Two Wild: 2nd Birthday Party for Georgia
We celebrated our girl, Georgia Grace’s 2nd Birthday! It was a pretty easy peasy party at our house with family and friends. But, I of course, did more than I needed to, put a lot of stress on myself to make it look and feel perfect. I haven’t quite figured out how to make a party look how I want AND not get stressed out over it. *(Have talked to other obsessive moms and they just ask to be left alone to figure it out as they need to, so they can figure out where they want everything to go. And I will now be doing that moving forward. And might send this post to my family so they can get the memo.) So, I thought I’d, for anyone like me, that wants to throw a fun Two Wild Birthday Party, here ya go!!
PICK A THEME: I first decided on a cute theme. I searched for ideas on Pinterest until I found one that I felt like fit Georgia’s personality. And Two Wild, couldn’t be more perfect for her. She’s wild and crazy and I love it. Check out my Kid Stuff Pinterest board for more ideas that I love from the inter webs.
PICK THE DATE AND PARTY ACTIVITY / BOOK THE PLACE - I usually pick the Saturday after their birthday, depending on what day it falls. As we have family come in town and this gives them time to get in and out of town without digging into the work week. Due to Covid and trying to be safe for everyone, we have hosted at our house very limitedly, and we’ve hosted the party at a park so everyone could socially distance and play outside too. For the park parties we booked through our city’s parks and rec to book a shelter with tables. It’s very easy and makes it easy to know what we will be decorating and how to tell people where to go.
CREATE THE INVITE: And invite all the people. I personally never see a Paperless Post email (they always go to my junk folder), so I create a private event on Facebook and invite everyone that way. (If I know I they don’t use Facebook that much, I send a text with the invite info). I created two invite images for Georgia’s birthday. The horizontal design one was for her Facebook header invite, you can use it as a template for yours too! And I created a more formal looking invite to print out and save for her baby book. You can use it as a template too!
START SOURCING / SHOPPING FOR ALL THE THINGS, LOCALLY: There’s a local party store in KC that I absolutely love, Pink Antler Studios, and I always start with them to see what items they have that fit with the party’s theme. I picked up; this Pink Fringe Happy Birthday Garland, Party Animal Garland (we hung on our mantel), Tropicale Plates (7.5” inches across and perfect for cake or food), Feliz Party Fans (I put on our front door and managed not to get a picture), Gold 2 40” Balloon, Pink Happy Birthday Candle, Number 2 Sparkler, and lastly this Pink Crepe Streamers Pack (I love the pinks, purples, and gold colors in this pack and had intentions of wrapping a few trees or draping them over the table outside, with them, but alas time ran out. So, I’ll save them for another party).
SOURCING / SHOPPING FOR PARTY SUPPLIES ECONOMICALLY: I truly try to buy everything and everything local, that I can. So, with everything I buy, I start local / small and then go to big box if I can’t find what I am looking for. So with that I went to Target, Amazon, and Party City to find these things for Georgia’s party! I found these Cheetah plates first that made me so happy! Then the Cheetah printed napkins, I love them even for just everyday too. I also ordered these palm leaf napkins too, and just thought they were so fun for the party! I had a hard time finding cups I liked, looks like Target doesn’t sell cups that match their party supplies anymore, IDK why. But, I was able to find these adorable green and yellow with gold cups at Target, that were apart of a little citrus like of party decorations. I loved these leaf printed table cloths, grabbed two of them for our outdoor table, and one fit it, and ended up using the second one on a table for pizza. So, it worked out well! I used the gold table cloth inside, it was a bit long, for our oval table but it worked fine. I was pumped to find these Two Wild gold balloons, so perfect! As was this fun Jungle Themed Balloon Arch, my Mom and Kev totally crushed it. They blew up the balloons and Kev attached it to the garland. I also picked up this leaf table decor - and ended up using them in our little window from the kitchen to the living room. I taped them down with scotch tape to keep them in place and thought it looked cute. I picked out a brighter pink set of plastic cutlery for an added pop of color. I adore this particular Cheetah Balloon and it was cute with the gold number 2 balloon. And for the party favors for the few babes that came we filled up this Cupcake Piñata with Costco chocolate candy, gummy bears, little plastic jungle animals, and jungle animal crayons. I wanted to make sure everybody had something sweet and fun to take home. And I put out a bowl of these little blush pink goodie bags for everyone to collect their goodies in.
PARTY OUTFIT PLANNING: I love a theme and was excited when I found this adorable jungle themed skirt, situation. I wasn’t a fan of the shirt they paired with it. So, I just ordered the skirt and it came with the matching bow (it stayed on for like a few minutes) but is super cute. I debated ordering a Two Wild shirt, but couldn’t find one I loved. But, I thought these Party Animal tees were so cute, and perfect for B to wear too. I ordered the Mauve with white font for Georgia and Olive with white font for Bennett, they both re-wear them all the time now too. I love that it wasn’t just for the party. And I found these adorable pink jungle shorts for Bennett to wear, and he loves them (which is surprising because he told me all summer how much he doesn’t like pink. But for the party it worked!
PICK OUT THE PERFECT CAKE: I found some fun ideas on Pinterest and saved them on this kid stuff board. And I reached out to my friend Heather that owns a cake baking company hbdesignsokc , in Oklahoma City (my mom thankfully drove it up to Kansas City for us). Her cakes are so beautiful and so delicious! I sent her a ton of ideas, I picked out designs of hers that I loved. We chatted about the options and she came up with the final design and I LOVED it! The cake is a vanilla flavored cake with blue and pink swirls, and like a strawberry compote in the layers. It was delicious. She’s so talented and really puts her whole heart and soul into everything she does and it shows. If you live in OKC you must check her out!
I personally have a hard time knowing what to buy for a party - I always worry that I won’t have enough of everything to bring the whole theme alive. So, I felt like I bought a lot, for this party, but it was totally worth it and came together perfectly. (That’s why I wanted to share the details about it, to use as a guide to help). I think through the plan of where the main party areas of the house will be, and outside too. And then I dream up what I want to decorate & cover up too. And then it gives me a better idea of what I need. Also - I’ve had 5 years of planning Bennett & Georgia’s birthday parties, and these are the things that I always buy and how I decide what I need!
HOW TO PLAN A PARTY:
Buy: Cups, plates, napkins, utensils, table cloths, and Birthday banner
Order: Drinks, food, cake, and outfits (usually for just the b-day babe)
Plan: the date, party location, party activities, and invite list
And on a super random side note, balloons are always a huge pain for me. And this year I ended up buying a helium tank, for the balloons a wanted to actually float (the #2 and cheetah and a few pink ones too), as you can have balloons blown for you at Pink Antler, Party City and Dollar Tree - but only if you buy your balloons from them. Which I usually do, but not all of them, so that’s why it is a pain. I would definitely recommend buying a balloon pump, for blowing up the balloons you don’t need to float. As it will make creating a balloon arch much easier and quicker, than it was for us. Unless you’re able to blow up tons of balloons on your own, power to you!
Planning this party was very fun! The decorations totally made it a hit! I hope this post helps you plan out a party easier for you!! Enjoy!
Party Decorations:
Party Attire:
2nd Birthday Gift Ideas:
These are all items that Georgia has and plays with all the time. So, if you have someone in your life that is in need of a gift that is 2, this is a good list! They’ve been tested out and well loved everyday.
I hope this post makes the party planning process easier and way more fun for you! Make it fun and enjoy the party! And go have an awesome day!
xo,
