Romy & Piper’s 2nd Birthday

It’zza Piperomy Pizza Party!!!

I actually think it was my nephew who came up with the “pizza party” theme. Months ago, he commented about how their names sound like “pepperoni” together, so we should have a pizza party for their 2nd birthday. The girls conveniently love pizza, so that’s what we did!

Pizza

As soon as we decided on a pizza party I knew I wanted to get Sgt. Pepperoni’s. It’s our favorite pizza and a local staple around here. It’s New York-Style with super fresh, local ingredients and the sauce and dough are made fresh everyday. My girls LOVE it! They also have gluten free and vegan options, so it’s a really safe bet if you’re dealing with various allergies/diets.

Sgt. Pepperoni’s has amazing catering/delivery options and an actual pizza truck. If you ever get a chance to go to the actual restaurant, it’s super fun and really family-friendly. Space and fun for kids to be kids and TVs and drinks for adults to hang and watch a game. We joke that it’s the best place for Dads to take their kids when they’re on duty ;).

For this party, we had everything delivered. Seriously, I commented afterwards that it was the most fun I’ve ever had at my own party because I didn’t have to do anything for food. Sgt. Pepperoni’s took care of it all! The delivery was scheduled for 3:50 (10 minutes before the party started) and they showed up right on time, set the food on the table we had designated, and that was that! The best part was people actually ate it! We had SO much food (pizza, salad, and garlic knots!) and ALL but two pieces were gone by the end of the night! That made me feel like I ordered the perfect amount, and I got to eat those two later that night when I was done cleaning up and hungry again ;).

It was so much fun and SO easy, I want to make this pizza party a yearly tradition with Sgt. Pepperoni’s! Check out their menu here and catering options here, and find them on Instagram here.

**I also have to say that right now Sgt. Pepperoni’s is supporting Children’s Hospital of Orange County with Julian’s Lego Corner. Named in honor of the late Julian Dunn, Julian’s Lego Corner provides new Legos to the patients of CHOC through their child life program. If you order the Quattro Formaggi Pizza, all proceeds go to this cause! So, so cool! If you know our story, you know how close CHOC and its patients are to my heart!

Cake

My friend Jesi volunteered to make the cakes when I first told her the party theme, and then we didn’t talk about it again until the day-of the party when she showed up with them. I couldn’t stop laughing (slash almost wanted to cry!) about how perfect they were! And how talented Jesi is. She’s an event designer and does amazing interactive installations, but apparently can also make a killer cake in like two seconds ;). She’s like a…quadruple threat. For these cakes, she used shredded coconut for the “cheese” and fondant for the toppings. SO genius.

I also bought these pizza cookies that were a big hit – turned out so cute!

Balloon Garland (from Witty Bash!)

I’m seriously kicking myself over the fact that I didn’t get a good photo of the finished balloon garland before the kids started popping it! It was so perfect last year (I’ll include a picture below, but you can also see it in this post) that I did the same thing again this year – ordered the balloons through Witty Bash and put it together the morning of the party! It’s actually fun, inexpensive, and turns out SO cool! Highly highly recommend doing this! You can read “how to” in this post.

Plates/flatware

All of the plates and flatware came from Sophistiplate. They seriously have the coolest stuff. I’ve never had someone compliment me on the disposable dishes or flatware at a party, and I had SO many people at this party commenting how cool they were and asking me where I got them! I chose these plates that look like pottery, but if you are doing a pizza theme and like the red/white gingham you HAVE to get these ;). I LOVE these I also ordered these cute little balsa wood boards by Simply Baked and used them for the place settings and to make cute signs wherever I needed them.

Flowers

My friend Katie from The Flower Stand arranged these little vases and potted herbs. She also made the cute leafy crowns for the girls (totally her idea!)

Activities

KidKraft Kitchen

It’s no secret we love KidKraft stuff at our house, but we especially loved it for this party. As a birthday gift for the girls (with the intent of having it out for kids to play with at the party) we got them my favorite play kitchen! KidKraft also sent a little pizza kit because ya know, pizza party ;). And how cute are these little apron sets?!

Gardening Station

We used our little gardening station (also from KidKraft!) to set up a space where the kids could plant their own herbs. Cause ya know, herbs are used a lot in Italian cooking, pizza is Italian…it works ;). I just bought little terra cotta pots online along with some organic herb seeds, put soil in pots and let the kids go to town. It was a big hit – kids love dirt!

(One thing I didn’t think about here – parents aren’t stoked on taking a pot of loose dirt home in their car! I didn’t think of this until afterwards, but setting out some plastic wrap for kids to get their pots home without out a mess would be a good idea!)

Coloring Page

I bought this coloring page on Etsy and then we personalized it. It was meant to be like the coloring placemats kids would get at an Italian restaurant. I just used a big box of regular crayons, but you could also order the little restaurant packs on Amazon for cheap (which would be even cuter!)

Bounce House

When in doubt, get a bounce house! I’ve been wanting a little bounce house for the girls and I saw it go on sale the other day for $129, so I snatched it up! I’m so glad it did because they’ve been spending so much time on it and it was a huge hit at the party!

Music

I had so much fun making a play list for the party. I tried to remember all the old songs they used to play at the Italian restaurant I worked at in college. Lots of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin ;). I’ll actually link the play list here…

The Guests of Honor

I think Romy and Piper kinda knew what was happening. They seem to understand what birthday parties are since we’ve gone to a few, and anytime I tell them that’s where we are going Romy asks if there will be “Happy Cake” there (that’s what she calls birthday cake). They even know the happy birthday song and like to randomly sing it! I’d told them we were having a pizza party with cake and friends and presents. When Piper woke up the morning of her birthday, she said, “Mama, pizza? Cake? Presnets?” She remembered!

During the party they were champs – they had SO much fun and lasted way past their bed time. They ran around with all the kids and played so hard, I barely saw them. When it came time to gather everyone together and sing happy birthday, Romy suddenly got overwhelmed and just slowly turned her back on everyone. It was so sweet – I scooped her up and she recovered just fine ;). Here are some of my favorite pictures of the girls…

Of course, milestones like this are a big deal for any parent. For me, it’s such a big one because with preemies, from the time they’re born the doctors tell you that they want them to be “caught up” by the time they’re two. This means that’s also when they’ll stop adjusting their age for milestones (like growth, development, speech, motor skills, etc.) I remember sitting in the hospital wondering and praying that we’d be “ok” when they turned two, not even knowing if they’d really even make it. And here we are – I’m so, so proud of my girls!

I’m grateful for all the help I had with the party and for all the amazing friends who came! I don’t know where we’d be without it all, we are so so lucky and blessed!

xx

Jen

**Party sponsored by Sgt. Pepperoni’s, KidKraft, Witty Bash, and The Flower Stand.