2nd Birthday Party Madness

It’s been one heck of a year!

Since their first birthday parties the girls have sprouted a mouthful of teeth, taken their first steps which have now turned into a full-on sprint and gone from eating mushy food to gnawing on chicken wings.

When you hear people say that “time flies” they aren’t joking. I can hardly believe the difference a year makes.

So when it came time to plan our twins’ second birthday party it should have been a no brainer. I mean, why wouldn’t I want to throw a party to celebrate my girls and all of their accomplishments?

But I did struggle.

When the time came to plan their party I had a hard time wrapping my head around it. Maybe I wasn’t ready for them to turn a year older, or maybe I just couldn’t figure out where we would put all of the gifts they would receive. Either way, I procrastinated.

I didn’t know who to invite: Just family? But what about their little friends who they’ve played with over the past year? And if I invited their friends, would the girls even remember it down the road?

So many questions and time kept ticking away.

I did make one decision quite easily: IF we were going to have a party, despite ripping on the birthday party theme idea in my blog last year, this year we would have one. I don’t know how it is in your house, but in our house, minions are a big deal (or as the girls call them “meemees.”) So you can guess what the birthday theme would be…all things minions.

I spent hours on Pinterest searching for minion birthday party items and found so many cute and amazing ideas. I had my list of needed supplies to make the party a hit, but I still hadn’t decided on one major thing…the guest list.

Our house isn’t huge by any means, but it has a good layout so we could definitely accommodate a few people for the celebration. Although having it at a community-centre type place would be much easier, what would be even easier would be just limiting the party to family.

I struggled with the guest list between just family OR family AND friends, eventually deciding on the latter. The girls love playing with their friends and I seize any opportunity for a playdate.

Invites went out with just over a month to spare and then I was able to sit back and relax…at least until the week before the party; when all of the supplies needed to be purchased and the balloon and food orders had to be placed.

Making the majority of the minion food and décor myself was awesome! But it was very time consuming. I couldn’t believe that I spent the entire day before the party in the kitchen; dipping marshmallows in yellow coloured chocolate to make minion marshmallows and decorating cupcakes.

In the end my hard work paid off (at least I think so), but I never anticipated so much prep work!

The big day arrived and the girls along with their guests had a great time. The minion theme was a big hit for the kids and the adults. The birthday girls were spoiled with love and presents. Everyone dined on pizza and minion themed food and our girls had a fun play date with their friends.

I’m not sure what we plan to do for their third birthday parties next year. I’ll likely face the same struggle: The bitter sweet battle of wanting to celebrate my wonderful girls and their accomplishments, yet, at the same time not wanting them to grow up so fast.