So where to start? I always decide the date first. Our family has a pig roast every year, the year Henry was born we missed it- the only one I've ever missed! I always have that in the back of my head when picking out the date. This year the pig roast fell right on his birthday, so we chose to have his party the Saturday before. I usually do it around 3 because my kid still needs a nap and the later the better. Next is the venue. Although I try to keep it small we end up with about 40 to 50 people, it never fails. With this amount of people we don't have the room to have it at our house. We decided to have it at our church, Sonrise. We also decided to have it outside, they have a great pavilion and a play ground for all the kids to play on!
Next up are invitations. I turn to Pinterest for inspiration. When I look at Pinterest not only am I looking for cute clip-art, but I'm also looking for cute wording. Here's what we came up with:
Once the invitations are set I try to think of some easy decorations. I picked up a cute birthday banner at Target, it had dump trucks (probably on of his favorite things) on it with some construction cones. I made another banner that said "Henry is 2" using card stock in the shape of construction cones. I was really trying to not go crazy as far as decor is concerned. It's hard not to when you're looking at Pinterest; there's so much to look at! I also made two canvas paintings, one with an H on it; that I painted to look like a road and one that said "Speed Limit 2". For that I just printed out the words, used a little mod podge to glue them on and done!
The basic set up before all the food, I didn't take any close up pictures of the canvas but you can see one in here!
Close up of his construction cone banner.
Next I focused on food. I try to keep the party after naps which leaves us around 3, because of that I feel like I have to feed people. Not just snacks either but you know like a meal. Before when I would plan parties I was definitely a "I got everything myself" kind of girl. Now I share the wealth, you want to help me; cool bring a dip! With the help of family and friends we had quite a spread. We had taco dip, buffalo dip, pretzels, chips, fruit, a big tossed salad and pizza. I try really had to be mindful of our guests; we have quite a few family members who are vegetarian or vegan. I try to think of things that they can eat too. On the table I had some trucks set up so they were "dumping" the food into the bowls. For the cake I did a 13x9 pan with funfetti cake (our favorite) and made a big 2 on it. I made the 2 look like a road and put a couple of Henry's smaller trucks on them. For the cupcakes we did chocolate with chocolate frosting (Henry picked that out). I did simple cake toppers for the cupcakes. I also made some sugar cookies to have as another sweets option. Just simple square cookies that I turned into road signs, they turned out pretty cute!
Dump trucks "dumping" the snacks into the bowls
The cake and the cupcakes, found the plates online at Party City!
Shot of the cookies!
As far as favor bags, I'll be honest I'm not a huge fan of goody bags. They're usually filled with candy or useless crap I'll most likely end up throwing away. I try to think of what I would want my kid to bring home from a party. We decided on a hot wheels car and a cute little coloring pack n go kit. It came with a small coloring book, stickers, and crayons; even better just a dollar from the dollar store! For the bags I picked up a 12 pack of black bags from Target and cut out red, yellow and green circles. Glued them on so they looked like traffic lights!
Favor bags!
Some other fun details we added to the table were some photos of our boy. My sister and went out with Henry one night searching for big trucks and boy did we find some. The pictures were the perfect addition to the table. I also made some cute signs to add to the table. You'll see them in some of the pictures above. We made one that said, "Choo choo choose a treat", "Fuel Station", and "Yield for a snack". Everything came together really nicely. Having the playground there was great for the kids, I didn't have to have any other activities to keep them busy.
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