We just held my littlest one’s second birthday, but before I get to posting that one, I wanted to make sure I finished posting my older daughter’s 2nd birthday (…five years later!!). When my second child turned two, I reallllly wanted to throw her a Winnie the Pooh party because I personally love Winnie the Pooh. But despite my best efforts – reading Pooh stories, getting her Pooh toys, etc – she wasn’t into it! Instead, my free-spirited nature and animal loving girl was in love with dolphins at that time. I don’t recall if she was intrigued through books and toys first and then saw them at Sea World or the other way around, but either way, that was what she was into, and so it seemed only fitting for that to be her theme.
Dolphins aren’t really a common theme when it comes to birthday parties so I did have to get creative. I landed on making it generally more ocean-inspired, borrowing from mermaid-type themes.
Since the theme wasn’t as common and I didn’t want the various elements of the party to feel too random, I wanted to make sure to “introduce” the theme right when guests walked in, so they would have some idea of what was going on. This was the sign I had at the gate that led into our backyard, which is where the party was held.
Upon walking in, we had blue pom poms hanging from the trellis to feel like bubbles or hint at being underwater.
I also had a banner made that matched the welcome sign, to tie the theme together.
Of course, the focal point was the cake and dessert table, so dolphins were woven throughout both the decor and the treats.
I bought this dolphin-shaped cookie cutter from Amazon and had a local baker make these adorable dolphin sugar cookies.
I decorated our homemade cupcakes with simple dolphin cutouts from aqua glitter cardstock.
The cake featured a blue ombre gradient reminiscent of the ocean, and a cake topper I made from the same glitter cardstock.
We also decorated with a balloon garland in the turquoise and purple, as well as getting a matching tassel garland. This is how the full table came together!
For the activities, I wanted them to be both engaging to my daughter’s age, reflect her interests, while also tying to the theme. The first activity was a water sensory table that featured blue water beads and little dolphin and ocean creature figurines they could uncover.
I also had a station where the kids could select their own ocean-animal wood cutouts and paint them. And not pictured, but I also had a small kiddie pool filled with bubble water and multiple bubble wands, because what two-year-old doesn’t love bubbles!
I always seem to forget to take photos of the party favors. In this instance, each child left the party with an individually wrapped dolphin bath toy.
That was that! Not too over the top – I just wanted it to be age-appropriate, express and reflect her adorable growing little personality, and celebrate her. And from those little smiles, I think she felt the love that day!
That Celebration Life 