Eland's 2nd Birthday PARTY!!

Eland's Second birthday is taking up quite a few blog posts! :) 

Last Saturday we had a little birthday party for Eland at our flat. Our guests were all adults because Eland's friends are our friends. Everyone enjoyed celebrating with E, and South Africans are complete suckers for fajitas and homemade tortillas, so I can say that the party was a success.

The Invitation

As always, I like to have fun with the boys birthday invitations. After coming up with ideas like "Singing in the Rain" and "Old MacDonald," Dan and I settled on "Eland's in Africa" as it's a perfect play on Eland living in Africa and all the elands that live on this continent, too. Anyway, who knows if this could be his only birthday in Africa, so why not? The design isn't amazing or anything, but I had a lot of fun putting it together.

If you can't read the text, Eland is saying to an eland, "Hey Eland, want to come to my party?"
The eland replies, "Sure, Eland!"

Apparently South Africans are really confused by the no gifts thing. Everyone completely ignored it and brought presents for Eland. It's not like we didn't want him to get gifts, we just didn't want anyone to feel obligated.

The Party

Like I said, we just invited a few friends. It was actually a little tricky coming up with the list, because we could have easily invited more dear friends of ours. The catch is that our flat is small and makes a ton of noise for the elderly couple that live below us, so we tried to keep the guests to a minimum. 

Time-wise, I think I've found the perfect kids party time: lunchtime. Everyone comes in the late morning giving enough time to prepare, then after food and cake, everyone leaves in time for the kids to nap and the adults to exhale after hosting. :)

Also, decoration-wise I had hoped for more from myself, but it turned out that I didn't have it in me. I had planned to draw different boks on posterboard and put them on the walls around our flat. After sketching out three awful boks in crayon the night before the party I decided to abort and not worry about decorations beyond the balloons and the "Happy 2nd Birthday Eland" signs on the wall from E's actual birthday on Tuesday. Ah well.

The birthday boy in his birthday crown. Playing with a new toy!

Gifts were opened immediately, and played with immediately.
I guess you can do that when there aren't any other kids present.

Dan made a carrot cake and a tiramisu-inspired chocolate cake. Delish!

The chocolate cake

The carrot cake

Pam maning the dishes so that we could have clean plates to serve cake on.
She doesn't believe me that we actually own a "real" set of dishes back in the States. ;)

The spread

"Da car pways MUSIC!"

Watch it go!

Lighting the candles

Singing Happy Birthday
Eland blew out both candles all by himself!

L to R: Sandrine, Edgar, Elke, Billy, Huba, Dan, Eland, Niel, Pam, Val

The Birthday Boy and his family

Pam teasing Eland :)

Huba and Billy

Val, Eland, Edgar, Dan, Auggie, Sandrine
Sandrine, the boys, and I spend every Wednesday morning together exploring Stellenbosch and the surrounding areas. We met Sandrine and Edgar on the flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town--what a special way to meet such great friends!

Dan, Alfred (who came even though his wife and daughter couldn't make it!), Niel

Sandrine, Pam, Val

Pam caught Auggie jumping on the bed and made sure he was safe. I walked away and pretended that I didn't see what was going on.

"Itsa HAT!"

Pam loving on the Birthday Boy

Pam and Eland

Niel getting his turn to love on Eland

Pam and Niel have two teenage boys of their own and have loved and adored our boys since the day they met them. We are very lucky to be friends with these two awesome people. :)