My son’s second birthday hockey party!

My middle son Ryan, celebrated his second birthday this month so last weekend we threw him a birthday party. While his first birthday party was more subdued, as we invited only immediate family over for dinner, we decided that this year, we would invite other kids too. Not only is he more social now and loves playing with others, but a lot of our friends have children around his age, so it just seemed to make sense. Besides, we haven’t hosted people in a while .  Once that was decided, it was time to start planning the details of the party.

If you have kids, you know how hard it is to plan a theme. Mostly because kids around this age change their mind about what they like daily! Three months ago, I thought we were going to do a bubble guppies themed party. Two months ago it was a Paw Patrol party and just a few weeks before his big day, he decided that he would prefer a hockey cake over a Paw Patrol cake, so once again, I changed the theme to a hockey party.  Since I already went through a similar matter with my oldest son and his second birthday, I knew not to plan too  far in advance.  Luckily, I had some help from Fisher Price, so most of the planning was pretty easy and straight forward.

Decorations

Fisher Price Little People First Birthday site has recently launched to help make your little one’s birthday unique, fun and stress free.
The site has simple hints and tips for planning and hosting the perfect party, as well as free and easy downloadable party stationary and decorations. Using the bunting printouts found HERE, I created a “Happy Birthday Ryan” banner to hang above the dessert table. All you need is a colour printer, construction paper, scissor, hole punch and ribbon (all of the latter are items that you can easily find in the dollar store).  It was a fun activity and even my four year old was able to help me with it (mostly hole punching because I’m too worried about the cutting).

The other great idea that I was able to incorporate from the new Fisher Price Birthday site was the table setting. I used a white table cloth and coloured electric tape from the dollar store, markers and a large cup (for drawing circles) and some of my kids’ hockey figurines to complete the hockey rink look on the table. It was fun to make and the kids enjoyed eating their food at this table. I thought it was a nice way to spruce up the kid’s table and a great way to incorporate the theme. After the party, my kids kept on enjoying it by playing with their hockey figurines on it. I purchased  NHL party cups, plates and napkins from Walmart as they had the best variety and stock although I know Dollarama carries a few NHL items as well.

The other party decoration that I made was hockey banners.  I super glued old hockey cards which we had (originally found in thrift stores) to ribbon. I hung them throughout the house and on the dessert table. It was easy and fun to make and since Ryan is obsessed with hockey cards, I was glad I was able to use them for his party. If you’re curious about how to glue ceramic tile to wood, it’s a useful skill for various DIY projects, and you can find instructions online.

My mom made an awesome (and huge) Stanley Cup to use as the centre piece for the dessert table using some different shaped and sized tupper wear, aluminum foil and duck tape. For the base, she used glass containers but the top of the cup was made using a plastic cup and bowl so to give it some weight, my mom filled it with lentils (any beans would work just as well).

Lastly, I purchased some red, blue and white (hockey) balloons (from a local party store) to help tie in the theme and give some symmetry to the dessert table.

Food

When it came to the food, I found a few good ideas on Pinterest. I bought some min-sized oreo cookies (since they look like pucks) and I put some red tape around popsicle sticks (bought at bulk barn) and stuck them into one-bite-brownies so they look like a hockey stick.

I also put out some veggie sticks and popcorn.  Pretty much,  anything that’s straight looks like a hockey stick and anything that is round can be a puck. It’s a Hockey theme win! I also made this really cool hockey-puck-shaped, peanut-butter dip for pretzels. You can find the recipe here!

I got the cake custom made by a local bakery and I made the cupcakes at home too and added hockey  toppers made by my  favourite party decorator, Sleepy Owl Co.

They also made the really cute thank-you tags that I tied around the hockey-themed cookies (also custom made by our local bakery) which I gave each kid along with a small hockey stick (found at the dollar store).

Overall, Ryan had a blast, and he got to celebrate his birthday surrounded by family and friends. The hockey theme was a hit and one that I can see us using again in the future!