My daughter's Dora themed Second Birhday (lots of pics)!!

Ladies, finally I had a chance to put together my daughters 2nd birthday celebration notes. I had to split between different posts as I am unable to attache more than 5 pictures per post.
Here is her First Birthday Celebration Thread: http://www.indusladies.com/forums/b...-my-daughters-first-birthday-celebration.html

Unlike the first birthday party where we began planning for it at least 4 months in advance, preparations for second birthday began 1 month in advance. I think that’s reasonable, given its second birthday. But needless to say, I have put my heart and soul into this one as well.
Some pictures are attached below; please read patiently .

The awesome part is we had 3 birthday parties this time for DD!

Office party: I joined new team recently and I really wanted to do something. I bought the entire team coffee, tea biscuits and muffins! The whole team had a great day munching on these all day J
It was going to look weird if I take a picture of the food; so I didn’t.

The second party was at the daycare. The daycare provider hosted a beautiful birthday party for DD. She went to the daycare all dressed up, had a photo session and was the star of the day!
As is the tradition at the daycare, they all had mini cupcakes.

She was the star with a birthday girl mini-badge and she gave small party favor bags filled with child safety chocolates. I heard the kids loved it! As is the policy at the daycare, I could not send any toys which may pose choking hazard to the kids.

Party we hosted: Preparations for the party started with the utmost care. Initially the plan was to host the party at home itself but after finalizing the guest list, we had about 40 people coming. That was not going to be possible at home due to the limited indoor space and so we rented a hall.

Invitations this time went through e-vites. Nothing fancy, just small invites sent online. All 40 people responded that they would come. I was happy I booked the hall.

Food: This time, just like last time we ordered main course from a restaurant (an Indian/Pakistani restaurant). Starters and dessert, we managed it at home to cut down the food expense. Menu included:
Starters: Samosas, homemade pita chips with hummus and spinach dip, veggie fingers and cheese platter (not to forget pop/juice).
Main Course: Chicken and veggie biryani, chicken achari, mutton curry, bagara baigan, aloo-spinach, naan, salad and raita.
Desserts: Ice cream with sprinkles homemade kheer (an aunt of ours made it), cut fruit, dates and gulab jamun.

Entertainment: This year we have hired Dora for the entertainment! We were speculating between Oso, a Disney cartoon character and Dora (a Nickleodeon creation), them being DD’s favorites. We decided on Dora as per the entertainer’s availability. I couldn’t have been happier with the choice! DD absolutely loved Dora!

Party Favors: So much thought has gone into preparing these party favors. I had to make 3 sets of favors: one for kids at daycare, one for kids coming to the birthday party hosted by us and one for the adults coming to the party.

Daycare favor bag: This contained simple child-safe candy and chewable’s (picture above).
Kids Favor bag: I have personalized each kid’s bag this time according to their ages (unlike the last time where I had made identical party favor bags). Each girl had an assortment of chocolates to eat and a personalized gift. The various gifts included beautiful hair clips with flowers or dvd or soft toys if it were an infant or under an year old or bath toys or nursery rhymes. I bet they all liked it (Their moms emailed me later).

Adult favor bag: All the ladies got an assortment of dry fruits packed in beautiful net bags.

They also got candle holders with candles inside.

All supplies were bought from Walmart, Michael’s arts and crafts and Bulk Barn.
Kids and adult favor bags look like this after done and completely assembled and ready to be given away.

I had so much fun collecting these items! I had made several trips to the above stores to make sure I had everything needed.

...to be continued in next post as I cant attach more than 5 pics in one post.

 

Decorations: Most of the decorations were used from the previous year as we had bought them brand new at that time and were still in excellent condition. A few new decorations were bought from Walmart.

Cake: Ah the cake! Just like on her first birthday, we got DD’s second birthday cake custom made as well. Keeping the birthday theme in mind, we got Dora cake made. It had two layers, bottom was chocolate, then strawberry filling and then the top layer was white cake. I got fondant over the cake with Dora with her backpack, stars and even map

The day of the birthday:
The day before the birthday, I made sure all the things which need to go to the party hall are ready. The morning of the birthday DH woke up early (as I slept in late last night) and cut the fruits and got the perishables sorted. DD woke up at about 7:30 and was all set to open her very first gift which was from DH and me She got Crayola writing board; a small board with one side where she can draw with sketches and crayons and the other side where she can use chalk.

We got ready, loaded everything in the car and we got going. We made a few stops, picked up the cake, some coffee grind for the party, keys to the hall and reached the hall.

Here is how the hall looks like from outside. It’s a beautiful place with tennis courts and all. If it were summer we would have wanted to take a stroll.

We did a few decorations and then our good friend helped us along. And then came our neighbors who helped in decorations too!
DH had to step away to get our food from the restaurant. It was too busy though. I was trying to get this and that done and it felt like I am stressed.

Here is the starter/ main course table:

Here is the dessert, my favorite table! A friend’s mom made yummy kheer. For the ice cream toppings, I used the below 5 bowl setting (a thoughtful gift by family friends for Christmas-2012). The big bowl had chocolate melts, M&M’s in one bowl, chocolate covered raisins in one bowl, and sprinklers in another bowl….yummy yum yum! Fresh cut-fruit by DH, some dates and of course Ice Cream and Gulab Jamoon.


to be continued in next post....

 

And here is our pretty girl making a grand entrance! DD knows it’s her day and she made the most out of it

Dora entertained the kids really well. We played floor games, tossing coins, musical chairs, face painting, arts with balloons and Egyptian mummy making with toilet paper.

Everyone loved the food and we in general had an awesome time.

It was very tiring though as one of my friends promised she would come early and help me out but couldn’t make it because of the weather. I was pretty much left alone and had no time for make up or hair or some small vanities like that.

DD received so many gifts and by 4 PM, we cleaned out the party hall and returned home. Some friends joined us for coffee and drinks. What a great day we had!

Lessons learned:
1. Dont rely on the response that all 40 would show up. Order a little less food; we had lot of leftovers.
2. Dont rely on friends help as they maynot be able to show up at the last minute (for completely understandable reasons). Hire help so you can rely on them 100%.
3. Dont stree; its OK if its not perfect.

 

Thanks Bavishya! Glad you took time to read.

 

Thanks breeze, lost of lessons learned actually. Well, its a learning process right?
I am looking forward to your son's birthday updates! Hope your cake is ordered and all