Oliver's Second Birthday Party!

Oliver's birthday party went absolutely flawlessly. Everyone had an amazing time, there was more than enough to eat and drink, and we all left happy and comfortable. Oliver had an incredible day. I think his favourite part was that all of his favourite people were here in our home, surrounding him with love. That should be everyone's favourite part of everything, really. It just goes to show how pure and sweet a child's heart really is. :)

The party was Choo Choo Train themed, because Oliver is absolutely obsessed with trains. Like, he sees a semi truck with more than one trailer and it's a train. He even yells "All aboard!" when he sees one, and when one leaves he says "Bye choo choo!" over and over again until he can't see it anymore. And then for five minutes after that.

I copied his invite off of something I saw online. I just recreated it in photoshop and printed it off at home, then mailed it out. The front has all of the information and the back has a few photos we took from his 2-year photo shoot. Such a cutie pie...

 We went with green and blue, because typically train-themed parties are red and blue (something to do with Thomas the Tank Engine?) and since his party was red and blue last year, we wanted to go a different direction, and do something a little more original.

One of the desserts I made were mini cheesecake trifles, and they were a huge success (but who can so no to cheesecake, right?) I wanted to do just kiwi and blueberries, but I realized that cheesecake just isn't cheesecake without strawberries, so I had to go off the colour theme a bit. But it was worth it. Delicious! The recipe is from here.

I made the cake and cupcakes myself, as well as all of the stationary. So the little train banner, the little medallions on the cake. I basically spent a ton of time designing them on photoshop and printing them off. Then taping them to toothpicks and putting them in my pretty little frosted cupcakes (that I iced myself!)

The cake on top was super easy and I don't know why people don't employ this technique more often. I just made white cake, and then separated it into four bowls. Then added food colouring to the desired colour and baked them. Then once they're finished, you just cut the sides off so that the vivid colour can show through, and stack them between layers of frosting. So fun and so easy, and relieves a lot of the pressure of getting the icing to look "just right" on the sides - which in my opinion is the hardest part of icing a cake.

There were plenty of other finger foods to eat too, including various meats and cheeses with buns.

 

And there was of course also a veggie platter (the broccoli was gone in seconds... must remember for next time!) And you can also see in the background there were various flavours of chips as well.

I picked out some napkins that I thought looked kind of like bandanas (train conductors wear bandanas, right?) And of course plates from Dollarama completed the colour scheme.

I know this little touch is a bit over-the-top, but I wanted to carry the theme straight through to the beverages too, so I put little train labels on the water bottles. There was also iced tea and coke to drink as well. I think the labels turned out pretty cute.

I wanted people to have some sort of "activity" at the party, and since Oliver's still a little young to get anything out of party games, we decided on Paint-a-Train stations! We went by Ikea to pick up little packs of train cars that work with his train set, and then spray painted them white ourselves. Then just set out paints and paintbrushes for people! The sign directs guests to just have fun and make it personal, and to sign their name on the bottom, so the craft actually doubles as a bit of a gift for Oliver, AND a guestbook from his second birthday party! And guests were so creative, they turned out amazingly!

We of course had to have favours, so I just went by Bulk Barn and picked up a bunch of individually wrapped old fashioned candy sticks in the birthday colours. Then I just bundled four together, and stuck a little tag on the front thanking guests for a "great ride!" Yum!

To decorate we just hung balloons and streamers in the birthday colours. We used table clothes in blue and great, and threw down a sheet of burlap (actually from his first birthday party) over the table to give it a more rustic look. And then I just picked up some felt on-the-cheap from Michaels and made a pennant banner for the front of the table. The stationary basically did the rest, and that's how we created this blue and green themed birthday party fit for a 2-year-old prince!

We finished the day by watching a slideshow video of pictures and video clips from Oliver's second year. Everyone really enjoyed it - including Oliver! He loves seeing pictures and video of himself, and he sat so nicely through the whole thing, and watched intently. My amazing boy. My mom definitely cried, and I came close. I guess it's just so hard to believe how quickly time is flying by. I feel like this guy was just born yesterday...




All in all, the party was a huge success and so much fun. It was amazing to have all of Oliver's favourite people around - our beautiful family. Just spending the afternoon chatting, painting, and generally having a great time celebrating my amazing little boy. It was just incredible and worth every minute (hour) of work I put into it. Because climbing on a table and hanging balloons and streamers when you're 9 months pregnant? Not an easy task, let me tell you.

But Januarys are going to be much busier in our future, that's for sure! Since very soon there will be TWO birthdays to celebrate. The party planner in me is super excited, and the stressed-out-mom in me is wondering how I'm going to pull it off. Oh well, I've got another year before I have to start worrying about that!