Good evening dear friends! I hope that you are having a lovely week.

It has taken me a while to put together the pictures of Luka and Zoe’s party, but I have finally organized them all, so here is the first of the four posts that I have prepared about it. The first three posts will be mainly visual: I will show you what the party looked like, what we ate, what we crafted, what we did. In the fourth and last post, I will let you know what went right, what went wrong-and what I learnt.

As you know, Luka and Zoe’s birthday was in August. I had, however, started planning this party almost from the minute they turned two years old. I didn’t decide on all details right away, of course, but I did know two things: 1) I wanted an art party, because they greatly enjoy art and because I thought it could entertain children of different ages, and 2) I wanted the color palette to be  fun, vibrant and summery, so I chose the colors yellow, green and orange. The rest of the details started coming to my mind little by little and, by January, I had a clear idea of what I wanted.

By June, however, a major complication appeared: we couldn’t find a suitable, affordable venue in Nicosia. We live in an apartment, so we celebrate Zoe and Luka’s birthdays in kid-friendly venues, where they can run and play in a different way- But the ones we counted on were unavailable, or had gone out of business, or were not suitable anymore. We searched, and searched, and asked around but couldn’t find anything. We had almost decided not to do a big birthday celebration when I had an idea: why not delay the party until November and do it, instead, in Argentina, with all my family and friends? So that’s what we did: I gathered all the supplies I had already bought and travelled with them to my home city, Córdoba, bought here what was missing, crafted the decorations (other than the lovely printables designed by Delicious Tea) and baked everything that was served, all in one week. It was exhausting, yes, but it was absolutely worth it, because we were surrounded by love, by family, by real friends.

We celebrated the party in the backyard of a house rented by my brother for his professional practice (he is a psychologist). The day was beautiful: sunny but not too hot, and with a rather light breeze. We opted for an intimate celebration, and invited around 25 persons only, of which 6 were children of different ages. We set up two tables with the food, and a small table with art supplies for the children, and scattered chairs here and there, so that guests would mingle.

The main dessert table was set up against a wall. As a backdrop, we used three styrofoam boards covered in the colors of the party and attached the souvenirs  (which were sugar cookies coated with royal icing in green, yellow and orange) to them. On top of them, we hanged the birthday banner (also designed by Delicious Tea).

Here are some detailed views of the main table:

 We served popcorn in yellow paper cones (which were a big hit!), cake-pops coated with semi-sweet chocolate…

vegan chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, frosted with vegan buttercream…

…an assortment of sprinkles for the children to decorate their cupcakes with…

 and mini “splash of paint” sugar cookies, decorated with royal icing in the colors of the party.

We also had two two-tier vegan birthday cakes, each of a different flavor: lemon cake with vanilla buttercream and home-made orange jam, chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and berries jam, marble cake with vanilla and chocolate buttercream, and chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and orange jam.

On the second table, we set-up the supplies: Napkins, spoons…

plates, straws and extra glasses…

…as well as three jars filled with lemon, orange and apple candies (which were very common during my own childhood and which I wanted to share with my own children). The candies were taken by children as souvenirs too, at the end of the party.

In the next post I will show you all the decorations we crafted, as well as details of the fabulous printables designed by my dear friend, the super talented Laura, from Delicious Tea.

Have a wonderful week!