TIME FLIES - 2nd Birthday Party Inspiration
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E has been such a trooper lately. A few months ago his baby sister was born and his world was turned upside down. He has gone from being an only child to a big brother, and while his little sister seems to be growing on him, he is adjusting to sharing our time and attention. On top of that, his little sister was admitted to the hospital for three days with RSV which meant more time away from Mom and Dad. E has handled all of these changes like an absolute champ so I wanted to make sure that his second birthday was filled with his favorite things and made him feel special.
E is obsessed with airplanes, and I mean obsessed. I don’t know too many two-year-olds who can identify a P-51 Mustang and a Corsair by name. We have a family membership to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo Aerospace and Science Museum and it is one of his absolute favorite places in the world. He loves climbing into the cockpit of the airplanes and pretending to fly through the sky, so it was a no-brainer what his second birthday party theme would be.
Check out some of my favorite details from E’s “Time Flies” 2nd birthday party.
Something I always remember from my birthdays as a kid was waking up to a special birthday breakfast. I knew this was a tradition I wanted to carry on with my kids, so I racked my brain for airplane-themed food that would be toddler approved. Leave it to Pinterest to help me come up with an adorable airplane breakfast. I used an airplane cookie cutter from Jo-Ann Fabrics to make airplane shaped toast and made fruit propellers out of bananas, clementine slices and chocolate chips with raspberry clouds. E loved it and has been asking for “airplane toast” ever since. Using cookie cutters is such an easy way to make food fun!
When it comes to party decorations I tend to DIY as much as possible. I love being able to create what I want instead of being boxed into traditional “birthday party decor,” it’s a great way to save money, and crafting is one of my ways of blowing off steam. This year things have been a little chaotic with the addition of the new baby and an unexpected hospital stay, but I was happy with how everything turned out for E’s party.
When I first started planning the party I did what most people do and googled “airplane birthday.” I quickly found myself on Oriental Trading Companies website looking at their paper goods and I found these adorable airplane napkins. If you’ve never looked at their website they have anything you would need for almost any themed party! These set the color scheme for the party, which was perfect because I had red and blue balloons and plates left over from Eli’s first birthday!
About a month before the party I was wandering through Michael’s looking at their scrapbook paper and found the perfect pattern for his party. Once I had the plane-patterned paper I went with basic red and blue for the rest of the banner because I knew it would match the rest of the decor. After I bought the paper, I used my Cricut to design and create the banner using all free fonts and shapes from designspace.
If you’ve been considering buying a Cricut but weren’t sure if it was worth the money I’m here to tell you: BUY IT! I purchased mine when I was getting married and have used it so much with my kids. From personalizing their stuff to making unique decorations for parties it is totally worth every penny.
If you got a chance to check out R’s “Two the Moon” birthday party these may look familiar. After R’s party Katie passed these Hobby Lobby paper mache letters down to me and with a little paint, they were reimagined from Galaxy theme to Clouds perfect for an airplane party. I used cotton balls and white paint to create the “fluffy” cloud effect. I love a good reusable decoration!
Anyone who knows me, or has read more than a few of my blog posts, knows that I love a good pun. When my husband and I were discussing what food we should have for the party the perfect pun/joke came to mind: “What’s a pilot’s favorite food? Wings!” I’m a little embarrassed to admit how much this made me laugh. I used my trusty wooden letterboard to share my humor with everyone at the party. This is one of my favorite little details to add to any party. I generally have the letterboard placed somewhere in my décor with a clever pun or phrase to match my theme.
I found the rest of my decorations on Amazon - thank God for Prime delivery. E's absolute favorit part of his party were the inflatable airplanes. These were actually our party favors and went home with each of his friends. My original idea was to attach each airplane to a cloud balloon so that they seemed to "fly" through the room, but they were heavier than I anticipated so they weighed the balloons down. My husband had the brilliant idea of using the ribbon to attach each airplane to a blade of our ceiling fan. You should have seen E's face light up when the airplanes went spinning around! Fair warning: the scotch tape did remove some of the paint from my fan blades so now they will be getting a fresh coat of paint just in time for the holidays lol.
What’s a birthday party without dessert?! These might be my favorite party of E’s party. I reached out to a pair of local women and bakers (and good friends of Katie’s) to make the cookies for the party. I gave her the theme and she ran with it! I couldn’t be happier with how adorable these cookies were, and they were delicious! If you’re local to Southwest Michigan you should check out M + A Baking Co. on Instagram or Facebook and place an order for your next party.
Judging by the smile that was glued to E’s face the entire day I would say that his “Time Flies” party was a huge success. He loved being surrounded by airplanes all day and has carried around his inflatable airplane all week, even sleeping with it in his bed. I had so much fun putting together all the details of this party and I’m already brainstorming ideas for his little sister’s first birthday (only 9 months away lol).
