Showing posts with label 2 years old. Show all posts

Thomas the Tank Engine


I held a "Thomas the Tank Engine is a zoo train" Party for my two sons as they turned (2 & 3). I had tons of ideas for this party but my efforts were quite minimal as we had just moved countries and had not really settled yet. We minimized the effort by holding it at the zoo and walked around in a line as a train to entertain the boys. Since I don't have a lot to offer for this party, here are a few original ideas and some ideas from Blog searching.



 THE INVITATION:

I made this invitation myself but here are a few favorites: easyinvitations, CBDesignCollection, priyasdesign.





THE DECOR:

Well we were at the zoo... so I just took balloons.


That is the extent of my personal party. However, I did research some ideas in hopes that I could have had held it in a home. Anyway, here are some Ideas I did like and would have done if this was a party at home:

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THE FAVORS:

Some more ideas from others:

Party Hats/Favors by Enchanted Expectations
 



You can get Engineer Caps from Oriental Trading Company as well as the Train cups on the table. Another idea I love is train whistles.







THE FOOD:

Some more ideas from others:


Snack Train by www.tonyastaab.com





THE CAKE:

Simple was the best option for me so I got store-bought cupcakes and threw in some numbered candles in. But here are some more ideas from others: 

Thomas Cupcake Tower found on cakecentral.com





GAMES:

Some more ideas from others:





More cute ideas from Tip Junkie (Thomas), Tip Junkie (Train)




So, that there are some ideas for a Thomas the Tank Engine Party... Happy Partying to you!

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SOME PINTEREST IDEAS

Disney Pixar's Cars

For my oldest son's 2nd birthday, we gave him a Pixar's Cars birthday. He LOVES this movie. Even though the movie came out a couple of years ago, he is just now at that age to really enjoy the story... and being such a "boy", he loves little matchbox cars and everything tough. So in the spirit of little boys and cars, here is what I came up with...



THE INVITATION:
For the invitation, I just took some pictures off the internet and added a road and some checkered borders. I found some fonts that looked race car-ish and created my own.



THE CAKE:
If you read my blogs, I am NOT a baker! I'm probably one of the worst baker... but that doesn't mean I don't try. If I can outsource this task, I will. But this time I couldn't. So what I did is baked 2 basic sheet cakes. I stacked them on top of each other and I cut it out in the shape of a race car stadium. 

 and I did my best to recreate a stadium. I had a Lightning McQueen candle and with frosting made a race track. I used 100sand1000s (sprinkles) to make it look like a ton of people in a crowd. It was a good effort. ;) He doesn't care what it looks like. He's 2 and its CAKE!

If you want to do it SUPPER SIMPLE. Buy a cake from the shopping center and add a character candle on top. Its less stress and its cake... your child WILL BE happy. ;)


THE DECOR:

SI did this party SUPER CHEAP. I bought a basic Cars banner on Amazon for a few bucks. Thats the only real official Cars decoration I bought. I printed out some scenes from the Cars movie web site that I put on the wall. I put scenes from some of the games on the wall.  There were a TON of crafts that I used to set the scene for the party, like the playset on the website. 

I used basic balloons and drew 95 and checkers on them to personalize them.



FAVORS:

We I did get some party supplies from Spotlight.  This is the benefit of doing a party after the theme has been released for a few years. Its not too expensive and it seem s like less work.

 Every child got a party hat, a blower and a hot wheels car. The car only cost $1 each so it was the perfect gift!


GAMES:

With a bunch of 2 year olds you don't need to plan a bunch of games... they are 2! So we just had a lot of stations for kids to free play. We had play dough, duplo and hot wheels. They had a blast and it was SIMPLE! MY favorite kind of party. 




So, that was our Cars Party... Happy Partying to you!



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SOME PINTEREST IDEAS

Dora the Explorer





For my daughter's 2nd birthday we did a Dora the Explorer Theme. Now, at the time, Dora was REALLY big in America but really new in Australia so there were very few Dora Party Supplies. My main resource was NickJr.com and the few Dora videos I had. This is what I came up with... enjoy.





THE INVITATION:

The main idea for my invitation I used from a free printable. I just adjusted it to personalize it.


I found a picture of the map online and I pasted a picture of the balloons and used one of my favorite pictures of my daughter to personalize the invite.  With my daughter's picture I used the Adobe Photoshop to get more of a cartoonish look on her picture. In Photoshop, you go to FILTER>SKETCH>STAMP and then adjust how you like.




THE DECOR:

According to the invitation, First you come from home... Then you go through Balloon Forest before you get to Joy's Fiesta. I bought a helium tank and made an archway and path up to our verandah. I focused on using bright colors to draw in the children. Our house, at the time, didn't have a walk way so I used foam floor mats to create a pathway through Balloon Forest.



It was summer time in the tropics so I had the party out on our front verandah. I hung streamers like colorful vines and we used the party table and Dora play hut we got as a birthday gift as the main focal point for the decor. I also bought a Dora Balloon and 1 pack of Dora Party Napkins online.


It was SUPER hot so yes, we had fans!


I also printed out a few coloring sheets and let my daughter color them and displayed them. Simple but she felt special that her art was featured. I also printed a few legal/A3 sized posters (pic1,pic2,pic3) for decor as well.




THE FAVORS:

For the Party Hats, I went to our local Burger King/Hungry Jacks and asked them if I could have a handful of crowns. I found a picture online that I like for the crowns and printed a page of them out and glued them on the inside of the crown so it would be a white crown with a picture on the front. I think the total cost was less than $1.

 
For the Goodie Bag I made a no-sew backpack out of left over purple fabric I had, ribbon and fabric paint. I also added a Map Thank You note that I tied on the side and googly eyes.

Inside the Backpacks I gave out  crayons, Dora bracelets, and a bag of chips. 

The table setting was simple. We had coloring sheets for place mats, Dora Party Napkins, the Backpack Goodie Bag, the crown, and a bottle of juice.  

 
 






THE FOOD:

We had a bit of fruit and some juice boxes but it was mainly the cake that was the food item. But there are PLENTY of ideas for Recipes on NickJr.com!



THE CAKE:

Well, this was the year that we learned that cake icing and the tropics do not go hand in hand. This was quite a failed attempt. However cake is cake and kids are kids... and they love cake. We bought an edible cake art online and we also bought Dora Cupcake Rings online as additional favors for the children. Needless to say, because it was a huge FAIL, we then decided to go a new route and not do the classic cakes ever again while in the tropics. ;)





GAMES:

Because it was mainly 3 year olds and under, we had a lot of coloring and we also had the parents help the kids with Pin the Boot on Boots. I also saw that they had Pin the Tail on Swiper too!


So, that was our Dora the Explorer Party... Happy Partying to you!


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SOME PINTEREST IDEAS
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