Milly’s 2nd Birthday

My baby is 2! It seems both impossible and way possible at the same time. Like, I was looking at her a couple weeks before her birthday, thinking about how she’s still 1 but yet she can carry on full conversations and is so smart. Definitely felt like she was already 2!

Her birthday was October 19th which fell on a Saturday, so that was the day we had her party. We planned a puppy party which I had way too much fun putting together. My brain would not stop thinking of all the puppy things! For her first birthday we did a floral garden party theme with fall sangria for the adults, a strawberry smash cake made by yours truly, and all the floral details. For this party I wanted a theme that she and her toddler friends would love.

On her birthday eve we walked to town to get an ice cream cone, which we also did for her first birthday. Kind of a little tradition right now, and the sweet owners of the deli have given it to us for free both years.

We went a little overboard on her gift and got her the cutest play kitchen ever. We ordered it from Amazon, and I put it together mostly myself. (Thank goodness for a power drill.) We set it out in the living room the night before her birthday, and it was seriously like Christmas morning waiting for her to get up to see it! She loved it, and so did all the kids at her party! Such a hit!

So let’s get down to the details of this puppy party! When I sat down to plan, I new I needed to figure out the cake, the little puppy themed menu, a couple gift ideas for the birthday girl, favors, some simple decorations, and maybe a fun party game or craft to keep the toddlers entertained. For the invitations, I bought these from Etsy and typed them up and printed them myself at home. Super simple, and I was able to use the same design for other décor throughout the party.

Milly absolutely loves cake – I think it may be one of her favorite foods. #girlaftermyownheart I was so tempted to skip out on making it myself this year, but decided to just do it. I doctored up a box of funfetti cake mix (adding more eggs, swapping out water with milk and oil with eggs) and made a marshmallow frosting to go with. I made a two layer cake and pup-cakes. I decorated the cake with some little toy dog figurines I ordered (and I made little party hats for them to wear), a gold “two” cake topper, and two gold candles.

For a menu, I definitely wanted simple – just some toddler snacks. We had puppy chow, fetch sticks (dipped pretzels), pupcorn, and mini corn dogs. I also had some fruit and a meat and cheese plate. For drinks, we had juice boxes for the kids and a fall sangria for the adults.

Decorations are always so fun put together. I was pretty terrible at photographing this part, so there are quite a few things that aren’t pictured. I made some printables and cupcake toppers using the downloads I ordered from Etsy. We also got a ton of balloon dogs for the toddlers to “walk” which was a lot of fun.

For favors I ordered these from Ikea, so each kiddo could adopt a puppy. I always loved this idea, and I think it was a hit!