My girls are two years and two weeks apart in age, which means their birthdays are close together. This year I decided to throw them a joint party as I figured it would be the last time I could get away with it as M-Flo starts school in September and I imagine M-Flo may want to invite her school friends.
M-Flo decided on a princess theme early on (I'm afraid T-Belle didn't get much choice on the matter - not that she cared, as long as there was cake and balloons!). I LOVE party planning. It's part of my job to organise events and it's what I really enjoy doing.
Venue - We'd planned to have the party at home and in the garden. It was at the end of May so we had hoped the weather would have been nice but as the party invites got a little out of hand (hands up, I wasn't so organised on that front!) and the weather look decidedly grim, we changed it last minute to our local village hall which is a lovely spot. It meant I couldn't decorate the place quite as I'd hoped (high ceilings and nowhere to hang pom-poms and bunting) but we all stayed dry and I didn't have to clean the house from top to bottom!
Food - I made jam sandwiches in the shape of hearts and cheese sandwiches in star shapes (as well as regular ham sandwiches!). This took ages to make but I think the kids enjoyed them! We also had crisps, mini sausages, pizza, cucumber sticks, houmous, with fruit wands, mini jammy dodgers, strawberry jelly with mini meringues and of course CAKE! What party would be complete without cake? I made lots of cupcakes on a pretty castle stand and whilst I considered making a fancy cake for them both I just knew they wouldn't match what I'd seen on pinterest (damn you pinterest!) and I didn't have the time to practice, so I bought two very lovely and good value sprinkles cakes from Tesco for their candles. My mum helped by making lovely fairy cakes for cake boxes for guests to take home with them.
Entertainment - We hired a princess themed bouncy castle which all the kids loved, my friend did an amazing job with face-painting (she's an art teacher and is brilliant at it, even though she's not professional!) and I set up a craft station where the kids could decorate crowns and tiaras with jewels and glitter stickers.
Party bags - This is one of my favourite parts of organising a party! Kids just love them and I enjoy being creative with them. I tried to incorporate the theme with princess party blowers and a balloon, princess wands and bubbles, but added stickers, tattoos, chocolate buttons, sweet necklaces, mirrors and combs too. I'd collected items from 99p stores and when they were on sale for 6 months beforehand so didn't really stick to a budget which isn't ideal. I know so many party bags are full of crap that fill your house, but at the same time know that's what kids love, so tried to get some sort of happy medium! For boys I had a superhero cup, whoopie cushion, whistling balloons and a ball.
One of my bestest friends is in the picture above. I couldn't have done it all without her help! She's Maisy's godmother and I love her.
I feel I could tell you so much more about the party (the stress of setting up in the time, the wonderful help I had, the dilemma of whether to feed adults or not) but this post is already too long so I'll save it for another time!
