real life toddler birthday parties

Well, my little Peach turned two.

And I had prepared a little party for her with five of her little friends. And she/we/everyone had a blast. I wouldn’t change a thing.

Because she looks like such a little Dutch girl, we thought that would be a fun theme for her party.Â Believe it or not, there’s a ton of little Dutch girl stuff out there and it’s unique and darling just like our Peach. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on the party. No more than $75, but I was very crafty and bought items at estate sales to round out the whole theme.

I madeÂ wall hangings using vintage linens with embroidered Dutch girls on it. Â I found a sweet little windmill as a centerpiece for the table. We even had those sweet little almond windmill cookies.Â And tulips of course. I made additional cloth napkins using some leftover yellow gingham fabric I had. Oh and that nutty vintage Lazy Susan in the middle was for all of the toppings I made for the mac and cheese bar I had for food–sun dried tomatoes, duxelle,Â caramelizedÂ onions, bacon and blue cheese as toppings. (Note this idea was totally stolen from one of the parties at Alt…)

I made each of the girls who attended the party little Dutch hats tipped with lace and blue embroidery:

And I made goody bags sealed with vintage playing cards that featured a little Dutch scene:

I bought a pair of sweet (and inexpensive!) little porcelain Dutch boys and girls and IÂ even found some little wooden shoes.

Of course I bought this great vintage apron with windmills and tulips for myself and some super cheap yellow wooden clogs, because honey, when I commit, I COMMIT!

Plus it would perfectly matchÂ the sweet little vintage gingham dress I had in my collection of dresses I bought for the Peach ages ago. Isn’t it adorable?

Except….she wouldn’t wear it. And woke up with a runny nose and no desire to take her needed two hour nap. So, instead she is wearing that orange pillowcase dress and her moose thermal pajama top from that morning. And orange crocs. And a desire to eat a cupcake. Which she did. With tremendous joy and gusto!

And she couldn’t be happier, which means I couldn’t be happier. Because really it’s about the birthday girl. It’s about having a good time and no matter how much I want to go Martha Stewart all over this party, I’m more interested in my little girl and my friends having a good time. And I think that happened. So the day was aces in my book.

Because the best parties leave wiggle room for reality and fun.Â And trust me there was a lot of wiggle room and reality in this party.Â For example:

I tripped and dropped on of whole thing of mac and cheese on the floor
I forgot to put out half the toppings for the mac and cheese
I couldn’t find birthday candles so I lit the closest two votive candles I had and called it a day
I forgot to put out the little coloring pages I printed out of wooden shoes, tulips and Dutch girls
I forgot to turn one of the burners off, so now my entire house and clothes and drapes smell of slightly burnt caramelized onions
Why yes, the Peach did pee in her pants halfway through the party
Not a single one of the girls wore those blasted Dutch hats–OK one sassy girl did, which was great
Heck yeah, there were crying kidsâ€”four meltdowns that I counted, but were patched up quite nicely with snuggles and cupcakes
Of course the kids ended up wearing the little Dutch shoes! I just wish I’d been smart enough to adds skids to the bottoms because they turned into ice skates on my wooden floors as the kids went sliding across them. Whoops!
The biggest hit of all were the 10 cent reduced price Mardi Gras beads that all the girls went mad for and turned into baby nun-chucks at times they way they were whipping them around
And of course the Peach threw up that night before passing out in bed from exhaustion.