The first few months of the year always seem to fly past in the blink of an eye for me, and I think that's partly because after the lull of January is over...we suddenly have a lot going on!
One of our three children has his birthday in mid February, so my time and focus for the first half of that month is taken up by that - then March rolls around and ALL of the birthdays hit at once!
My sister has her birthday the first week of March, followed by my niece in the second week and then my other two children in the last week...just 5 days apart!
Tyne turned 5 on March 26th this year, and Noah turned 3 on March 31st - when I first had the boys I thought that having their birthdays close together might not be a bad thing at all, as I could surely celebrate them both at once with a joint party! Job done!
Unfortunately it hasn't worked out that way yet as they have such hugely different likes and interests, that it just wouldn't really work.
Tyne is every inch the stereotypical boy - his birthday party request this year was for a Pirates Of The Caribbean theme. He fell absolutely in love with the Pirates ride at Disneyland Paris when we first visited, and since then he's watched all of the movies - he absolutely loves Captain Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl, and everything else about the franchise so he was determined he wanted a swashbuckling pirate party!
Noah, is the exact opposite. He finds pirates terrifying and usually refuses to go on the ride at Disney, or spends the entire time with his face buried in my side (it's not frightening at all, he's just dramatic!). What he DOES love is, of course, the Frozen franchise - his obsession is Queen Elsa and he loves anything sparkly, pretty and Elsa related! He loves dresses, and dancing, and make up...everything fit for a Princess! All of which is Tyne's worst nightmare.
So given that they each despise what the other is interested in - a joint party for this year was just never going to work!
So two parties it was!
Luckily I found two local halls which were perfect for our needs (a smaller one for Noah's party which was family and a couple of friends only), and weren't very expensive - they cost around £30 each for hire for the afternoon which I thought was pretty reasonable.
We're also lucky that we have a family member who owns a bouncy castle, so we're able to use that with no charge.
So it was just a matter of the theming! Again, luckily for me, my family run a children's party business and so they already have all of the decor you could ever need for both themes (I am rather jammy when it comes to kids parties, as between the family everything is pretty much on hand!)
I love Pinterest for themed party food ideas, but I do have a tendency to take on too much and end up stressing myself out about it all when the truth is that the children barely notice the effort anyway and let's be honest...it's mostly done for Instagram purposes!! So this year I decided to back off on that front, and instead just do ONE themed Pinterest food item for each party (with the rest of the food being standard childrens party fare) - I made Hidden Treasure Cupcakes for Tyne's pirate party (which basically consisted of shoving a gold chocolate coin in to some chocolate frosting!), and some Frost Bites for Noah's Frozen party (Marshmallows on sticks dipped in light blue icing and edible silver beads!)
Both went down a treat and it was minimal pre-party stress for me - definitely the way forward!
The birthday cakes came from Cakes By Michele in Liverpool and were honestly the best cakes I've ever seen and for SUCH a reasonable price! I asked around our local area for quotes for the cakes I wanted and the prices we were given were double the price we were charged by Michele - and I doubt they could have been a patch on her work to be honest!
Everyone who tried the Pirate Chest Cake commented on how amazing the detailing was - from the wood pattern to the handles on the side, everything was so authentic and well thought out. And Noah was absolutely besotted with his Elsa cake! It was just stunning - and both were not only visual works of art, but tasted absolutely delicious too!
As for entertainment, Noah had been asking ever since Christmas eve when Elsa & Anna visited us at home if they would come back again - so I knew he'd be delighted if Elsa showed up to his party!
I use a local company called Princesses Come True and they are really fantastic - "Elsa" is very accommodating and so lovely with the children, and really knows her stuff when it comes to chatting to them all about her life in Arendelle!
She entered Noah's party during a Let it Go sing song when the snow machine came on, and afterwards she crowned Noah as a birthday Prince and played some party games with them all before joining them for their birthday tea. Noah was delighted!!
I did look into hiring a Captain Jack Sparrow to come along to Tyne's party too but I wasn't able to find one for a reasonable price, so instead we used the costume we already had from our own childrens party mascot days (A business Jon & I used to run pre-children!! Ahh many days spent inside a Peppa Pig costume!), and Jon took on the Captain Jack role himself!
Sadly it definitely did not fool Tyne, but the other children were none the wiser and Jon loved getting back in to character!
All in all, both birthdays were a big success and now I have another year to rest before they roll around again....phew!
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