Cut out the Crap: Double 2nd Birthday ~~~ 2 days before Christmas!!!!!!

Good Morning! Happy Boxing Day! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day! We sure did! I have some yummy food pictures to share with you from our Christmas Day (here I am the next day STILL full!) but that will be next week…..

Today I wanted to share with you some photos and food ideas from my gorgeous twins 2nd Birthday which was a little play date / afternoon tea on the 23rd Dec….yep thats right, 2 days before Christmas! I know its such a BUSY time of the year for everyone so I made it Sunday afternoon from 3-5 and all but one family could come, which was wonderful! It was super HOT but the kids still ran around and had fun….and as always I had too much food…..some of it never even came out as it wasn’t needed (so very typical of me!)

The 2 years since they were born have gone so fast! They are such gorgeous little people who bring so much joy into our lives!

Birthday morning, opening presents with Daddys help!

My Princess – Birthday morning!

As I had decided to make the entire party additive free I wanted to make sure the ‘Party Bags’ were the same, so I went with little pencils, paper, erasers, balloon, bubbles, farm animal toys, and Yummy Earth lollipops (available through my website). I made the party bags 2 days before.

Party bags

I saw these years ago and finally decided to make them (the ones I saw were filled will lollies) and I made them with home made popcorn!

Butterfly Popcorn Party treats!

Step 1 – make a heap of Popcorn

Step 2 – 3/4 fill clip lock bags (I used small snack ones) with Popcorn and let all the air out.

Step 3 – Tie pipe cleaners around the middle.
Step 4 – Get wooden pegs and glue ‘googly’ eyes on them, or get the kids to draw faces on them.

Final step – place peg in the middle! Cute hey!

I decided on 2 x #2 cakes this year and wanted to make them using the basic “one cake 9 ways” recipe from COTC for Kids. I got pink and blue cupcake cases that were slightly bigger, so ended up making 3 mixtures, which took no longer than a packet cake would….only with these cakes you know what is in them! Instead of using fresh lemon juice, I used store bought additive free pineapple juice. I made and iced the cakes the day before.

My helper!!!!!

3 mixtures made 24 big cupcakes and then I made little ones with the remaining mixture!

Blue – half done with plain blue icing and the other half with 100s and 1000s – icing colours and sprinkles are additive free and available through my website!

Pink (my hand slipped and I added WAY too much pink colouring!) half left plain pink and the other half with flowers made from Marshmallows (from Aldi – they only have 1 flavour and are the closest to additive free I can find) and a choc drop (also from Aldi, these are dairy but completley additive free)

The finished products! The twins love Toy Story, so I added a few things on there also!

Additive Free Party day food! Popcorn (homemade) – “French Fries” (packet chips) – fruit – natural lollies & marshmallows – sushi – chicken and turkey meatballs – pinwheels – honey joys – hommus and veg sticks and crackers – fairy bread. I also bought little paper/wax icecream cups and plastic spoons and made ‘Savoury Rice’ (basmati rice with peas and corn) and was going to serve individual cups of them but we really didnt need it! (I added a few extra veg and they had it for lunch the next day!)

Party Food!

I did a big platter of fresh fruit – just didn’t get a photo! Watermelon, orange, blueberries and grapes…..I love that kids love fruit so much!!!!!!

Hommus with carrot, celery and crackers – hommus made the day before and kept in the fridge. Recipe in COTC. My twins LOVE this and would eat it by the spoonful!

Pinwheels – additive free puff pastry, tomato pasta sauce and cheese! Always a hit! I made these the day before and just reheated them in the oven.

Bite sized Sushi – avocado and cucumber only

Chicken Meatballs from COTC – I used Chicken and Turkey mince and left out the coriander to make them more kid friendly. I served these with sweet chilli sauce for the adults. I made these the day before and once again, just reheated them in the oven when ready to serve.

Honey Joys from COTC for Kids – My mum made these **Thank you**

A few more Party photos….

A beautiful sunny day and a relaxing party as I was organized!

Cake time!

My big 2 year old boy!

My big 2 year old girl….having a GREAT time!

Miss 2 loving one of her presents from Nan and Pop!

Master 2 loving one of his presents from Grandma and Grandpa!

This would have to be my favourite photo from the day! They giggled and giggled and giggled with this new toy from some friends!

and last but not least….Miss 10′s favourite treat…..another thing that never got out at the Party…..but they kids sure enjoyed the next day….frozen choc bananas!