Pepper Design Blog

Liv’s 2nd Birthday: Let’s Celebrate!

We had a great weekend full of family and friends and celebrating. We hosted Liv’s birthday on our back deck on Saturday afternoon, and while it was a little prickly and cold outside, the outdoor fireplace and heater helped to warm things up.

I’ll try to get to more of the details of the party in future posts (like the easy little favor pouches a friend helped me throw together last minute and some of the ribbon/tissue paper details we’re keeping around to reuse in Liv’s future big girl room), but here’s a little wrap up of the event:

We served heavy appetizers, berry lemonade, and an overstacked strawberry shortcake for dessert. My favorites included my mom’s delicious potato and corn chowder soup in our white coffee mugs, cheesy homemade macaroni for the kiddies, BBQed teriyaki chicken & pineapple skewers, toasted ricotta and chive bites (with pomegranate seeds to look like little flowers), and roasted tomato, cream cheese & poppyseed bruschetta. All served atop pretty floral fabric that I found here.

I found adorable plastic milk bottles online for the kids to enjoy their berry lemonade (easy and almost spill proof). The invites and sweet little signs for the event were by this Etsy artist (I loved working with Katrina, I highly recommend). Oh and I cannot forget – this is my favorite source for paper lanterns! At roughly $1.30 a pop it’s impossible not to cover a room in a dozen of them (which it’s hard to see from the photos, but the outside patio is).

I snapped a few photos as everyone was arriving and before it got too crazy…

We purposefully scheduled the party for post-naptime for Liv and all of her little friends… but guess who didn’t nap all day? Good thing all of the excitement kept her busy!

One of Liv’s presents from mommy and daddy was a finished sand box! More details on this to come but we actually built it right into the deck. The kids loved it.

I opted for an easy dessert this year since we were hosting the party at our house and I knew there would be so much to do (thanks mom and dad for all of your help! We owe you). But the strawberry shortcake fit in great with the rest of the decor and it was a tasty treat for kids and parents alike. We even used these little cups and wooden spoons to serve up the cake in a manageable size for the little ones.

An awkward photo of my but a cute instagram pic of Liv getting ready to blow out her candles (and her little cupcake hat ).

Liv thought that the strawberries and whipped cream were most delicious (and amazingly, since it was so chilly, the entire dessert stayed assembled with no melting whatsoever).

By the time we opened presents, the sun had finally crawled out of sight and all children were decently tired out. But what a fun day!!

More on the invites and the inspiration for the party here and here. And just for fun, Liv’s first birthday linked right here (with my favorite red and white striped DIY tablecloth ).

Liv’s 2nd Birthday: Invitations

We recently sent out Liv’s birthday invitations and I must say, I’m pretty smitten with how they turned out. They are both pretty and super simple, and that is what I love most!

After falling in love with these wedding invitations (which I also pinned here), I sought to recreate that beautiful ombre effect on my own. But after much deliberation on how to make my own hand-dipped paper or some sort of watercolor background image to print out, I began perusing Etsy and was lucky enough to discover this talented artist. In the end, I was so excited to have partnered with Katrina on this little party detail, and the nominal fee of $12 for several proofs and the pdf to print out the invites myself was well worth it.

I cropped a favorite photo of Liv, applied a slight sepia effect to it and printed out a dozen or so as well. Love, love a thick white border around b&w or sepia photos!

My inspiration for the party thus far? Besides this little post round-up here, lots of pink and coral ribbon plus the translucent die-cut butterflies left over from this project.

Liv’s 2nd Birthday: An Inspiration Board

Liv will be TWO in less than one week! I forget how quickly her little birthday comes following the holidays (I suppose it will become old habit once we’ve done this a few years in a row ) but I have kept a Pinterest board with her name on it for the last few months to bookmark any favorite ideas.

The invites are finished and went out with our Christmas cards. Just a few close family and friends. The decor awaits final decisions, but this is always the best part!

My theme is pink. Simple, easy, full of potential.

This next week will be filled with late night craft projects and a little bit of prep. We are laid back folks over here – hardly a menu planning list in site, though I’ll probably make a special dessert (I’m even thinking strawberry shortcake) a day or so in advance.

I love to plan little parties, it may be one of my favorite extracurricular activities all year and I’m already seeing tissue paper and striped straws and paper flags in my near future… will keep you posted!

PS please forgive my terrible rush with this post, today has been pouring over with back-from-the-holidays make up work. To find the credits for all of the above gorgeous photos, head over to Liv’s 2nd Birthday Pinterest board.