I can’t believe our little man is two years old already! Time certainly flies! We are so grateful to God for Joshua David. Our sweet little baby is now a full-on toddler complete with bursts of energy and craziness but above all a sweet and kind heart. A good friend of mine calls this age the Terrific Twos and I can’t agree more with him. God is good and children are his biggest blessing.

Last year we celebrated Joshua’s birthday with a nautical themed party. This year we kept it oceanic and organized a pirate party, pirate ship and all. I have come to realize that the older the kids get, the less pictures I am able to take since I have to make sure everyone is kept alive and bruise free so please bear with me as I am only able to post a few pics of the party. I totally forgot to take a picture of the food spread and by the time I wanted to take pics of the tables they were all hmm semi-destroyed.

I am happy to announce the party was a success as evidenced by the destroyed pirate ship, the depleted cupcakes and cake and the beautiful smile on my Joshua’s face. I was quite surprised he actually played long and hard until the end of the party. Even after there were only a few friends left, he kept enjoying himself and having a fantastic time.
I will try to share with you the most I can from the party. I am disappointed I didn’t take more pics but I am not disappointed that the kiddos had a great time and I actually got to sit down and chat with my friends for a few minutes. We had a wonderful time.

The Decoration

My favorite type of decor is home-made. I love buying printable party packages from etsy and putting them together. This time I got the pirate ship package from Mimi’s Dollhouse. I looooved all the details and really enjoyed putting the decor together. As always I visited Pasar Mayestic to get fabric and ribbon to put the decor together.

The rest of the decor I got from Oriental Trading. I love throwing “character-less” parties and being able to choose a theme without a specific character in mind. Oriental is the best place to get this kind of stuff. I just typed in the word pirate and a world of options opened before my eyes. I think the favorite piece of decor from Oriental was the inflatable pirate which of course later became a wrestling buddy. The gold coins were also very popular and the kids loved searching for them throughout the function room.

Our cousin Kymberly had just had a pirate themed birthday party for her cute son’s first birthday and she was very kind to send a bunch of decorations all the way to Jakarta. They were the perfect finishing touches to the party.

Comme d’habitude my amazing hubby was able to make a structure for the kids to play in. This time he made a pirate ship, complete with a steering wheel (from last year’s party) and a sail. By the end of the party we had a short of shipwreck as the sail capsized but the boat is still holding on and is now in the playroom.

The second home-made structure was a treasure chest where we placed the goodie bags. The kids were excited to see it and were trying to get their loot as soon as they got there.

The Food

Nothing too fancy, everything was very kid-friendly except for the Sangria which was mommy-and-daddy-friendly. We made home-made mini pizzas and baked mac and cheese. We had chips and dips, hummus and veggies and a big fruit platter.

For the dessert table we had my old faithful chocolate fountain which was saved by my friend Michele as I burned ran out of chocolate and she was kind enough to bring extra chocolate along. Marshmallows and Strawberries were covered in chocolate and devoured by me all. I love having a candy buffet but I always end up with tons of candy left so this year I only had Hershey’s kisses on all the tables.

The piece de resistance was a fondant cake that I was able to make at home and not destroy in the process. Again, may awesome hubby took over most of the creative process and helped me decorate it. Apparently stripes need to be measured and placed symmetrically on the cake…. Thank God for my engineer hubby.

Activities

It seems like kids are still at an age where they can pretty much entertain themselves. We just scattered around several thing toys and things for them to play with and the squeals of joy were evidence enough that they had a blast.

The biggest hit was of course the pirate ship. Up to 10 kids sailed away at the same time. They really enjoyed pretending to be pirates in a far a way land.

We also had an activity table complete with coloring pages and activities from the printable package. This is the first time I find a printable party package that includes activities and I absolutely loved them! There was a crossword puzzle, a map and a word find sheet.

Another big hit were the decorate-yourself pirate hats from Oriental. The kids loved putting stickers on them and wearing their creations.

Overall…

We celebrated Joshua’s Second Birthday with good friends and were once again reminded of how faithful God has been all these years. We love our kiddos and are so grateful every day, even the tantrum filled ones.

This was a fabulous day for us as a family. We enjoyed every single minute of it and loved sharing this special occasion with our baby who isn’t a baby anymore.

Again we are so grateful to have the opportunity to celebrate with friends who have become family even while overseas. Now let the Christmas preparations begin and in a few weeks we will see you again for Evan’s Super Hero Birthday Bash.