My baby is 2!
I am happy to celebrate this big day. But I have a dilemma. To throw a party or not to throw. Why so?
I am not so much a party person. But I like how birthday celebrations are like close family and friends gatherings. It provides an excuse to bring the extended families closer. I enjoy the catch up with loved ones. I enjoy planning activities for the children. I appreciate that everyone gets together amid their own busy schedule. But if the birthday child is too young, he may not know what is happening and may even be overwhelmed by the crowd. All of us may be enjoying the mingling and playing much more than the child.
So sometimes I question the need for a big celebration for children below 3. Big celebrations can be really overwhelming. The last thing I want is to upset the birthday child. I could remember how YT cried while we were trying to take family photos during his 1st birthday. For this 2nd birthday, I was determined not to let YT get upset for the wrong reasons. As usual, I would hold a simple celebration. I would not fret too much on the fanfare. I would try to be with Little YT during the party as much as he wants me to be by his side.
Unlike many mum friends I know and see on Facebook who plan way way ahead for a big bang party, I am as usual so laid back and unplanned. In fact, I only sent out invites a few days before when the party was firm. They are close siblings and I could count on them to turn up at short notice even though I know to invite early is a courtesy. But… I was so undecided on the party.
Everything towards the details of the party was impromptu after that.
A thought on Elmo themed party came to mind just a day before the party. That is just the only favourite of YT for now. And so I googled for an Elmo banner. I want him to know it was his big day and some Elmo decorations around the house would send this message and make his day. That’s precisely the most important thing, isn’t it? It was a last minute idea but hey! At least I had ideas!
On the party day, we bought some little gifts from Daiso and after going home, I had another impromptu idea of a treasure hunt for the kiddie guests to find their own gifts. It’s better than just handing out the gifts in a line. Oh this idea came just 4 hours before the party.
The food
For all celebrations, Kel does the cooking. I did the rest of the party deco, games, gifts and tidying the house.
We had steamboat dinner.
The decoration
I printed this from here and all I need to do is string the letters together.
I added the paper art Elmo that we did last week. The Elmo deco put a big smile to the baby’s face at once.
The game
I divided the 11 children into 2 groups.
Each group has to work together to unravel a clue which leads to another clue till the final hiding place where the presents were.
Each clue paper was assigned a name and this person will lead the group to unravel the clue. This is needed to ensure there is no one to dominate the game, which is most likely my own children since they know their house the best.
The cake
I was not able to find an Elmo cake in the usual cake shops and I was not prepared to spend a bomb on a customized cake for something that is worth the photo keepsake but not a favorite snack for most of us. On most times, the birthday child does not eat the cake unless it is an ice-cream cake. So, I settled on a kiddie cake from Four Leaves bakery.
The photos
Apart from our photoshoot session, we are not too successful in making Little YT smile at the camera for our family photo. He just stared. Saw that bruise below his left eye? He fell a week back and this bruise traveled down from his forehead to the eye area. Poor boy. He was actually sick on the day of his birthday and that explains his expression.
Luckily, he smiled for the birthday song.
He cut the cake.
He refused to eat the cake.
Needless to say, the kids had great fun.
And my Little YT didn’t cry… not much 🙂
Happy 2nd birthday my dearest Little YT! We love you 🙂
Happy Birthday YT!
And what a great idea nominating a group leader with each clue! I am sure that saved you from a few arguments. 🙂
Thank you!
Yes, I am glad the group leader idea gave each a chance to lead. It can get messy with a couple of strong leaders in the group. I was actually surprised that for clues that I think is a no-brainer, the kids took a long time to find it. I have to bear that in mind about this next time. I did give more clues when they had difficulties. I was more worried that they could not find the presents lol!
It looks like a great party. Too bad he was sick! I hope it was a good day for him anyway.
Thanks Granny! At least he didn’t cry much and I think that is a good thing already 🙂
I always have a dilemma with birthdays, my son is soon turning three: I know it’s more fun with a few friends than plenty at this age, but its so hard to limit too. we’ve been invited to quite a few parties and there are quite few family friends that it would be nice to invite… I don’t want to offend anyone but I know my boy will enjoy most a small crowd. ..
sounds like YTs birthday turned out great though! And he looks gorgeous with or without a smile on a photo! 🙂
Thank you!
I perfectly understand your dilemma! It’s the same here. Usually the rule of thumb to number of guests is one more than the age of the child. But I can’t possibly invite only 3 children especially when my close family has 11 children in all!
Most times, we celebrate twice with one party and one small celebration like going out with the birthday kid or just blowing candles at home with just the 5 of us. I enjoy the small celebration more since I get to have more time with the birthday child 🙂
We’ve also created the dual celebration tradition: one day child friends are invited (this is we’re the problem comes, it becomes so easily a huge party with siblings and parents…), another day we celebrate with close family and godmothers. We started with the division partly because my brother can’t be in huge crowds without getting an even worse head ache due to a brain injury but it’s also nice to be able to focus more on everyone present. The kid parties tend to be busy and hypo, fun too, but in a different way :). The last time we celebrated the family party in a zoo, and since our children absolutely loved it, and so. did us adults, we are planning on doing some kind of an outing for my son’s birthday now too.
Oh yes, the siblings and parents that come along make it a bigger crowd. It has its fun for bigger crowd if you prepare for it. I think dual celebration is the best arrangement to please all parties here. I am sure the birthday child is elated too.
Zoo outing sounds so fun. Is this a special arrangement with the zoo? Or do you have your own picnic fun of sorts? I am gathering ideas for future celebrations 🙂
No, I didn’t make any special arrangements with the zoo. I tried to book a table and order a cake from one of the restaurants on the zoo island but the most restaurants didn’t take any bookings and the ones that would have taken it would have charged me 100e just for the booking. I didn’t even dare to ask the price for the cake… 😉 But the zoo here has great facilities: there are a lot of bbq shelters and even a couple of indoor areas were one can have their own food if the weather would be bad. So we packed our food along, took a ferry to the island (and ate the cake already on the ferry) and then later had a barbecue too.
Happy birthday to your little one! And I hope the bruise goes away soon. 🙂
Thanks! The bruise is a stubborn one. It has been there for 3 weeks!
Awe, Happy Birthday to YT!
And, I’ll happily admit that I NEVER threw a big party for Mr. T, to me, birthdays are special, and I don’t see anything special about a ton of people invading. I know a lot of parents do it, but I can’t help but think it’s for all of the presents, LOL. But, I do plan in advance, and I always had a theme and decorated, and it was always family and just a few friends. And that worked for us.
Haha! Thanks Kate! Love your “a ton of people invading…” LOL! I am sure the presents form that special part of birthday celebrations. For older kids especially, they love to receive many presents and find it a joy to open them too. But for me, it’s a mingling session among parents with big parties more than a special day for the birthday child.
I agree that birthdays are special especially to mums! It’s actually OUR special day and of course the birthday child’s special day. So, I prefer celebrating with just our immediate family members and close siblings. Good to know another same thinking mum as me 😛
Happy Birthday YT ! Get well soon !
Thank you Kelly! He’s fine now 🙂
Happy birthday, YT! Hope he’s feeling better now. Great spontaneous party, Christy!
Thanks Dawn! He is alright now. I always have wanted to plan a party with all home made party finger food with cute designs for the little ones or something that suits a theme. Hopefully, the next one is not so spontaneous and I can have fun planning early. Next year my boy will be 3, it will be more worthwhile for a fun party with him knowing it’s his birthday 😛
Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!!! it is great to be two!!! 🙂
Thank you! The terrible twos have started! 😛
lol please let us call it the Terrific Two’s ;-0
Blessed Birthday! haha.. Ya, nowadays we only invite certain groups of people so as to have a cosy and meaningful celebration over fanfare. Nontheless, we had our share for our eldest! No 1 mah.. so now we scale down after no. 3. But my sis says we’re not being fair. ; p Oh well, that’s life, we just gotta live with it and explain to them our shortcomings and growth as parents too! ; ) Thumbs Up!
Haha! Angelia, I understand about the unfairness! But you are so cool about it! I like your attitude 🙂 Cosy affair is really what I love too. Birthdays are special and especially so for mums 🙂