Hellobee

Over Memorial Day weekend, we celebrated the girls’ second birthday with a party at our home. In these early years before the girls have too much of an opinion on party theme, I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to pick one of my own! My biggest bonding time with the girls is our reading time, and I wanted to keep the party theme with a book that we all love reading together. Last year, I did their first birthday in the theme of the classic baby book Pat the Bunny, and this year I went for a classic toddler book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

I went simple on the invitations and purchased them through zazzle.com. I was really impressed with how the invitations came out, and they allowed some easy customization which is important to me because I’ve found that most birthday invitations are usually templated for one child and I have two to consider and include in the card/invite.

For the venue, I kept things very cozy and held the party in our home. This worked out great because we only had about a dozen guests (in contrast to the 50 we had last year) and only one child attending as a guest. I really, really loved having the party at our home because I was able to set up decorations over the entire week before the party, which kept my stress level on the weekend very low. Likewise, there was no hurry or rush to tear down the decorations as soon as the party ended. I also really liked that I didn’t have to worry about following anyone else’s rules for the party; for instance, last year we rented a park space and were not allowed to have alcohol at our venue. But this year, I was happy to serve some celebratory mimosas to our guests.

For decorations, I created a personalized birthday sign with both of the girls’ names over our fireplace in the colors of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and placed some balloons on each side.

I also made caterpillar photo displays for each girl that included happy moments, funny faces, and even the not-so-happy moments that highlighted their second year. Along the entry stairway, I did another caterpillar photo display but this time featuring mostly photos of the girls together.

Audrey checking out pictures of herself in the display

Above the kitchen island, where I placed the food and drink, I used green and red pompoms and created a homemade caterpillar to hang down from the ceiling. Also in the kitchen, I used some of the girls’ sidewalk chalk to draw a simple caterpillar and happy birthday wishes on the chalkboard that is usually consumed with our family to-do items.

In our living room, I designated our TV console for gifts. This worked out great in adding some additional pops of color, and the girls’ toddler-sized table and chairs were placed right next to the gifts. It was pretty special that the table and chairs that we used for the girls’ eating space and cupcake dessert were the same ones that Mr. Starfish had used in his youth; I always love when we can use things passed down through the family – it makes it extra special.

The girls check out their gifts!

For food, my stepmom went above-and-beyond in creating an adorable caterpillar sandwich display. My mother-in-law contributed wild-rice salad, and we sliced up a fresh watermelon into cubes. We started the party at 10 in the morning, so I also served the already-mentioned mimosas and had freshly-brewed coffee on hand.

For dessert, my stepmom made cupcakes and created a caterpillar by using green-frosted cupcakes as the caterpillar body and a small red cake decorated as the caterpillar head. It was adorable, and as Lilly said as she ate her birthday cupcake, “It’s yummy, Mommy!”

I purchased the girls’ party outfits online from Etsy (RowanMorrowDesigns). I found the cutest Very Hungry Caterpillar dresses, and the girls were crazy for them. When they arrived a few weeks before the party, I tried them on both girls and they were so thrilled by their dresses that a complete meltdown occurred when it was time to take off their outfits and store them away until the party!

I also found some cute Very Hungry Caterpillar head bands/hats from Oriental Trading – in full disclosure, although these were so cute and I loved having them for the girls, they arrived very small and required my mother-in-law to bust out some last-minute sewing skills so that we could manage to squeeze them on the girls’ heads!

The second birthday party was a ton of fun, definitely for the girls and I hope also for all of the family that we had join us for the celebration. Compared to the momentous first birthday party last year, this one was markedly more laid-back and cozy. It was so fun to see the girls interact with their guests and also to understand the concept of their party. They are still talking about their special “hungee pilla” (that’s twinblings speak for Very Hungry Caterpillar) party and cupcake and dresses, and I hope that they will for some time to come!

The girls in their new wagon, a gift from Mom and Dad!

All photos credited to the amazingly talented (and fellow twin mom!) Kate Olsen (kateolsenphotography.com). Thank you for helping us to remember this special day!