Remember when I posted that first pregnancy update? It feels like yesterday that she was bouncing around in my tummy and I was sick as a dog. But they always say time flies when your kids are young, and it couldn’t be more painfully true. My tiny little baby is two years old. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel emotional about it, and maybe even a bit sad. At the same time, it’s so exciting to see her grow, learn, and become more amazing as every day passes. I love celebrating and documenting every milestone. Of course, there’s nothing like a birthday for an excuse to make a big fuss!
Last year, Isla’s birthday theme was cats, because ‘cat’ was her very first word and she was completely obsessed with them. This year, she’s really loving pumpkins (because who doesn’t?!), so I decided to take advantage of her October birthday and go all out with a Halloween pumpkin birthday party.
The cake is the shortcake recipe from Chloe’s Vegan Desserts*, frosted with the chocolate buttercream from the Oh She Glows* cookbook. The pumpkin pan itself is from Wilton. I just covered the whole thing in bright orange fondant and used vegan royal icing in yellow and black to pipe the details. I used some of the leftover cake batter to make baked doughnuts.
Most of my decorations are homemade using Hobbycraft items, with additional bits and pieces from Morrison’s (the straws, confetti and pumpkin fairy lights, not pictured) and Aldi (those amazing pumpkin and boo glasses and some bunting, also not pictured).
We planned to go to the Spooky Welly Walk, but thanks to Brianstorm Storm Brian, we got absolutely soaked. Isla didn’t mind, though, she was happily jumping in all the puddles!
You can’t have a pumpkin birthday party without decorating pumpkins. When we got back home and dried off, we painted mache pumpkins. It was a really quick and simple craft that Isla and her cousins could do with minimal help. Crafting also gave them something to take home that wasn’t chocolate (although there was plenty of that, too). The activity worked really well and I think I’ll incorporate a little arts & crafts session into every toddler birthday yet to come!
We ended the day with Lady & the Tramp (or dog & the dog, as Jake likes to call it) before the kids fell into bed and we recovered on the sofa with plenty of snacks and some Netflix. All in all, a good pumpkin birthday party!
What are some of your best toddler birthday recommendations? Let me know so I can try them out next year!
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