Instant Toddler Birthday Party

Liefde turned two about a week after Christmas and we wanted to have a party, but coming so close after the holidays and not being very organized in general didn't lend itself to actually pulling it off. Here's how we did, in a tiny apartment with minimal planning.

1. Decision-making/paper goods: The real lifesaver: my mother decided to collect a bunch of gold-colored party supplies (as it was L's golden birthday) and send them in a box. So those were already in the house, and determined the maximum number of guests we could have.

2. Invitations I sent an Evite out 10 days ahead of time to a few of our closest families with small kids. We had 6 kids and 7 adults, including ourselves.

3. Cake I found a grain-free, no refined sugar cake recipe from one of my favorite blogs. Buying  canned beans and orange juice for this cake was the most stressful thing to try to find a way to do at the last minute. (But the cake was so delicious!!!) I baked it the night before. The frosting was super lumpy and not smooth, but it was basically just grass-fed butter, heavy cream, and maple syrup--you can't go wrong with the flavor.

























4. Food I didn't have time to plan/make/buy other snacks, so we just cut up a block of cheddar cheese into cubes and set out mandarin oranges (which we just had on hand). That was totally sufficient for a two-hour morning party.

5. Activities:
Mom sent a bag of Hershey's Kisses; we asked the adults to hide them around the living room while the kids hid in Liefde's bedroom; then they had a little treasure hunt. We also did a craft where kids stuck little colorful shapes of vinyl contact paper onto old glass jars. (We had both on hand from kitchen refuse and my craft supply collection).

6. Decoration: I hung up some fabric pennant banners I'd made before, and a Happy Birthday sign we've used many times. My mother sent some gold balloons so we did put helium in those at the drug store.

 It all came together and was a ton of fun.