Story: A Sweet and Simple Birthday Party

by Designing Mom Tori

Last year when our son turned one, we went all out for a big birthday party. We had a “baby luau” which is a Hawaiian tradition for the baby’s first birthday from my husband’s side of the family. It was complete with out of town guests, tons of traditional Hawaiian food, and over 50 people! Needless to say, it was a lot of work and not very relaxing. We had a great time though and are glad we did it for his first birthday, but we knew that we would do something on a much smaller scale the following year.

This last week our son turned two and we celebrated in just the way we had planned – very sweet and simple. We went with a fire truck theme because our son LOVES trucks and especially loves fire trucks because of the sirens. I think that the siren sound was the first “word” he ever said.

We had a few of his friends over along with their parents who happen to be our friends as well. I printed out some fire truck coloring pages that I downloaded for free from our local fire station’s website for the boys and printed out some of the “girl” coloring pages from the Designing Moms coloring book for our female guest. I went really light on the decorations and chose to display his birthday cards on a string of ric rac with dollar store cloths pins attaching them. Because I displayed them on kid level, my son loved to help himself to the cards to “read” them.

My favorite part of the party preparation was the cupcakes, which of course had to be red velvet because of the fire truck theme. As a novice baker, I had so much fun baking and decorating them. It just kind of felt like a right of passage as a mom – to bake cupcakes for my son. I was already envisioning myself baking up a storm for his class parties and school bake sales in years to come.

Because I wanted to keep it simple and not spend a lot of money, I made my own cupcake toppers and nametags for the party favors. I found the firemen “birthday hats”, fire engine napkins, Red Hots candy, and mini firemen toys at the dollar store.

All in all, we had a very sweet and simple second birthday party for our little guy. I just can’t believe that he is already a two year old! Sometimes I wish we could freeze time, but I am so thankful to have so many happy memories and fun celebrations to date. Whether you choose to have an all out shindig or a small gathering, may it always be sweet and simple.