2nd & 4th Joint Nautical Birthday

On a perfect hot summer day… Both my kids celebrated their birthdays, Joud turned 4 and Karim turned 2. It was a wonderful celebration among friends and family, a fun outdoor splash party. As every birthday theme is carefully chosen with the kids, a year before the big event, the starting point is always the invite, which also sets our color scheme and the mood for the preparations. I printed 2 separate invites for each of the kids’ friends from the Popobell store on Etsy. Lots of cutting and sticking involved but worth all the work.

All three kids enjoyed testing the water slide before their guests arrived. There was a great deal on them from Hamleys 

The real fun started when the crowd grew larger.

Here are some party details of the snack, water, photo booth and prop tables… I got the party hats, popcorn boxes, photo booth props and the lifesaver online on Amazon. My favorite places to source paper party cutlery, crockery and napkins are the Istiklal Library and The Party Store.

It really was a very hot day so water balloons were essential, I highly recommend you consider using the very amazing Zuru water filling products.

The piñata’s I made were the most time-consuming of all the preparations, apart from the paper cutting, who I have my family to thank, for always being there for, despite the eye-rolling and forehead-slapping reaction when I prepare them for what’s coming, LOL! In retrospect, I probably should’ve made them much smaller.

I tried to have as many activities as possible running, to keep the kids entertained; a table with shells, fish and blue water to fill little jars to make aquariums to take home as well as nautical-themed face-painting by my talented cousins.

I was also lucky enough to find all the wooden nautical decorations and accents at Matalan.

I made sure the kids had a costant flow of food, since they tend to get quite hungry when splashing around, so plenty of non-GMO organic popcorn from Bob’s Red Mill, as well as lots of cut fruits and veggies; as well as a healthy early dinner of tabbouleh and savory pastries with cheese, meat & zaatar.

The cake is always what I try planning waaay in advance, I also like baking the cakes ahead of time and freezing them because they become more moist after frosting and covering with fondant. I always make my twist on the Martha Stewart “One-Bowl Chocolate Cake”; each tier consists of 3 cakes, so a total of 9 cakes!

As for the giveaways… the kids took home their sailor hats, aquarium jars and a linen bag with a mini soft toy sea creature for the 2 year-old’s and a sailboat stationary set (pencil, eraser and sticker sheet) for the 4 year-old’s, also purchased online from Amazon.