For Norah's first birthday party, we did a "you are my sunshine" theme. It was meaningful because my mom used to sing that to me when I was little, and it's the song we sing to Norah before bed each night. For her second birthday, I knew I wanted to do an apple theme even before she turned one (crazy, I know). I remember nursing her one day and reading somewhere in the Old Testament about "keep Me as the apple of your eye" and knew that an apple party would be not only cute, but special, as I read that verse and prayed for that for her life.
So, her second birthday party came (way too fast), and the apple theme came to fruition! It was so fun to make decorations for it. I used to teach preschool before we had Norah, and now I stay home, so I miss getting to decorate and make cute kid things on the regular!
The big apple poster and little apples hung all over are from The Learning Post (in Des Moines), and the birthday banners I made myself by just buying different patterns of red and lime green scrapbook paper, cutting triangles, and printing my own letters. I bought red ribbon to hang them up, and reused the mini wooden clips from her first birthday banners last year.
My mom found this adorable apple pie making sign at TJ Maxx.
I've made it my goal each year to make a poster for all of our kids birthday parties of our favorite pictures of the year- partly because I love taking pictures and looking back at favorites, and then I'll already have boards made when they graduate high school (thinking way ahead)!
This is probably my favorite part- the banner and apples turned out so cute!
For food, we had caramel apple cupcakes, snicker apple salad, caramel apple marshmallows, and a caramel apple bar (with apple slices and small bowls of different toppings). We also had apple juice boxes for the kids, water, and apple cider. It was a hit and all pretty easy! You can't really see the frame from the window glare, but there is a cute "you are the apple of my eye" sign in it. My mom also found that cute red apple in the dollar section at target.
I borrowed a friend's plastic pool and made an apple pie sensory bin in it for the kids, and it ended up being such a great idea. They loved it and played with it the whole party. Norah and her friends were the perfect age for it! I just put in oats, cinnamon sticks, apples, pie tins, spoons, and a rolling pin and they had fun making their own "pie."
Not apple related, but we also borrowed Kley's aunts' bounce house, which was an obvious hit too. The kids loved it! (Norah was testing everything out before the guests arrived.)
I also had a table outside where kids could make their own apple tree craft, similar to the picture below.
It turned out to be a fabulous party, and we had the best weather! Yay! I enjoy party planning and decorating, so it was fun to be creative, and it wasn't too expensive either!