Whimsical Toddler Tea Birthday Party

We just celebrated Zimri’s second birthday and had the best time doing it, so I wanted to share the details in case it inspires other parents planning tiny celebrations!

My one big regret is not documenting it well- for my own sake and for ‘content creator’ purposes. I’m very thankful I was ‘in the moment’ but I wish I had captured more memories to keep and more details to share here! Oh well.

There was a time when I very seriously wanted to be a party planner- kids, specifically. Over time I’ve ruminated on different iterations of this- wedding planner, event planner. I’ve even gotten work experience in wedding and event photography, floral design, catering, bartending, event logistics, set building- so many random, seemingly disconnected and ‘unhelpful’ things.

Essentially, I’ve been training for this. All of my pent up creative energy comes out around the boys birthdays. Is it somewhat unfortunate that their birthdays are two weeks apart? Yes. That’s hectic. Did I tell myself I would go easy this year cus I was so busy? YES, and I kindof did. Honestly, I did, Zimri’s birthday was so so easy I just decided to put about 8 hours of extra work in on unnecessary but life giving (to me) things like a fairy stump cake and tie dye.

Anyways, I take so much joy in all of this and I know it can be overwhelming, there is so much to research, decide and sift through when trying to plan your kids birthdays so I’m just putting it all here for you in case that’s helpful- everything from gifts to food to keeping toddlers occupied.

We are still figuring out our birthday traditions, and this may change as they get older. But we decided to start the day like Christmas morning- The house was decorated and the table laid with our celebration ring and his birthday crown.

His gifts were arranged in the play arch and we let him go straight over and begin exploring them. We had a slow morning unwrapping and playing with things, eating breakfast in between and it felt so lovely!

Birthday Breakfast- gotta be something fun and easy. I made my gluten free banana pancakes (a recipe you’ll find in my book! I cant share it yet but you can preorder Simple Kitchen Magic and it’ll be available in October wink wink)

Felt Crown- I’ve been making these since Kensa’s second birthday and they are a big hit! Kensa looks forward to them now. I’m going to make a whole tutorial post on how to make one yourself, and then I’ll link that here. Giving it at breakfast means the birthday kid is king/queen for the day!

Celebration Ring- this is a Waldorf inspired tradition that we are still develpping. The celebration ring is an open-ended wooden ring that you can use to decorate and celebrate for any number of special occasions, holidays or seasonal changes. We used it for our advent candles at Christmas, and every birthday it comes out.

Our ring is from Grimms but you can find many on etsy or make your own out of air dry clay or salt dough! You can get little ornaments for it, also from Grimms or Etsy or make your own (I have yet to do this but am determined!)

For birthdays, we place a candle for each year of their life, including the one they are about to begin. We take a moment at their party or just with family to light each candle while sharing a memory from that year of their life, or something new we learned about them. Then we light the last candle and share a wish or prayer for their next year.

I made a video about this that I will also link here when it is done!

I have a growing box of reusable decorations that come out at lots of different events. I even reuse things that are probably supposed to be disposable!

Paper decorations- I try to steer clear of balloons (although I included a few this year and Kensa is begging for helium balloons at his birthday) and lean more towards tissue paper flowers, fans, honeycombs and lanterns. I’ve gotten them mostly from Etsy or Amazon but Papakit is a consistent favorite source. I have made super fun garlands from these before but that’s quite time consuming so this year I just hung them around! I also love using paper streamers- so cheap and effective.

Tiny Flags - I got this tiny flag bunting on etsy a couple years ago and have used it so much! It is so cute and effective and goes with everything.

Minidip Reusable Balloon Garland - this was a new addition this year and I love what it added. I will say I thought the balloons were all separate and I could use helium in them- neither of those things are true lol. But the garland was so easy, we hung it up with string and it gave such a nice focal point!!

I love wrapping gifts in fabric! It’s great for the environment, it’s super easy (no tape or scissors necessary) and looks so lovely - at least I think so. I use our playsilks for this, and often get just one new one for the birthday. I also will tie dye a giant sheet and cut it up or old baby swaddles. I have reused these over and over and slowly they have been given to others, so then I just dye something else and the cycle starts again!

Logistics- Little kid parties are actually my favorite. They are easy, super cute, and short and sweet. The ideal length for a toddler party is like 2-3 hours, and I like to invite everyone over around 2:30-3 pm so everyone has had a nap and we can party before witching hour begins!

We invited 5 or 6 kids around Zimris’ age. This is a great time to make new friends- I realized that our usual friend crew is all kids our older sons age- like 5 years up mostly. We have a couple buddies with kids Zimri’s age but we don’t get to hang out often! So I invited them and then reached out to a couple of other families that I have met in the community or through others but never hung out with personally who have younger ones. They were thrilled to come and it was a great opportunity to make some more friends. It was so fun to see all the little guys interacting and really that was what I wanted for Zimri.

Theme- I didn’t do a heavy theme because it just felt like a lot of extra work and I wanted to stick to what was easy, so I went for a loosely ‘woodland friends’ themed toddler tea party!

Tea Party setup- the whole idea sprouted from seeing this Schyling Forest Friends tea party set! Childhood whimsy at its best. I borrowed a couple of low folding tables from a friend (I cant find the exact ones but something like this) and covered them with a tablecloth and runner that I already had. The flowers I bought from a friend who has a gorgeous garden!

Favors - just to add a bit of whimsy and fun I got this set of woodland animal ear headbands from etsy and found some mini pinwheels at our local hardware store that the kids loved!

Drinks- I made a giant cold-brewed jar of peppermint and elderberry tea with honey and used that for the kids tea party and for adults, and then just had some sparkling water and juice on hand too. And my friend brought fresh sugarcane juice! I wanted to have kombucha ready to go but of course it wasn’t done yet.

Food - again, I kept food super simple. Little finger sandwiches- cheese and cucumber and turkey and tomato. Bowls of berries, of course, because every toddler loves berries, and some fairly healthy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (another recipe from my book!). For adults I just set out a sandwich bar with verrrry little prep- a couple big blocks of nice cheese, a couple meats and some crispy bacon, veggies, pickles, condiments and a couple knives and cutting boards. I just said “Have at it, guys” essentially and everyone helped themselves. Perfect.

Cake- the cake was my pride and joy. It was another major factor in selecting my loose ‘theme’ - really I just wanted to try my hand at making a cake like this! It was my first time doing proper piping work and I had a lot of fun with it. I used a double recipe of this Fannie Farmer Chocolate Buttermilk Cake that has been a family favorite for years and is so easy. I iced it in a classic chocolate buttercream (I don’t have a recipe for this but any will do) and used a skewer to make rustic wood grain designs in that, then refrigerated it before doing all the greenery. I made swiss meringue buttercream for the piping and borrowed my friends decorating tips. I cant tell you exactly everything I used, but large shell tips to create foundational ‘shrubs’, lots of leaf tips, small shells to fill in gaps with little rosettes and lots of use of the grass tip for moss. I made some meringue mushroomes using this meringue recipe and followed this general guide, then went rogue and made some lions made and little fairy caps. All the meringues I didn’t use we just ate at the party! And of course, to finish it off lots of edible flowers- little violas and nigella.

I kept activities really basic. First, the tea party was a hit and the kids loved pouring tea for each other. This amused them for a solid 20-30 minutes. Then they just organically played with our toys, but when things started to get a little antsy I had a couple things ready to pull out-

Kinetic Sand- no explanation needed really. It’s always a hit. I just filled a big plastic tub with a few bags of kinetic sand, scattered in some construction vehicles we had and a scattering of tiny toy animals and just set it aside ready to pull out when needed! I set it on top of our splat mat for easy clean up and the boys will use it for a long time after.

Bubbles- if in doubt, always have bubbles on hand. I left the kinetic sand out for a while and the kids all just bumbled about but when they once again got antsy and needed a fresh distraction, bubble dance party it is. I got this sunflower bubble blower and it pumped out an INSANE amount of bubbles, and a few Fubbles No-Spill bubble tumblers. Music and bubbles was a rager.

Playdough- I planned on busting out the playdough but didn’t in the end- but Kandreas and I did spend a good amount of time making a few batches of homemade playdough. For some reason it didn’t quite turn out and was stickier than usual (I think because I subbed vinegar for my usual cream of tartar) but my usual recipe is perfection -

2 cups white flour

2 cups water

2/3 cup table salt

2 tablespoons oil

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Food coloring and Essential oils!

Mix everything in a big pot and heat on low on the stove, stirring continuously until it all comes together, thickens and dries. It will be really tough near the end but keep turning and spreading it. Once it has all darkened and turned ‘playdoughy’, turn it onto the counter and knead for a couple of minutes until smooth. Store in an airtight container, keep clean and dry and it will last for months!

I spend far too long researching and agonizing over gifts- I just love gift giving. I try to use birthdays and Christmas as the main moment to upgrade their toys for the next season so it’s really important to me that whatever I get is developmentally appropriate for the next year plus, fills a good gap in our toys but will actually be a fun surprise for them to open.

I went a bit extra this year, he definitely would have been content with less but they are all things we’ve been missing in our play room and it was time for an upgrade, so I just chipped away at them over the last few months and saved it all up for his birthday!

I do try and troll marketplace, thrift stores, ebay and mercari as much as possible for gifts. I wasn’t able to get as much secondhand as I wanted, and I spent so much time searching that I almost didn’t have time to order anything so I ended up just going for the new versions. I also have the challenge of not having many local toy shops to check out as we live in Hawai’i and things are spread across the island making finding specific things kinda hard. You may have an easier time just seeing what you can find around you than I do, which is even better!

Schleich Farm Animals - Zim is so into animals right now! I feel so strongly about toy animals being accurate and for heavens sake the right SIZE! Schleich is literally the best. I found a couple lots of farm animals on Ebay, there are so so many of these bad boys second hand because they seem to age well.

Melissa & Doug Barn - to go along with the farm animals- this is such a classic kind of toy, it gives some context for play while still being open ended, it’s wooden and sturdy. I found mine on Ebay! Schleich does a gorgeous one that I love even more but it is pricey. I would have gone for it if it wasn’t for the shipping being EVEN MORE expensive than the actual barn omg.

Fagus Basic Truck - I’ve been eyeing these Fagus vehicles for a while and finally pulled the trigger- I spent months checking Ebay and found a great deal on this one! Again, such good quality, a German toy brand (always a good sign) that uses no nails, all joinery. They are chunky and sturdy and have cool steering mechanisms. These are one of those heirloom toys and I know in a few years they might age out of so I wanted to invest in them earlier than later. Zimri loves wheels and he hasn’t left this truck alone since his birthday!

Tiny Land Play Food - at two he is just getting into pretend play. We have a few super basic pretend food bits and bobs and both the boys love them so I wanted to upgrade to some good wooden ones. Particularly I was looking for wooden food that could be ‘cut’. I got the big play food combo set and am splitting it between the boys for their birthdays. I gave Zimri the Organic Fruit and Veggie pack and the Egg Combo playset. Honestly I think I could have gone with something like this thats a little more bang for your buck, and I was a little disappointed that only the carrots in the Tiny Land produce actually are cuttable (overlooked that detail) but I do like that it has a diverse mix of fruit and veggies and not just tons of one type of food.

Plan Toys Pots and Pans - we have a mud kitchen but no indoor play kitchen things! I settled on this Plan Toys set because I wanted it to look realistic (not just be wooden) but we have the Melissa & Doug ones in the mud kitchen and I didn’t want them getting mixed up and end up all being destroyed outside. I like that this set is simple, but its good quality, its lightweight and it isn’t as LOUD as the steel-on-steel pots and pans can be!

Felt Play Food- I wanted to make him some felt food to go along with the kitchen things but ran out of time and just made a single mushroom and a very skinny donut that has now been dubbed a bagel. I’ll just slowly work on more haha.

Yoto Mini & Music Cards - This is one I was going to hold off on, but he loves music and speakers SO much and is always wanting his brothers Yoto, which just seems a bit unfair to both of them as it’s something we use every day! We get him the Bob Marley card and Many Moons, celtic covers of old school kids songs.

Books & Other- we always do books, so we gave him Construction Site: Farming Strong All Year Long and Guess How Much I Love You’s Out and About in 100 Words. I also tie-dyed him two onesies (probably his last oneseis omg).

In Conclusion-

As I write this I am re-devastated over not capturing more photos of this sweet moment. Zimri just had so much fun, he was truly in his element and it was such a cute thing to witness. I guess though the fact that so little was captured is a true testament to the toddler chaos of all of it and me actually being really present- which I am so thankful for. Again, could he have been so happy and well celebrated with far less? Absolutely. But I get so much joy from creating in this way and it’s really fun to see that creativity enjoyed by others.

Now to begin preparing for Kensa’s birthday in…just over a week. Yeeeehaw!