{Daughter's 2nd Birthday - a Painting Party}

For my daughter's first birthday party, I hosted an afternoon tea party for family & friends. This year I decided on a smaller affair - a little party for her cousins (six children under 5 years of age!). One of her favourite things to do is paint, so what better than a painting party!

I got lots of inspiration from Pinterest and put together a few ideas.

{The decorations}
Coloured streamers
Lots and lots of brightly coloured balloons

{To eat}
A selection of rolls
Cocktail sausages, crisps & nibbles
Strawberries & grapes
Jelly & cream
Iced biscuits
Paint palette cupcakes

{The cake}
A plain madeira sponge which the kiddies 'painted' with food colouring

{The games}
Painting a canvas using paper plate stencils
Pass the parcel - each kiddie received a packet of pencils and a box of paints for the winner
Musical statues

Here are the pics...:

Presents for the birthday girl 

Busy baking - thank you to Auntie Ali

Streamers from Party Delights (where I also bought some brightly coloured plates, cups & bowls)

Cupcake paint palettes inspired by this pin. I got the wooden palettes from eBay.

Creating their masterpieces (I managed to find cheap canvases from a local cash & carry - they were £2 each). I cut out stencils on paper plates of stars and hearts which I drew using cookie cutter shapes. I was inspired by A Little Learning for Two for this :-)

Note the dust sheets everywhere! We were hoping to be in the garden for this activity, but the weather had other plans!!

Jelly and whippy cream with sprinkles - yum!

Inspired by Sprinkle of Glitter, I recreated some milk bottles with sprinkles and heart straws. 

Sorry for the absolutely rubbish photograph, but you get the idea!

After lunch we then 'painted' the birthday cake with food colouring

The finished cake, complete with sparkler!

My daughter's finished canvas.

The party was a great success. There were enough activities to keep the kiddies entertained and they all left with a piece of cake and a canvas!