Lifestyle and Parenting blog based in Surrey.

Sunday 30 April 2017

Sophie's 2nd Birthday

How can my little bundle be two already?! Time has been going at double speed I swear. Last year we had a little gathering just for family to celebrate Sophie’s first birthday but this year we decided, after Sophie has loved going to her little friends parties, that she would love one of her own too.




So last sunday we invited friends, family and neighbours into our garden for an afternoon of celebrating. We decided to host the party after nap time so Sophie would be at her most cheerful and this meant that we only provided snacks and drinks rather than a full birthday tea.


I had been eyeing up pintrest boards of beautiful pastel and unicorn themed parties, then gave myself a reality check, this was never going to translate to a toddler party with loads of adults attending too. So I made peace with myself that little touches would be fine and not to stress about it being perfect.

After decorating the garden for Sophie’s Christning party with Talking Tables decorations, this is were I turned again to add touches of pink and white to make the party space feel more special. I also decorated the front of the house, so everyone knew where the party was. Bunting and rosettes on the bay trees seems more stylish than a bunch of balloons!





I am no baker, however, I really wanted to make Sophie’s birthday cake and had eyed up some fun unicorn cakes on instagram and decided to recreate. Although my baking was an unmitigated disaster (five very flat cakes ended up in the food caddy and I was almost in tears….. why do I do this to myself?!) the decorating went much more smoothly. 





I iced the 3 tier cake with Betty Crocker ready made icing (my emotional state could’t cope with making icing….) and then piped the man and for the horn and ears I used fondant icing and drew on the eyes. I was pretty pleased with my efforts, although it looks far from professional! Sophie got that it was a unicorn, (thank fully) but didn't quite get blowing out the candles, so needed a little help from mummy.




My Top: Toyshop

I wanted Sophie to have something special to wear for the party, and she looked super cute in a beautiful tutu skirt and matching blouse from the new Marie Chantal collection at M&S, and her gold butterfly party shoes from Monsoon. As the weather fluctuated from super warm when the sun came out to a little chilly in the shade, I popped on some white tights too. She does look a little dishevelled in these pictures, after running about with her friends!



Although we had set an ‘end point’ to the party in the invite, everyone was having such a lovely time with the kiddies all playing beautifully with the garden toys and Sophie’s new climbing frame, that the party ended up rolling into the evening.


I was a bit worried how Sophie would be about sharing all her toys, but as my lovely sister came with a car full of ride-on-toys it wasn’t an issue which was a huge relief! 


We held off on opening all the generous gifts that everyone brought and staggered them over the next few days so she could appreciate them rather than a few seconds of crazy paper tearing and oh my, she was totally spoilt.


We had such a lovely afternoon, I can’t wait to host more summer parties now, let the BBQ season commence!
SHARE:

No comments

Post a Comment

Blogger Template Created by pipdig