Annie's 2nd Birthday Party

We had Annie's birthday party last Sunday, and it was a lot of fun! Last year, we had a pretty big bash that involved me gathering ideas months in advance, and prepping pretty much the entire week prior to the event. We also invited friends in addition to family, which got to be a huge group! This year, I knew I physically and mentally would not be able to handle that kind of party at 8 months pregnant... as much as I love planning parties, it really just wouldn't have been fun for me.

The decision was made (with much urging from Ben) to just keep the party very low key - just family, pizza and cake. So that's what we did! Of course, I still managed to make it somewhat difficult for myself by deciding to bake the cakeS (yes, there were several) and deciding to make a few dips in addition to the pizzas, but it really wasn't a big deal. Oh, and just our immediate families made the party still 15 adults and 3 toddlers, so it really wasn't very "small" at all :)

Regarding the cakes - I was having a lot of internal debate over what to make - I wanted to make one layer cake, but knew that wouldn't feed everyone. I also planned to make just a simple chocolate sheet cake, so needed to find a layer cake that preferably didn't include chocolate. I originally was going to make a yellow cake with chocolate frosting (probably this best birthday cake from smitten kitchen) but thought that might be too much chocolate, and kept coming back to funfetti cake, especially since Annie does love her some sprinkles. Thus my search for a good funfetti cake from scratch! Annie's Eats had a recipe, but I decided to go with this one from the Kitchn mostly because it called for cake flour, and I had a bunch to use up anyway. I used the "easy" buttercream frosting recipe linked in there as well.  I also made perfectly chocolate cake and frosting from Hershey's because it's super easy.

Annie was very helpful in baking this :)

It is interesting - I used to use boxed cake mixes and canned frosting semi frequently, but now, I honestly wouldn't even consider it. I found this article on if boxed mixes are really faster on the Kitchn very interesting - especially the comments. Basically it boils down to if you bake frequently, boxed mixes aren't worth it at all because you probably already have the ingredients to make a full cake in your pantry, which is definitely true for me. 

I decorated the cakes at my parents house, which was a good thing, because BOTH of them fell off the dryer when it was on (they were put there by Ben) - seriously. If I had decorated the layer cake before that happened.... well, it wouldn't have been a pretty sight, that's for sure.

I topped it with this free bunting printable I found on pinterest - should have used yarn or string, but instead I used the raffia I already had and it worked fine, although I had to put it under a few books to get it to lay straight

Because my niece and nephew have PKU (which my sister-in-law explained VERY well on her blog the other day here), I made them some special cupcakes with a recipe I found on the amazing site Cook for Love. I also threw some sprinkles into the batter because I saw they have zero grams of protein so I knew they'd be safe :) We cut the recipe down to only make 6 cupcakes instead of 24 and it ended up making 4. (seriously - when would you EVER need 24 PKU friendly cupcakes, if not for a specific PKU convention?? You probably need ... 2) I did not try these but Grace & Sam seemed to like them!

I didn't really decorate at all, but did use a few family photos from the session we did with Kate (as soon as I get all the photos back, obviously I will share them here!) by the cakes, displayed Annie's monthly photos from the year, and hung up the birthday banner. Last year I worked diligently on Annie's 1st year video (which makes me cry now) which we showed to everyone. This year, I just made a set on flickr of my favorite photos of Annie throughout the last year and we had a slideshow going through the Apple TV the whole time... until a basketball game started and my dad pouted until I allowed him to turn it on :) The craziest thing to me about looking back at Annie at one is how she was basically bald - nuts how much her hair grew in that year!

We also made a few dips to serve before the pizzas came - spinach artichoke dip with bread and chips, and roasted garlic balsamic white bean dip served with veggies.

When I put Annie's birthday outfit on, I TRIED to get her to take a nice picture with her old mom... but no. Not going to happen. Thanks to my mom for the dress she found at Janie & Jack on extreme clearance!! 

Not with Dad either :)

Here are a few more photos from the party!

Would be adorable... without the cup. Still is adorable, I think though :)

Annie's mind was blown when both sets of grandparents were in the SAME PLACE

This is about the best one I got of us :)

Aww, at least Annie was happy to pose with her Auntie Becca :)

Opening her presents! Everything she got was awesome!

Of course, given her love for bags, one of her favorite presents was a new "pack pack" from Aunt Liz

We then sang Happy Birthday to Annie - she joined in :)

Tried to blow out the candle, but needed a bit of help

Cousins!

She probably could have just worn a bib, but that dress is nice so I just took it off - good decision on my part :)

And she literally just went after it - just like this. Ha!!!

Grace and Sam chowing on their cupcakes!

Seriously - hilarious.

SO excited about the matching jammies Grandma made for her and her baby!

With her backpack of course

Dragged over a chair to try to scam more cake :)

Ended the night with one good picture with at least one of her parents! :)

Thanks to our families for celebrating Annie's big birthday with us!