Jules Turns 2! - #2

We figured since going to school was one of the big milestones in her 2^nd year, it was fitting that we celebrated her 2^nd birthday in school.

We decided on the balloon theme quite some time back – cos Jules loves balloons.  Let’s not go into how many balloons we have brought home with each visit to Parkway Parade (where there’s this balloon shop strategically located right in front of the Barney kiddy ride).  That balloon theme somehow evolved into a Disney movie “Up” theme after seeing how much Jules loved that movie – “Gong Gong, Por Por, Up” – as she calls it.  And with that, the husband came up with the grand plan of riding to school on his bike with 40 balloons behind him to be given to the kids at school.  It was a brilliant idea – the kids who were having water play when we arrived were so excited when they spotted mr balloon man! 

We also put together a simple goody bag for the children.  I got the canvas bags customised from Etsy and filled them with kiddy sized fruit juice, party size play dough, a retro paper ball, fun tattoos, some gummies and a chuppa chup each.  A mix of goodies for the tummy and for play – I hope the kiddos like it. 

Party bags!  Elmo and Big Bird not included

The cake remained the one and same headache I had as last year.  To bake or not to bake it myself.  Elmo with balloons or no Elmo, just balloons.  In the end, I decided to not stress myself and worked with the good people at ET Artisan Sweets to create her birthday cake.  The initial plan was to have the cake feature balloons and rainbow while I get an Elmo figurine to be placed on the cake (since ET Sweets don’t carry the license to design Sesame Street characters).  That was cos Jules was going through a serious Elmo phase (and still is).  But later, I decided to stick through with the “Up” theme, I got them to put together this design for the cake and they did a perfect job out of it!  It was much better than I expected! Thankfully Jules got the idea and when she saw the cake immediately went "Gong Gong Por Por Up cake"!  The cake was delish and the kids savoured it after their lunch today!  Pity Jules couldn’t get to eat her own cake (she did have a taste of the fondant balloons though) – but Mama made sure that a Juju friendly cupcake was ready for the birthday girl herself! 

Up Up and Away! 

It was a short celebration which started with some bubble and parachute time before we brought out the cake.  Our little girl was so thrilled that for a change, she was the one at the front of the birthday cake with all her little friends singing for her.  And that finally, she got to blow out that candle that was legitimately hers.  It was all good fun – I think all the kids were happy and Jules was completely besides herself. 

Parachute time and the birthday girl gets to sit right in the middle!! 

This will be the first and last time she’s going to be celebrating with this bunch of friends and teachers.  I’m not sure if I’ll do this again at her kindy next year – we’ll have to see about that.  But I had fun putting this little party together for her and I think our daughter felt that school today was made just that extra special because Dada and Mama was there to celebrate her special day!!