2ND BIRTHDAY PARTY: THING 1 ~ THING 2

Thing 1 ~ Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss

What a fun, fun party theme this was! I'm so glad we did this for their 2nd birthday party!

And what a perfect theme for TWINS!

We had their party on August 26th (almost 3 weeks before they actually turned two) as this was the only date we could find that worked for family to attend. It was a beautiful day with beautiful weather!

And now, in 2 days, my little babies will turn TWO YEARS OLD!

So, here's a post all about their fun party!

I wasn't set on what theme to do for E & W's 2nd Birthday party and nothing was jumping out on my list of ideas. But finally I decided "why not?" and went ahead with the "Thing 1 ~ Thing 2" theme. And I'm so glad I did because a few days after, I walked into Target and was shocked to see they had many Dr. Seuss items in their dollar section, with many of them being "Thing 1 - Thing 2" specific! Jackpot! Right decision was made!

Two things I love are being creative and bargain shopping. So, of course I used both of those skills in the party planning! You don't have to spend a lot of money on a party! I made almost all of the decorations for this party (on my computer with a Print Shop program I often use), minus a few things that I bought as gifts that could also be used as decorations. (See next photo!) Win, win! And I bought red/blue paper plates, napkins, table cloths etc. at the Dollar Tree. So, that is very inexpensive as well.

I bought 2 of each of these items ($1 each in the Target dollar section!) to use as both gifts AND decorations! "Thing 1 ~ Thing 2" bags, plastic sandwich containers, cups, plates, dry erase boards, and socks. The cups and plates are really awesome because when you turn them they switch from "Thing 1" to "Thing 2"!

And here are the guests of honor: Eli and Will!

In this photo, I had asked, "Who wants cake?" And they both replied "MEEE!!!!" with their arms up high in the air! Funny little guys!

Thing 1: Elijah

Thing 2: Will

For those inquiring minds, yes, Elijah is "Thing 1" because he is ONE MINUTE older than Will. :) And Will is "Thing 2" because he's the 2nd born...that whole 60 seconds after Elijah.

Invitations: (The left side is store bought - 10 invites for $1! And the right side, I created and printed out.)

Invite reads:

"One birthday is fun, but this party is for two!
We're having a big celebration and we need you!

Why yes! yes, it's true! The Vincelli twins are almost two!
Please come dressed in black, white, red, or blue!

Please come and help us celebrate Elijah & Will's 2nd Birthday!"


And of course, one of the most important things at the party...the CAKE!

The Cake Table:

Cakes: (Made by Jodi O.)

Eli's Cake: (Thank you, Jodi, we loved them!)

Will's Cake: (Great work, Jodi!)

Cupcakes: I made these! They were white confetti cake with blue frosting in red muffin cups. (I food dyed the white frosting to blue.) It was supposed to be like "Thing 1" and "Thing 2's" hair! I also created the decorations on the cupcakes and just taped them to a straw to stick them in!

Guestbook Table: (With 2 Dr. Seuss books that everyone signed their name in, along with a special note for each Eli and Will.)

Last year, for their 1st birthday party, I also had guests sign a book as a keepsake for the twins. I had chosen "Oh, The Places You Will Go" by Dr. Seuss simply because we had received two copies of the book! My plan was to choose a different book each year with the idea that the boys would have a big collection. But seeing as they already have a HUGE collection of books, and since that book fit with this year's birthday theme perfectly, I chose to just flip the pages and use the same 2 books again this year. And now will EVERY year for their birthday. Now, all of their birthday notes will be located in one book as a special keepsake. Then, I can present the boys with this on their High School graduation day because the message of the book is just perfect for that! Win, win!

Here's the poem I wrote to describe the guestbooks:

"One book is for Eli and another is for Will.
Remember to sign both for yet another thrill.
Sign your name and maybe write a special note.
Cause Eli and Will shall treasure what you wrote.
This is a way to remember their birthdays.
A special keepsake they will treasure always."

Bookmark Party Favor: (Just $1 for all those bookmarks! Woo hoo!)

We had a 30 minute photo slideshow of the boys, set to music, playing over and over during the party. I put this together full of photos of them during the past year! (I made it on "Windows Live Movie Maker" on my computer.) It's a fun idea so people can see how much they've grown in one year. You can see Will looking at the photo of himself on the TV in this next photo. (I will have the slideshow uploaded to youtube and will post on here soon!)

Here's Will watching the photo slideshow! (Unfortunately, I didn't get a good photo of this table. But it has some decorations displayed and photos of the boys. Along with the TV playing the photo slideshow.)

My little family!

A few more decorations I made with photos of the boys in their "Thing 1 ~ Thing 2" shirts: (I bought the shirts used for $5 total and they've fit in them for almost a year! Score!)

Birthday Banner: I made this by picking one photo of the boys together from each month during the past year. I also listed their age underneath, from 12 months to 2 years old! (This was done on my "Print Shop" program.)

Here are some close-ups so you can see it better.

If you read the invitation, you will see it said to dress in black, white, red, or blue! These were the theme colors of the party. And as you can see, we all did look fairly coordinated. I don't care if people thought it was stupid, I thought it was super fun!

The Cox side