March is always a bit of a chaotic time in our family as there are four major family birthdays throughout the month - two of them being Tyne & Noahs!
My boys special days are just 5 days apart, and this year on 26th March Tyne turned 4 years old whilst on 31st March Noah turned 2!
People often suggest that it would be cost effective, and certainly a stress saver!, to celebrate their birthdays with a joint party and while this is definitely something I'll consider in future years when their age gaps are less of a problem and their interests more similar - at the moment it doesn't seem that appropriate as they are at such different stages and enjoy such different things.
And so, I decided that - just like last year - they would each have their own birthday celebration this year.
Unfortunately, Tyne actually came down with a tummy bug on the morning of his birthday and spent most of the day feeling really washed out and rubbish - although he managed to perk up for his party he wasn't much in the mood for his presents or anything, which was a real shame as he had looked forward to his birthday for months. Noah caught the bug later on that day too, and even now nearly 2 weeks later they all keep getting it back again every few days which has been a bit of a nightmare.
Tyne chose his own theme and decided he wanted to celebrate with a Cops & Robbers themed birthday party at a local village hall - we had thought about doing the party at home but he really wanted a bouncy castle, and so a hall seemed like the best option as our garden isn't really big enough and you just can't guarantee the weather in March anyway.
I tried to get the Cops & Robbers theme across in the decor, selecting some fab police themed tableware including Police Party hats and blowers, plates and a Police Line to run down the table - these were all bought from eBay.
Luckily for me, my mom is a party planner and she has a huge supply of chair covers in all sorts of colours so she did us some red & blue ones to match our decor which I think finished off the look perfectly.
I had a bit of a disaster with the cake as I had intended to have one made for him by a local cake maker, but I had stupidly forgotten that his birthday fell on Mothers Day this year and I didn't get my order in on time meaning the cake maker was already over run with Mothers Day orders and couldn't do it - so instead I had to resort to making my own, which was never going to go well! Although I always make the boys 1st birthday cakes, I don't enjoy baking at all and am really rather rubbish at it!
This occasion was no exception, and it took me four hours and a grand total of 6 cake attempts before I realised that the reason they weren't cooking is because the oven had actually packed up and so no amount of cranking up the heat and waiting was going to make any bloody difference! So it was the night before his birthday, and he was cakeless! I had considered just buying one but I had made the mistake of showing him lots of fantastic Pinterest cakes and so I knew his expectations were far higher than a supermarket one....so I ended up going out to Sainsburys that afternoon, buying a few ready made birthday cakes and a load of icing and trying my best to make something resembling my desired cake out of them!
It was a lot of improvisation, and I wasn't too happy with the results at all but thankfully 4 year olds don't really notice cracked icing and he loved it so that's the main thing I suppose. (But he can lower his standards from now on, coz next year he's getting a super market one!)
We spent the party playing some Cops & Robber themed games, such as Pin The Mask On The Robber and Police Hunt and we even had a visit from Batman and Spiderman who dropped in for a little dance off - very entertaining! Jon made a little jail for the kids to play with too, and as Tyne wore his robber dress up he loved playing in there!
I also tried to theme the food too - with Cop Pop, Cop Corn, Ham Burglars, and - of course - lots of doughnuts! A police must have!
Fortunately, everybody was well on 31st March for Noah's birthday which we started off at Butlins for the last morning of our holiday before heading home and straight to a local soft play center where we had booked to have Noah's party...this was ideal as it meant minimum effort for me! They took care of all the food, we didn't have any setting up or clearing away to do - it was all taken care of for us! These are definitely my favorite kinds of kids parties!
The theme for Noah's party was Paw Patrol of course, his favourite!, and our lovely tableware from Party Pieces really helped to set the scene perfectly - the plates and cups were really cute, and we also had some adorable Paw Patrol masks at each place setting which were hugely popular too!
And better still, there was no fuss around the cake as we simply picked up a pre made Paw Patrol cake from Asda for £20 - best money I've ever spent to save all the hassle of making one! If only Tyne was so easily pleased in the cake department!
And because Tyne had special guests at his party, it only seemed fair for Noah to have some too - so we invited Mickey & Minnie to pop in to say Hello!
Noah had a really lovely time at his party celebrating with his cousins, and when we come home he got to open all of his gifts which he really loved - he had quite a variety of things from an Imaginext Super Hero Flight set to a pretty Princess dress - all things he had asked for himself!
I can't say I'm sorry to see the back of birthday week, 2 parties just five days apart is quite hard going - but looking back at the photos, it all seems worth while. Though I do hope that next year they're all in full health to properly enjoy it all!
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