space-filling. The "2" was actually left over from Sophia's 2nd birthday party, and I used it on the table along with an adorable picture of the birthday boy and some cut-out pictures of banana peels.
I set-up a nacho bar in the kitchen (I didn't manage to take a picture of that), and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Lots of toppings with rice and beans on the side. And a fruit bowl thrown in for good measure (my family never has a party without fruit). An easy meal for a crowd of people.
After the meal, we headed into the living room so that Jack could open his gifts. This could only be described as pure chaos -- lots of wrapping paper, lots of kids and a little boy that wanted to play with every gift the second that he unwrapped it.
After a short time, I was able to corral him enough to sit in my lap for some more controlled gift opening.
And then after the gifts, we migrated into the dining room for cake (or cupcakes!) and ice cream. Jack understood completely what was happening. Yes, all of the attention was for him.
Blowing them out like a pro (no help was actually needed from Papa):
The two men in my life:
Here's to another year of growing and learning. I can't wait to see where it takes us ...
Happy 2nd Birthday, Jack Stanley!
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