Owen's Birthday Party

Wow, we had such a fun time celebrating Owen's birthday.  It's hard to believe our little man is two, but we're so proud of how sweet and funny he is.  He's a joy to be around, we are really enjoying every day with him.  We loved throwing a big party for him knowing that he would have so much fun.  He was so excited all week about the party, the cake, the people coming over.  It was great to see the anticipation.

Without further ado, the photos and details:

We managed to cram 20 people into our little two bedroom place.  It was tight but worked out just fine.  Neighbors and friends joined us for the afternoon and we snacked on light appetizers before cutting into the cake and cookies.

 We used the same felt banners that we made for his party last year.  We plan to use these until they wear out!  I just think they are so cute.  We also used the same paper lanterns.  I really like the color scheme and love how it can work with lots of different "themes".  Fun!

I had fun setting up the food table and integrating small touches of the animal theme without being obnoxious about it.  We only picked up a few decor pieces (for super cheap) so altogether it was a very minimalist party but certainly doesn't look that way :)  Less is more, right?

 We stocked up on fun drinks and had some beer and wine available as well.  I made a special party hat for Owen (that I then forgot to put on him).  For the food we had a spread of various vegan snacks: chips and salsa, guacamole, vegan queso, crudite, cream cheese rollups.  The idea was to keep it very simple and light since it was an afternoon party.

There weren't too many little babes but a few older kiddos so we had some animal blowers and temporary tattoos for them to play with.  Really, though, they just enjoyed playing with the toys Owen received.  Fair enough!

Owen got some wonderful art supplies, clothing, toys, books, and a trike (from us) for his birthday.  He loved it all and wanted to open everything immediately, of course :)

The cake was a vanilla and chocolate layer cake with chocolate buttercream.  I made sugar cookies in the shape of animals and put them around the cake to incorporate the theme.  (I was going to go for a tiered cake but decided I didn't want it to cave in on itself since I didn't have the stands for it... Next year!)

We had some people stay long after the bulk of the party was "over", which was so fun.  We enjoyed just hanging out and letting the last few kids play until they were exhausted.

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On his actual birthday, we ate brunch at our favorite vegan brunch buffet, followed by lunch with "Uncle Joe and Uncle Greg" at one of our favorite lunch spots.  We headed to OMSI for an hour- we cut it short since Owen had the sniffles and needed to get home to rest.  All in all, a very fun weekend spent with some of our (and Owen's) favorite people.  I think Owen thoroughly enjoyed his birthday weekend, which is really what matters :)