Oliver is Two
…”Every morning I wake up tired, my head hurts a little and my eyes are sore. But as my mind starts to clear, I hear your sweet little voice calling “mummy?…daddy….?” and the fog just lifts away. Then all I feel is excitement. So excited to see your beautiful little morning face. My darling Ollie, since the day you were born, you’ve filled us with happiness, passion and more love than we ever knew possible.
You are sunny and bright. Gentle and kind. You are strong-willed and funny but so sweet and thoughtful. You make friends quickly and treat others with respect. We are so so proud of you little man. Here’s to another year of magic with our super special baby boy! ❤️”….
That’s one of my favourite little extracts from the letter I wrote to Ollie on the night of his birthday. I’m sorry it’s taken me an absolute age to write this, You Tube has taken up ALL MY FREE TIME. But, at last, I’ve finished, and I’m so excited to share with you a little bit of Ollie’s 2nd birthday party!
I find birthdays are so emotional and bittersweet for us mums. It’s something that caught me quite off guard when Ollie turned one, and those feelings all came flooding back on this second birthday too. Time really does go by so quickly, and these days, while tiring and hard, they are simply precious!
These beautiful Memory boxes are from Meminio
The letters to my baby books are from Emily Rollings
So, a few weekends ago, our little Ollie turned two! We gathered together our nearest and dearest and all their littles for a simple birthday party at our home. There was a real mix of ages, Archie being the eldest and my best friends baby, Sienna the youngest at just a teeny tiny 3 weeks old.
Our intention was to have a Teddy Bears Picnic in the garden. But the Great British Summer wasn’t on our side and we were forcast showers for the whole weekend.
So we brought the party inside instead and actually it all turned out beautifully, as these things so often do when they don’t quite go to plan.
I wanted to share some pictures from the day with you for a little “2nd Birthday Party inspiration”. It was such a lovely relaxing day and Ollie had THE BEST TIME. He’s still taking about it all these weeks later!
Inspiration
We didn’t want there to be too much of a theme for the party as Ollie is too little to choose something. Instead we just went really bright, summery and colourful. Jam jars filled with sunflowers, picnic blankets and white cotton bunting. Almost all the decorations you see in these pictures are from Candle and Cake , a brilliant online store stocking hundreds of fab party ideas from loads of really gorgeous brands!
Invitations
We got these invites from Papier
our “go-to-website” for cards and invites. Ollie has the Chidrens Book from them and he loves the brightly colours balloon illustration on the cover so this design was perfect!
Music
We found some fab, child (and adult) friendly playlists on Spotify that we streamed. We had chilled guitar sounds on arrival. Classic kids disco tracks for the party and then some more chilled evening music before everyone headed home.
Food & Drink
After hosting a few house parties over the last couple of years, we decided we would give the hours in the kitchen preparing food a miss this year. We didn’t even want all that horrid washing up at the end of the night so we ordered all the food from M&S Food To Order. It was perfect! Canapés, sandwiches, salads and nibbles. They even do a fab jigsaw of sandwiches, fruit sticks and dips for the kids too!
For the adults, we had plenty of prosecco, local cider and bottles of beer (and hot and soft drinks too of course). For the kids we filled a big Kilner Drinks Dispenser with squash.
We skipped as much of the washing up as we possibly could, opting for paper plates (how cute are These teddy bear ones from Candle and Cake?!), plastic cups and champagne flutes and even brightly coloured plastic knives and forks. All from Candle and Cake
Gifts
Ollie had THE BEST presents from everyone. All so kind and thoughtful! His main present was this AMAZING Balance Bike from My Shiny Shop I can’t even tell you how much he loves it…and so do I! Who said Pretty was just for girls?! ??
Games
We wanted to play games but with so many little ones, we had to keep it simple. We played musical statues (I practiced this with Ollie beforehand so he knew what to do). Every time someone was “out”, they got a prize (so there was no tears). We got a whole bunch of prizes from Tiger (all around £2/£3) and wrapped them up. The frisby was the biggest success! Wish I’d bought more of those!
We also had a dancing competition which my friends little boy, Archie, won. He was soooo cute and all the toddlers and babies clapped when we announced he’d won! Adorable!
Cake
I wish I could say I made this beauty myself but when you have The Tandem Bakery on your doorstep you order their delicious Lemon Sponge instead. I love the look of a semi-naked cake stacked high. With so many babies and toddlers to feed we skipped the food colouring with this option and added colour with decoration instead.
We always get our cake toppers from Sophia Victoria Joy. I’ve saved them all in the memory boxes too!
The balloons and mini party hats on the cake are all from Candle and Cake .
Party Bags
We filled these rainbow striped bags with;
Bubbles
Whirly windmills
Party Blowers
Fruit sweets
Raisins
Stickers
And of course a big slice of cake!
We also had a Sweetie Station for the bigger kids. We’ve had it a couple of years and whip it out at every party! It’s worth the investment if you’re planning to have a few children’s party’s as it always goes down a treat (with grown ups too!)
It was such a wonderful day. As much as I feel myself desperately longing for Ollie to stay a baby, I can also see that he just keeps getting better!! Celebrating his special day, with him now really understanding that all these people are there for him. It’s just lovely!
Thank you so much to all our special friends and family who helped make it such a gorgeous day. We have so many lovely memories to treasure. Let’s hope and pray that this year doesn’t fly by as quickly as the last!
Happy 2nd Birthday Little Ollie!
