Our little J's 2!

We recently celebrated our little J's 2nd birthday and I have to say, this was by far the most prepared I've ever been. A few of the guests commented on how well everything went and how hard it was to believe that there were 10 little ones (plus parents) crammed into our townhouse, because there was almost no fighting and no tears! The youngest guest was just over 1 and the oldest child was our other munchkin who's 5, but most of the kids are around J's age or a little bit older. 

I love planning parties and this one was a year in the making! While browsing recipes on Our Best Bites, I ran across these adorable crayons made of pretzels and Candy Melts and then and there I decided what Jacob's 2 year birthday theme was going to be! After a lot of time spent on Pinterest, the theme evolved into Elmo (because "Elmo loves his goldfish, his crayons, too...) and it was so much fun to plan! Inspiration for these ideas came from a lot of different blog posts.

The party was from 10:30 am to about 12:30 pm, so we had several snacks on hand as well as cheese and pepperoni pizza for lunch. The menu included Goldfish crackers, cut up veggies and Ranch dip, candy-covered pretzels (that would be the crayons! Instructions to come), peanut M&M's, fruit and vanilla yogurt, plus the pizza and assorted drinks for the kiddos and their parents. I made a four-layer rainbow cake using Pillsbury Funfetti cake mix and vanilla icing with sprinkles, as well as a dozen cupcakes. I made the cake based on this post, but used regular food coloring and used a cake leveler to keep the layers flat.

The favor containers were little red buckets that I found at Target (they also sell them at Party Depot) and I glued on a Thank you photo card that came with the invitations I purchased from Etsy. The goodies included a coloring and sticker Sesame Street book, 24 box of crayons (I bought these over the summer when Toys R Us had them at 4/$1!), Goldfish cookies, glitter Elmo stickers and a rainbow mini lollipop. 

Since most of the guests were toddlers, I kept the entertainment simple. I blew up some balloons and let them loose around the house, surprisingly kept the kids entertained throughout the party! I also had a couple of children's tables set up with play-doh and alphabet cookie cutters, as well as our Step2 2-sided easel that had chalk on one side and magnetic letters on the dry-erase side. I covered our coffee table with a piece of white paper from a paper roll, put out crayons and Sesame Street birthday coloring pictures from a book I found at the Dollar Tree. That's it! So simple, yet it kept the kids happy and busy while the parents were able to chit-chat and visit with the other grown-ups.

Happy birthday to our little chunky monkey and thanks to all our friends and family who celebrated with us!