Aryeh's 2nd Birthday Party

Our little man turned 2! I was super excited to make the prince a fun bash because...dun, dun, dun... he actually knows what a birthday is by now! He had been singing happy birthday Aryeh to himself for an entire month so I felt psyched that he would "get" the party.

This year I decided on a Crayon theme. I like doing a theme because it helps you hone in on decorations so it doesn't end up too cheeseball (not that there's anything wrong with cheeseball, I have been the recipient of many such parties as a child and they were awesome!). I had a lot of options, because Aryeh is "into" so many things right now but I wanted to steer clear of the cartoon themes as I feel my life is already overloaded with their faces (not to mention Elmo was already going to be making an appearance at the party). Crayons popped into my head because they consume so much of Aryeh's days and they just remind me of the essence of childhood. Bright, colorful and fun.

The crayon idea made decorating easy on me, I just needed to incorporate lots of bright colors. I also searched around Amazon often to find different crayon-themed objects that would work at the party. I started purchasing little decorations for the party about 6 weeks in advance, because the week of the party I knew I'd be shelling out a lot of cash for the entertainer, food, drinks, cake etc.

As city-dwellers, our outdoor space is confined to a little patch of grass outside our apartment (don't be fooled, that patch is the envy of many of my friends!) but naturally, that limits party options for us. We couldn't make it inside our apartment because we simply would not have the room if everyone insisted on moving once inside and we wanted to do something outdoors since it was midsummer. My husband and I found a great park in our neighborhood that often is empty and just decided we'd take over. It turned out to be a great spot with room for all of the kids to run around and lots of nearby benches for guests to sit. 

Here's how we worked the crayons into the party, our decorations and the food.

The cupcake stand is from Wilton ($3.99) and the cupcakes themselves are the two-bite Costco Sprinkle cupcakes. I alternated decorating them with crayon cupcake picks and sugared crayon toppers:
Sugar Crayon Cake Toppers
Crayola Style Cupcake Picks
As centerpieces, I used clear plastic martini glasses which I filled with colorful M&Ms.

The colorful rainbow concoction you see here is Fruity Pebble Treats! Prepared just like Rice Crispies Treats using the sweeter, rainbow version of the popular cereal.

I had to snag a photo with the birthday boy before the guests arrived, while I still had a chance at his attention! Underneath the table you can see the goody bags. I used multi colored paper tote bags and filled them with crayons, notepads, colorful toys and some sweets.

Unfortunately, I didn't snap a better picture of the drink table after I rearranged the bottles in a better way (I asked a disinterested family member to set up the drink table ;) - but I had a great cutlery holder that I made the night before. I took one of the rainbow cups and glued crayons all around, then filled the cup with the plastic cutlery and gigantic rainbow lollypops as decoration. You can see my son's little hand reaching for one here! The lollipops were a great decoration because by the end of the party it served as an extra take-home treat for some lucky guests!

I also found these great inflatable crayons online. We blew them up and then spread them out around the party area. The kids had a blast with these as well!
Inflatable Crayons

We had a clown come and do "magic" and balloon animals for the kiddies. Then best of all... after a quick costume change...

Elmo's joined the party!

And of course the piece de resistance: THE CAKE! I took a Costco cake ($17.99 and it feeds a crowd!), with one of their featured decorations in rainbow colors, added some of the sugared crayons, and topped it with a candle of Elmo holding crayons!
Elmo Crayons Candle

I had so much fun planning this party, and an even better time watching it unfold!
There is something spectacular about watching children have a good time... they do it in the most natural, uninhibited manner and it is a joy create that!
What kind of special moments have you created for your child?

Tiny Space, BIG Personality

So I live in a 2 bedroom apartment and its a pretty nice size for NYC. But as Aryeh is getting bigger and busier I am starting to wonder how anyone manages to contain a toddler in an apartment AND all their "stuff". The funny thing is my neighbor who lives directly under has 4 kids...but maybe she doesn't let them own anything? I know she doesn't allow shoes in the house so who knows what else...
I am always looking for ideas but currently this is how we make it work.
Aryeh doesn't have the largest room and in it I had to fit crib, dresser, High-Riser (hello, grandparents), hamper and a toy chest. Everything is along the walls so the space in the middle I use for his fun stuff. I took the attachments off the play gym from when he was a baby and use it as a mat for the toys to go on top of. I keep mostly smaller size toys there and things that go missing easily (balls, blocks, puzzle pieces) since it is a small space and I have better chances of finding them. I find that as long as I get all the toys on the mat at the end of the day and the books in the bin the room looks tidy and its done pretty quickly.
In my room I have a mini-trampoline (our big ticket Hanukkah gift to him this year, the kid loves jumping.) This is  actually fold-able, but I knew that would never happen. I use the space underneath to store a couple other toys, like floor mat puzzle pieces and his toy guitar & piano. The nice thing about having this little "play station" in my room is that since he comes into our room when he wakes up it gives us a little time to stall in bed before starting the day - neither Eli nor I am a morning person :(
I have a large Ikea book shelf/ storage system/thingamajig in my foyer (funny story how I got this, when we moved into our first apartment a friend of Eli's happened to be moving out. He didn't feel like schlepping the bookcase so he decided that it would be our wedding gift.) I keep random books of Aryeh's in there to distract him from pulling out things we might not want ripped up. Bonus its right between desk and kitchen so he can read while I'm working in either place.
Then I've got the large toys in the living room/dining room. I've stuck them into open spaces along the parameter of the room. I have a smallish wicker basket that I use for all the toys that can fit in there. I also have his highchair in there. It folds flat to take up almost no space which I am obsessed with, so when having dinner guests we get that out of the way. Now I am thinking about buying a small table and chairs for Aryeh because I love those. It will give him a place to color and be useful for play dates. I'd also love to get a mini basketball hoop set. Winter is long and I have a feeling these additions will keep him busy and stimulated. The question is of course...where will these pieces go? I am always at a loss what to do with older toys to make room for new ones. I don't want to have to repurchase all these awesome toys when another little one come along but I honestly don't have the room for EVERYTHING!
Here are some photos that inspired me today while I scoured the web for solutions to my conundrums.

Love the baskets and the shelf idea seems awesome for a living room because everything fits either under or over. Oh and hooks. Need more hooks!

This "library" was made out of a vinyl rain gutter from a hardware store. Genius!