Oh Twodles: Tatum's Second Birthday Party

On Sunday we had a little birthday party with a few friends and family members to celebrate Tatum's second birthday.  Mickey is his favorite and going off our Disney trip, we went with an "Oh Twodles" and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme.

The cake was a double tier chocolate bunt cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes with a simple topper from Etsy as well as a few little buntini's and some homemade cookies that my mom made.

This was an easy theme with so many options for decorations and food.  I used a bunch of Tatum's stuffed animals that we already had placed around the party display.  For appetizers we had things like Pete's Pretzels, Pluto's Popcorn, Mickey's Mexican Dip, Pluto's Chips and Dip and Goofy's Goldfish. Drinks consisted of water, seltzer, beer/wine and Pluto's Punch juice boxes for the kids.

Most of the food was from Wegman's which made it easy to setup - A Hot Diggity Dog Bar, Pete's Pulled Chicken Sandwiches, Chip and Dale's Chicken Nuggets, Mickey and Minnie's Mac n Cheese, Clubhouse Coleslaw, Daisy's Broccoli Salad and Donald's Pesto Tortellini Salad.

There were Mickey/Minnie Ears for all the guests and the weather was great so we were able to have some kids activities on the deck - Donald's Duck Pond, coloring, bubbles and a Mickey Mouse piñata.

Tatum's Tailgate Birthday Party

We had the best time celebrating Tatum's first birthday with family and friends - this was a milestone for us - as still sort of "new" parents, we've never thrown a kids birthday party before but we had so much fun.

We used our neighborhood clubhouse so we didn't worry about having to clean up our house after the party and it worked great.  I used a bunch of balloons for the decorations, the classic one year banner, a first year sign with his stats, a football sign and a framed invitation.

We had most of the food catered by our country club to keep it easy and went with all football/kids food - hot dogs, chicken cheesesteaks, cheesesteak egg rolls, mac n cheese, chicken tenders, wings and a tater to bar since we call Tatum, Tater Tot.  I also had some kids snacks like applesauce pouches and veggie sticks as well as some stadium snacks like popcorn, cotton candy and cracker jacks.  We had another little table with some fruit, veggies and salad.

I got a few inflatables - a football player you can throw the ball to and a ref as well as borrowed a bounce house from a friend.  In another room were some football coloring sheets and a duck pond guessing game since Tatum loves ducks.

In the game room which already has foosball, ping pong and shuffleboard tables set up we brought home our corn hole and ladder golf games from Penn State - the kids loved them and finding the beanbags and footballs at the end was fun, ha!

We had little football boxes for gift bags with a football rubber duck, bubbles, a squishy football and a little foam finger.

I always love dessert so we used our favorite bakery for a nice cake and then had a plain smash cake for Tatum and finished the dessert bar off with some candy.  We went simple with wine, beer, water and seltzer as well as juice boxes for the kids.

Tatum LOVED his cake!  On his real birthday he had just a cupcake so this was his first time to really dig in.  At first he just played with it but then he went to town snacking on it too.  He had some of his older friends help him blow out the candle.

It was such a fun day and while it was exhausting and overwhelming, it went by in a flash.  We felt so blessed to have so many of our family and friends in attendance to enjoy the day. Tatum got tons of attention and ran all over the place.

Tatum's Baptism

On Sunday, Tatum was baptized and it was the most wonderful day!  It was sunny, yet freezing so after about two photo attempts outside we didn't go back out, ha! At our church we do the baptisms during normal Sunday services and Tatum did great all through the service before/after the baptism.

Luckily we were able to keep his baptism outfit clean during photos before and after the service as well as during! We let him change into a more comfortable white outfit for the party.

We held his baptism lunch at our country club and they did a wonderful job - we kept it small with just immediate family, godparents and a couple close friends.  The cake was from a local bakery and all the other desserts - cake pops, chocolate covered oreos & pretzels - were ordered from this Etsy shop.  The cookies at each place setting are from this Etsy shop and the menu cards/place settings were matched to the invitations from this Etsy shop.

We wanted it to be fun and flowy not just a sit down meal so we had appetizers and cocktails for about an hour - cheesesteak/chicken cheesesteak sliders with a charcuterie board and shrimp cocktail.    The flower display my parents had surprised with at church, the baptism print is from this Etsy shop, the cocktail napkins are from here and the other decorations are his newborn photos, a wooden birth block (found here) and a sweet pair of keepsake shoes with his birth stats that a close friend gave us.

Tatum has the best godparents!  We chose my brother as well as my aunt who both have wonderful faith, we see often and love spending time with - great role models for Tatum and they already love on him so much!

After cocktails, appetizers and a bunch of photos we sat down to lunch - caesar salads followed by chicken, salmon or shrimp alfredo and then everyone dug into the dessert table.

Derek gave a toast for Tatum, we prayed for him, everyone held him and played with him, it was a very special day that left us with wonderful memories.  Tatum's  party outfit is from here.

Tatum's first of many events in his life - such a special first... 

Like I said above we kept it with just immediate family and everyone was able to come -  all his grandparents, all his aunts and uncles, both godparents and families, and two close sets of friends join us for the day - it was a great group.

The lunch ran into late afternoon and once it was done we just sat around chatting with our friends before they left town and a few family members before they went home.

He was pooped by the end of the day and so were we.  After everyone left for the day we spent the night relaxing on the couches together.