Well, Gregory is 4 years old by now! I am not going to apologise (again) for the huge gap between the actual event and the posting time! I have to accept that this is how it is going to be, from now on! This is how my life's priorities are and this is the only way in which my blog can be at this period of time!
So now, Gregory's second birthday party was custom made according to his wishes! He wanted a rhino-hippo-elephant party with a bit of tiger-zebra-girraffe flavour! He also specified the colours of the decoration! These were green, orange, yellow and a colour that he described as "watermelon".
I substituted green with mint, orange with peach, yellow with gold and the resulting palette was very fresh and sweet. Since I couldn't find all six animals in an animated form cute enough to be used for a toddler's party, I decided to draw them myself and hand-paint them with watercolour pencils.
This sweet animal gang was used as the basic graphic element for the invitation, the birthday poster, the table signs and the gifts!
Having a strong colour palette helps you eliminate the total budget spent on party disposables. There is no need to buy those theme-based, expensive luxury plates that cost almost 0.5 euros per plate! You just stick on the colours of your palette and buy monochrome or simple pattern items! I ordered most of my party disposables from amazon so the assosiated cost was rather low! This enabled me to spent more on food, flowers and entertainment!
In the same way having a beautiful graphic element makes it easier to resolve to cheaper printing solutions! Also simple toys or craft items can turn into elegant gifts for the kids if you just cover them with some nice graphics. I spent approximately 2.5 euros for every kid and offered a rather satisfying set of gifts: a case filled with pencils, watercolours and oil paints, a sketchbook and a set of plastic miniature jungle animals.
Unfortunately I'm not the cooking-kind of mum...I do cook a little but I wouldn't take on the responsibility of preparing healthy homemade party food for a bunch of toddlers by myself!
The good thing was that my girlfriend Eleni Hiotaki who volunteered to entertain the kids has her own workshop where she organises creative seminars and party events (check it out here: http://www.toergastirimas.gr). She cooperates with a wonderful lady (Anastasia) who cooks party meals at her home with healthy ingredients and according to the demands of the parents. Finally we ended up eating some tasty (non-sugar with minimum salt and wholemeal flour) pizza bites, cheese and spinach pies and other delicacies that were as good as homemade!!!
On the other hand, when it comes to sweets and cakes I really give my best! I have a talented and willing mother-in-law who will grace me with her knowledge and let me work my magic with the decorative part of process... So, yes! I do accept the credit for the sweet part of the buffet!
And then they arrived! And the party started!
Thanks to Eleni and Stelios, her guitarist, the kids had the time of their lives! They sang, they played music, they danced...they even wrote a song! There was also some face-painting that adults enjoyed as much as their children!
photo credits to Dimitris Tsiapas https://www.tsiapas.com
Thank you for capturing with a unique sensitivity the most precious memories of our family!
