Yesterday we celebrated Zeben's birthday by having a bagel brunch in his honor. We had debated about whether or not to have a party for him--clearly at age 2, he has no concept of what a birthday party is, and wouldn't miss it if we didn't have one--it's not the best time of year to host any gathering, especially not in our smallish house. And there was also some question as to what the party would entail if we did have one. Being the former preschool teacher that I am, I'm always eager to go way over board with the party activities. We didn't have a party when Luke and Jaz turned two (we were in the midst of moving), but for their 3rd and 4th birthday parties, we had puzzle-making, treasure hunts, and homemade piñatas, along with serving lunch and cupcakes. When they turned 5, we didn't have a party at all because I felt like I was still recovering from the fourth birthday extravaganza.
But I wanted to do something for Zeb, in part because we've now instituted our new gift policy (each child receives only one gift on any given holiday), and I didn't want "no presents" to mean "no celebration." And, of course, there was my usual, "any excuse for a party!" reason to do something. So, on Tuesday evening we settled on having a Saturday morning birthday brunch, and quickly sent out evite invitations. We decided to keep things easy by providing bagels (from a local café) and toppings and having the "theme" of the party be simply "balloons."
We bought 30 helium balloons and I quickly sewed up some little bean bag balloon weights (which doubled as party favors). I used scraps of canvas fabric leftover from previous baby carriers, turned some printed fabric into iron-on appliques, and added a snip of ribbon to the seam of each bean bag so that balloons could be easily attached.
The head of a teddy bear that Lena made
(the body, unfortunately, did not survive)
Jasper's very own balloon creation
Aryeh all decked out
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinammon
1 tsp. salt
21 tbsp. melted butter
4 eggs
2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup crushed pineapple
2 tsp. vanilla
procedure:
1. Sift together dry ingredients
2. Beat together wet ingredients
3. Add the dry to the wet, mix well
4. bake in buttered pans at 350° for 40 minutes
2 comments:
Absolutely LOVE the balloon weights! What a fun and simple idea. So, stupid question, but what kinds of beans do you fill the bean bags with?
Loved the video of Zeben singing, too.
Ha ha. We had a balloon party on New Years day once. It was a blast...I have great picture of the kids with their hair being held up by the balloons. Thanks for sharing.
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