Aidan’s Paddington Bear Second Birthday
Aidan’s Paddington Bear Second Birthday:
I love Paddington Bear. In fact, I love British childrens’ authors in general. I decorated Aidan’s nursery in Beatrix Potter which I love as much as Disney. So, when it came to planning the second birthday I knew I wanted something a little different and unique. I also know that in the next year or so he will be telling me what he wants his birthday party theme to be and I won’t have much say so in the matter.
Another reason for Paddington bear was because he also reminds me a little of my son. He’s always getting into things and mischief and trouble. This quote below from the Paddington Movie Facebook page reminds me very much of my son.
What started the inspiration for the party theme was this adorable vintage Paddington Bear outfit that I ran across on Etsy (see pictures below). It was a one of a kind and his exact size and I just fell in love with it. You aren’t going to find it anywhere else, your best bet would be to have someone make one similar. It is so classic boyish and from there I knew I wanted Paddington to be the theme for sure.
Because I make party decor on the side I’m always scouring Pinterest on a daily basis looking for new inspiration and ideas. I came up pretty empty on the Paddington theme and I felt it was time to add some new things on the market. I wanted a classic look, so most of the items were handmade by me at Southern Lady Gifts. Also being a stay at home mom, I am on a limited budget and have to think outside the box.
I started out with the invitations. I couldn’t really find what I wanted so I decided to just make them myself. I drew a suitcase pattern, bought some brown cardstock and created the base for the suitcase. I printed the Wanted on Voyage stickers for the outside and then I made the invitation itself in photoshop and had them printed through vistaprint.com and Aidan’s photo at Walgreens. I bought the envelopes from the local Office Depot and addressed them by hand. I like the old fashioned snail mail and writing them myself. I only needed a dozen, so it wasn’t too time consuming and they turned out really cute!
I found this adorable cake that I ran across on Pinterest and fell in love with it. Although ultimately mine surely doesn’t look as good as the one from Sweet Six Pence, I replicated it as best as possible. It did taste pretty good too. I have limited cooking capabilities so my best friend came over to help me out with the details of the baking :). I created the paddington and balloon out of shrinky dink and added a white wire to tie the two together. The cake was a yellow cake with buttercream icing. You can find the recipes I used for the cake here and the icing here. All I added to the icing was some wilton light yellow coloring to achieve the color I wanted. The blue cake stand was a lucky bargain find at Marshall’s for only $12. Yay me! I made the Paddington and Balloon from shrinky Dink and glues white floral wire to make it look like a string that Paddington was holding. Super easy! If you haven’t played with shrinky dink I strongly suggest you go get you some. Your little ones will love watching it in the oven, but it is not edible, only for decoration uses.
To tie it all together I wanted to have lots of balloons. My son loves balloons so Beth from Sunshine Bakes created these adorable balloon cookies with the number 2 on them. A huge hit with the adults and kids. Beth has a Facebook page and Etsy shop so pop on over and give her a “like.”
The plaid tablecloth was a lucky find on eBay and anchored the colors together. I hung red, blue and yellow streamers for a backdrop with the same color balloons. The red, blue and yellow carried throughout the entire party with little touches of brown for Paddington Bear and his suitcase.
The felt garland was hand sewn, the centerpieces were also hand sewn with brown buckets as the base and scrap fabric to tie it together.
A high chair rag banner with custom hand sewn felt paw-print number was added.
Guests entered seeing a bear paw print on the door that said “This way to a beary fun party,” and munched on Orange Marmalade Cookies and Teddy Bear Teddy Grahms.
A British themed dinner wouldn’t be proper without tea, fish and chips.
Everyone went home with a jar of orange marmalade (Paddington’s favorite treat) and the kiddos were each given a handmade bear ear headband tucked inside custom made Paddington suitcases with “wanted on voyage” tags. I filled each one with handmade custom made bear crayons (you can find the how to at the bottom of this post), custom coloring booklets, party blowers, mini milk bottles with straws, orange marmalade and teddy grahams.
Aidan received adorable gifts from his generous family and a special gift from his daddy. You can read more about how he created the custom hot rod here.
We have decided that we will not be having “gigantic” parties every year. I only did that for his big first birthday. (You can read about it here.) We only invited our immediate families and two close friends to his party this year, much smaller than the last one.
He will always have awesome party decor because I just love doing that kinda stuff. And new ideas give me new things to list in my Etsy shop. Overall it was a perfect party that I think Paddington himself would have approved!
Happy Planning!
Alicia
Bear Crayons How To:
You’ll need crayons in the color of your choice.
Non-stick mold of your choice.
Remove paper form the crayons, break crayons into pieces.
Preheat the Oven 230 degrees.
Put the crayons into the mold. You can do all one solid color or you can mix the colors.
Put in the oven for 20-30 minutes depending on your oven or until all melted.
Be careful removing them from the oven, you don’t want to spill melted crayons on anything!
Let sit for about an hour give or take to cool. Turn the pan over and they should just slip out of the pan.
Viola! Shaped crayons!
Happy Planning!
