Book-themed birthday party

The birthday celebrations continued on Saturday with a big party for all Em's friends. Last year we went all out for her first birthday and this year I swore I'd scale back. And while I totally did... whew. Still too much. Next year: Cupcakes at the Park.

Anyway. Since Punkito is so obsessed with books, we knew that a book theme was a must.

The invite! I had a lot of fun designing this one.

Decorations were really simple. We used Emma's books next to corresponding plush characters. I was surprised how many matching pairs she had. Any books or characters we didn't have (and there were just a few) we bought and gave them to her as her birthday presents. We took the leftovers books and just set them up randomly, using some on the food table to stack on. After that, it was just a little crepe paper and we were done!

Zoo animals and her beloved Pooh

I meant to make a cap for that monkey but ran out of time. Oops! And that Little Blue Truck was dang hard to find.

Some of her favorites - Olivia, George, and Gee-aff

Ours was a brunch party and we wanted to keep it as easy as possible, but still keep with the book theme.

Where the Wild Things Are - The cake! I found the directions here and they were really easy to follow. I used a WASC cake and Swiss Meringue Buttercream (easier to decorate with).
If You Give a Dog A Donut - The BEST donut holes from our favorite local shop (KC Donut on Brodie... try it!)
Three Little Pigs - Cocktails weenies wrapped in crescent rolls. Bam! Easy peasy. I should have doubled this amount since her Uncle ate 1/3 of them by himself.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Rainbow fruit skewers. Ours had strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, green grapes, blackberries, and red grapes. These went quickly and we ended up just putting out a bowl with all the leftover fruit.
Dragons Love Tacos - Taco bar with Chuy's tortillas, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, sour cream, cheese, salsa, tomatoes, green bell peppers, and avocado
I didn't have a book to go with the cupcakes (Chocolate Malt - my favorite recipe) but I did print out little pictures of book covers and stick them to toothpicks with double sided tape. Took too much time. Don't do it.

And I thought that a book exchange would be fun! Each kid gets to bring a book, each gets to unwrap one, and take one home! Besides, I didn't think two year olds would want to sit around watching one kid open a bunch of gifts.

We set all the gifts on the table and put stickers with numbers on each gift. Then the kids each drew a number and opened that gift.

After all the gifts were opened, they could trade if they already had that book or wanted something different. I'm not sure anyone actually traded and there were some really fun books.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing all these sweet littles playing together!

Because if you can't make silly faces with Bapa, when can you?

It's my party and I'll hide under the table and eat ice cubes if I want to

Thanks to everyone who came and helped make it a special day for our sweet girl!