Last weekend we celebrated Sebastian’s second birthday, crazy how fast time flies. I still can not believe my baby is a big two year old. Sebastian was really sweet as he knew (I use that term loosely) that it was his birthday. But he did know that the balloons and presents and fuss was for him. He was super excited about seeing his little friends and when we sung him ‘Happy Birthday’ in the morning when he woke up he started to blow out candles. Mummy had of course been talking about it just a bit in the week leading up to his birthday.
I love birthdays and as you can imagine I was a tad excited when the time came to start planning Sebastian’s second birthday. Yes, I may have started thinking about and planning it way too soon and yes, I was sad in the knowledge that my baby was growing up (way to fast for my liking) but the fact I get to see and watch him grow every day makes it all the more worth while.
This year I choose to go with a Thomas the Tank Engine theme. Sebastian LOVES (yip, all capitals), LOVES Thomas. Anything Thomas, from toys, to shoes, you name it if it has Thomas on it, it’s a winner. So it was a give in (and super easy for me) that we would be celebrating with a Thomas Birthday Party this years. Steve and I had decided early on that this years celebrations would be fairly low key, I was going to be 6 1/2 months pregnant and Sebastian is two after all. However, like most Mummies (I am sure) once I got started with the planning I got a little carried away and Steve bless him, knowing what was best just let me go for it.
We decided to have two separate parties. On Saturday we had his little friends from coffee group and on Sunday afternoon tea for immediate family.
We choose to do lunch on Saturday and it worked out really well with everyone heading off for afternoon naps post party, this Mumma included 😉 With only 5 kiddies and 8 parents it was a nice relaxed affair. I wanted to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible while guests were there and choose to serve simple finger foods suitable for both kiddies and adults ranging from train shortbread, pop corn, sausage rolls, (quintessentially kiwi) onion dip rolls, fruit, cupcakes, train fairy bread, little sausages, a couple of slices for the adults and of course birthday cake.
As far as decorations were concerned, I followed the K.I.S.S method (keep it simple stupid) heheh… 🙂 A word banner spelling out Happy Birthday (I love how you can change and customize this banner whenever you like), balloons in red, blue and yellow. The yellow ones had Thomas characters on them and as soon as Sebastian saw them all we heard was Thom, Thom, I told you he loves Thomas.
I did get creative and make both the cake and party bags. We had two cakes: the one on Saturday it was my favourite Butter Cake topped with butter cream icing and of course Thomas riding down the track; and on Sunday we had my favourite Chocoholic Chockie Cake (I’ll be sharing both recipes soon), also topped with butter cream this time with Thomas and Percy. I made the party bags to look like Thomas and filled them with home made play dough in Thomas colours (blue, red and green), Thomas bubbles, a couple of balloons and a miniature Thomas collectable.
Call me a bad Mumma but I didn’t plan any activities or games. At two I am lucky if Sebastian will sit for 15 minutes and do an activity so I figured free play was the best bet. Plus, for all the other kiddies the toys are different anyway – there were no tears, everyone had fun and no one was left wondering where pass the parcel or musical statues were (ha, can you imagine playing musical statues with 2 year olds).
From what I could tell everyone had a great time. Happy Mums; happy Dads; happy kiddies; one slightly tired Mumma over here and a very happy Sebastian – makes for one successful party in my opinion!
So cool! What a lucky little man (and gorgeous too!) I love how you dealt with the lightbox issue of only have two ‘s’s 😉
Thanks Jodine!
Nothing quite like being creative with your spelling, I have since got some more letters 🙂
This is such a lovely party, Lydia. Despite what they say, I always found two to be a wonderful age. They are so full of beans at this age and their enthusiasm for everything is contagious! x
Thanks Maxabella!
I completely agree with you, I think he is at such a fun stage. I love watching him grow, learn and discover. It comes with its challenges like any stage though. But they are figuring out the world around them and with so much passion, we could learn a lot from little kids xx
What a cool theme for a little 2 year old! Pinning for inspiration for my boys birthday – he loves trains , so who knows…we might have a Thomas theme too 🙂
Thanks Charlene! It really was the perfect theme for a train loving two year old 🙂
What a beautiful day. I love the wonderful simplicity of it. I’m a huge fan of these kind of parties. It’s nice to enjoy the people who share the day. x
Thanks Jess! Sometimes simple is best – less pressure, less stress, more to enjoy 🙂
Looks like a great party!
Thanks hun, it was heaps of fun xx
Oh happy birthday to your little man. What a cutie. Love the cake, the tunnel looks great!! We just had my sons 1st birthday party last weekend & I seriously can’t believe how fast that yr has gone!!
Thanks Lozzie, I had so much fun putting the cake together 🙂
Love your little ones rainbow party. Looks like you all had a great day celebrating as well. Doesn’t time go fast xx
What a gorgeous party amd good on you with the cake. Great job. I love throwing my kids oarties but I’m an outsourcer of all cakes… it causes me enormous stress. Looks like your little guy had a fab day. Isn’t 2 super cute! Xx
Thanks Shannon.
I love baking so the cake was one of my favourite parts to do, totally not for everyone though. I love how you can acknowledge it’s not for you and ease the burden.
Agree, 2 is a fabulous age, they are so inquisitive and love the whole world around them.
Thanks for stopping by xx
Happy birthday to Sebastian.
I love planning parties for my girls. It’s so much fun. I seem to get a little bit better at it each year. I love your decorations. We never played games at Dora’s 2nd or 3rd birthday party. The kiddies were just too young. I think that was a good call.
Totally agree with you Kaz, they are too young and just have fun anyway.
I think simplicity is key sometimes (we can get so stressed out with organising the parties and forget what its truly about) celebrating our little one
Thanks for stopping by xx