Time flies by so fast that it feels for me that Nathan just celebrated his first birthday few weeks ago. But no, it is already one year now! Today he turned two and we had a very small celebration. Last year my wife planned his first birthday for several weeks and invited a lot of people. This first birthday was mainly for herself rather than for Nathan but that is okay, he won’t remember the chaos anyways and my wife could let her creativity go wild with the decorations.
This year it was just us, my parents and my brother with his girlfriend. Also we did not celebrate in our apartment but at my parents. Not because we are too lazy to decorate our apartment (okay, perhaps a bit lazy) but these days Nathan spends anyways a lot of time with his grandparents. Besides that my mother was cooking lunch for everyone so it would be not so convenient to bring everything to our apartment. This “party” was so different from last year but I also liked it as it was much more peaceful with a lot less cleaning to be done in the end. He got some nice little gifts and thus far he just loves the Brio Train Set he got from his grandparents, at least he doesn’t even wants to leave it alone and eat or drink something.
After this summer Nathan will go to kindergarten and I bet that next year a handful of hyperactive little kids will make the birthday party a lot more interesting/ exhausting than I would like to have. But in the end it is all for the kid so we will play along and try to survive! Now my last strength is leaving me and I am just too exhausted to write any more about this birthday…really wonder about the upcoming birthday celebrations in the next years and how I will survive them.
Do you have any tips on how to prepare for a birthday party with many little kids attending?
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Happy Birthday! 2 years old… how sweet. The years go by so quick cherish these moments.
I will cherish them. Today I took once again tons of pictures to have something to look at in later years 🙂
Happy Birthday 😀
Happy birthday to him! :3 can’t believe he’s already 2!
As for tips… I never really had big parties as a kid. I was quite an introvert (and still am). So usually, I would just ask my mom to go with a friend to movies and she would take us. But in terms of having a party, I would personally just invite my kid’s closest friends and not the whole school xD
I also invited only my closest friends and after I turned 12 or so I didnt celebrate at all anymore. Only when I turned 18 I had something like a party…well a LAN Party with my Clan mates :p
LOL for my 18th I went away for the weekend with my parents, same thing for my 21st 😛 it’s way better than throwing a huge party
You and wifey made it through with him for yr. 2. Yay!
Some parents in North America,….if they have enough money, have the birthday at…McDonald’s or some place where they restaurant will do something for children.
Actually your parents were probably thrilled to do b-day for Nathan. Too bad Nathan’s birthday isn’t in late spring, when children could eat outdoors and hence, less mess to clean up . 🙂
Yes, sadly it is still too cold to do anything outside. My birthday is in March which was also always too cold to play really outside and hence all my birthday celebration as a kid were inside activities such as going to the movies, going to the swimming pool and stuff
Happy birthday, Nathan! As for next year- well, I don’t have kids but in my experience of throwing kids’ school parties and end of year celebrations etc as a teacher, it is best to invite all the parents and hope they watch their own children. Some will and some won’t but it sure makes life easier when they do! Also, let them play first then have food before they go home.
Thank you, will try to consider this for next year. When I was small I usually had a handful of friends here so it was more or less manageable for my parents 🙂
Happy Birthday, Nathan!!
I remember the lovely decorations you had for Nathan’s first birthday and like you, I still can’t believe another year has passed. It is nice that he loves the train set so much.
We still have the decoration from last year as my wife plans to save it in case we have another child at some point:)
Happy birthday Nathan! It’s true that time goes so fast. I can’t believe our little one is 4.5 months old already…it seems that she was just born yesterday!
4.5 months already? Oh yeah, I thought also it is just few weeks ago when I read your blog post about her. Seems time just gets faster when you have a little one to take care of
Happy birthday, Nathan. They grow up so fast!
Some people say, take your child’s age and invite that many children. In other words, 3 kids and Nathan next year. The older they get, the more you need to plan–not only what to eat but also what they will play. And always have some alternate games ready in case they don’t like the ones you planned. You’ll get ideas when you take him to his friends’ birthday parties. Soon he will have a more active social life than you do.
Let’s see about having as many guests as his age later now, sounds already now terrifying when he turns twelve…
I guess it kindergarten he will quickly find friends, now he has basically none as we only go once a week to some children sports group and from our friends here no one has kids his age.
Sorry for thinking so far ahead. I don’t want to scare you. Every community is different; every family is different. When the time comes, you’ll know what to do. I’m glad he had a lovely birthday party for his second birthday.
Oh I am not scared just a bit worried. It is good to hear from others what all can be ahead in a few years and how it is done in other families and countries
Happy Birthday Nathan!
Thank you, I wonder when he will be able to answer to it on his own 🙂
Coming soon 🙂
Happy Birthday Nathan! It looked like a low-key celebration but there certainly was quite a few gifts. His birthday cake looks a lot like what banana bread looks like here in Australia 😀 From the photos it looks like there are no balloons? Those are pretty common at kids’ birthday parties. I’m not a fan of them as I’m always afraid of them bursting in my face.
No balloons this time. Last year we had some and they stayed in the apartment till they lost all their air, really annoying to have them around…
Though the cake might look like a banana bread it is actually some chocolate cake 🙂
Haha, I agree with you balloons can be annoying. Hard to pump up and you don’t really know what to do with them after.
I hope everyone enjoyed the chocolate cake 🙂
The cake was really delicious. I don’t know whether it is hard to pump up the balloons as we have some kind of balloon pump which makes it really easy
Happy birthday to the little boy Nathan! He looks so precious. I am curious if he has started talking already, if so in what language? Are you trying to raise him bilingual or trilingual perhaps? 😀
He hasn’t started really talking yet. He knows some words and he knows what we mean when we talk about different things around but he can’t say those words yet. He is actually growing up with four languages…German, Finnish, Chinese and English
Happy birthday, Nathan! I don’t remember if I had birthday parties when I was so young (probably not, only a small family celebration) but when I started school I also started having big parties with many classmates and it was fun! We usually did it in a cafe or some venue, not at home, so poor mums would not need to clean, only to pay 😛
Nearly all of my birthdays were a home same at other friends parties. Only couple of times we went to the cinema or swimming pool
Nathan is sooo cute 🙂
We try our best to keep him presentable. Nah just kidding he is doing that all on his own naturally 🙂
That i can tell 🙂
Happy Birthday Nathan!
I hope he remembers his birthday celebrations. I don’t remember mine at all, not even the ones when I was in junior high!
I remember all of my birthday parties which I had till I turned 12. Well for this celebration only his close family was there so there is not so much remembering it
Happy Birthday Nathan. He is adorable. It must be a very good age now that he talks and walks :). Waiting for Chhori to start talking too 🙂
Thank you. He doesn’t really talk yet but this is due to growing up with four languages. He started running around the apartment when he turned one 🙂
Looks a delightful birthday party. Love Nathan’s jumper. He is awfully cute!!!!
My wife extra bought these clothes several month ago and now on his birthday the pants were already super tight 🙂
Happy Birthday Nathan – what a handsome boy – he will be a heartbreaker one day 😉
Maybe I should create already criteria on which girls are allowed to get close to him 🙂
Happy Birthday Nathan! I had a Brio train when I was a kid:) I don’t think I’m of much help regarding birthday parties with kids, but I remember I found scavenger hunts really exciting and fun, when I was a kid myself:)
I also had such train but my parents gave it away long time so now it is buying all stuff back again.
Scavenger hunts were always so exciting, need to remember it once Nathan and his future friends are a few years older 🙂
Happy birthday Nathan!! And let’s hope you don’t torment your parents too badly with the ‘terrible twos’ 😉
Let’s see how Nathan will develop and when he starts terrorizing us with all kinds of new things 🙂
And learns to say an emphatic ‘No!’ 😉
Oh he can say it already…
Precocious lad! Bet he throws in a lot of ‘Why?’ too!! 🙂
No, thankfully he hasn’t learned “why” yet 🙂
Oh it will! 😉
Wow, the birthday table looks amazing! Ha, with my children, I wouldn’t even think of putting a white table cloth, it would never turn white again… Never, ever… 🙂 anyways, happy belated birthday!
Nathan is so far a rather clean kid in a way that he even hates dirt 😮
But in the end he still hits over a glass of drink and there we have the the mess
I did exactly as your wife did! LOL
I planned my daughter’s 1st birthday in the Netherlands, while we are still in Kuwait. It got crazier than I thought cuz I had to get some things I need in NL and unfortunately I couldn’t find it. Well, I think First birthdays are always for the parents–It’s like, Ohh Uhh, we have surpassed the One-Year marks and we survived..from the long nights and everything.
Looking at Nathan’s 2nd Birthday, I couldn’t smile for more, It looks totally same as what we did for Natalie’s birthday last August here in Bavaria. Aside from we don’t know anyone yet, it was just a simple family get together with my in-laws who visit along with my sis in-law and her family.It was a whole lot different but I felt more relaxed…and yes, few dishes and cleaning up 🙂
I dunno how is it going to be on her next birthdays..I think Germans have a different culture when it comes to children’s party. I shall be looking forward for your next post about Nathan’s party in the kindergarten.
Always a nice read knowing I could relate so much in your stories..same shoes as Expat parents of toddlers!
Maybe Nathan will celebrate his birthday someday in China,that would be exciting and of course, Crazy!
I think the birthday parties will change a lot when he starts his kindergarten time (hopefully soon!!) so he can invite his friends over. Somehow I have the feeling that such birthday parties will be very, very exhausting for the parents as there will be suddenly a whole bunch of crazy kids 😀
I really wonder how his birthday would be in China. As far as I know they don’t celebrate their birthdays really if at all. My wife for example never had anything special for her birthdays or even presents from her family