After going all out for Piper's first birthday, the bar was set kinda high for her second round (in my mind anyway...I'm pretty sure she was oblivious). She probably would have been happy with a cupcake and some balloons, but I love throwing a party, so I was pretty set on making a big deal of our big girl. I did want to temper some of the madness though...(we were still adjusting to life with two kids, after all) so we decided to do a party for just family, hosted at my mom's house. But lucky for me, even our immediate family is pretty big, so it turned into quite the bash.
For the theme- because you know I gotta have a theme!- I went with one of Piper's favorite things at the time: animals! (or "animoes" as she referred to them). It was a mish-mash of circus and safari, with a dash of Halloween, and it turned out perfectly wild.
I managed to keep things pretty simple...we pretty much invited people to hang out, eat some food, and have some low-key fun. Oh...but costumes were pretty much mandatory. (We provided ears/hats/antennae/tails for everyone to get in on the animal accessory fun). A two year old's attention span is about two minutes long, so I didn't bother planning out activities or games. I figured as long as she got some cake and some presents, she'd consider it a win.
The main star of the party (besides the guest of honor of course) was the coloring wall. I found a zoo themed coloring page online, and had it printed out HUGE on our fancy printer at work. It served as the decor, the activity, and a photobooth backdrop. We hung it up, set out some crayons, and let the kids (and adults) go to town.
It was a big hit...everyone seemed to get in on the action, and it kept all the kids entertained while the rest of us got to hang out a bit.
(My family is full of some really good sports...)
The other star of the party...the homemade cake:
Oh. Ha.
yeahhhhhhhh....
I had a vision. And a plan. But then......
nooooooooo....
It clearly wasn't going well, but I was pretty sure I could fix it with some sprinkles.
I was....wrong.To say it was an epic fail would be an understatement.
I can't even explain how horribly wrong it went (I mean, you can see it). It's almost an accomplishment to do something so spectacularly bad. I tried to laugh it off, because in the end, it's just a cake, and it was for a two year old, but I still felt bad to have the centerpiece of her party be such a wreck. So my mom and I spackled it together with an extra couple cans of frosting, doused it in sprinkles, hid the sides with a tiny animal parade, found a semi-photogenic angle and prayed it wouldn't slide off the plate before the candle was blown out.
Not bad, right?
Considering where it started...and the terrible turn it took...I was happy it was even slightly presentable!
And predictably, Piper didn't care one bit. She actually was pretty thrown off by the whole birthday song portion of the evening. I think it was overwhelming for her to have that many people all looking at her, and taking pictures. We helped her blow out the candle, and she eventually warmed up to it all.
All in all, it was an awesome day. Just enough festive touches to make me happy, with a laid back vibe to make me really happy. We all just hung out, chatted, ate, laughed, took pictures, and held babies...Not a bad way to spend a day.
(And this gem has been my phone lock screen for the last two years...for obvious awesome reasons:)
Eventually the littlest guests sacked out:Get wild, kiddo.
P.S. Check out Piper's 3rd bday post, for more "bash from from the past" fun.
------------------------------------
Psssst....Want to get all the Bowdenisms news delivered right to your inbox?
YES PLEASE! Subscribe via email and never miss an -ism. xox.
the coloring page thing is totally awesome! love it all! especially tall the ear headbands, and tails and adorable animal prints. Also, great save on the cake... I always say, sprinkles and icing cover a multitude of things!
ReplyDelete