our owl-themed birthday party

I guess I had no idea how popular owls were until I started looking. You see, I don’t know what it is with Henry and Sophia and owls. They just started liking them. Maybe its because our neighbor has an owl garden statue they are enamored with (and now notice its absence). Or maybe they just like them. The danger, of course of ‘liking’ things, at least in my family, is that once this knowledge gets out, you find yourself overwhelmed with a collection of them – figurines, coffee mugs, tree ornaments, slippers, and bath soap – until just the sight of the thing causes an aversion so great you need immediate medical attention. I would like to avoid this, if at all possible, with H and S. 

So everything for this owl-infestation had to be handmade and most importantly, somewhat disposable/reusable/up-cyclable/able to be eaten or put in the backyard once post-party. You get what I mean.

So for the past few weeks, we’ve had a fabulous time making everything and gathering inspiration, ideas, and practicing plain unabashed plagiarism. As a plus, the whole thing was also insanely cheap.

I am totally, absolutely in love with freezer paper stencils (where have you been all my life?!) these will be the subject of a future post, as I think H & S are in love too - so easy to iron, paint, remove. And way less mess than I ever thought

The hats were a homemade creation by my brother's girlfriend at Salem Style - absolutely adorable

A total Pinterest swipe - A Japanese lantern that I tried to tape eyes, wings and a mouth to. I think someone ended up with an owl-pupil in their lunch when the tape disengaged, but hey, don't say you left without a party favor. Behind them are paper plate owls we had been working on for two weeks - H & S did all the coloring and gluing

A happy birthday encore that sounded much closer to Jingle Bells, but who's keeping track?

Musical entertainment provided by the highly talented fearsome-twosome

Our digital illustration made for a great welcome-sign - and it let everyone know they were at the right owl-themed-second-birthday party (there may have been more that day, you never know...)

We wanted a way to display all the little-guests' crafts - so Tony went into the basement and came up 5 minutes later with this awesome owl perch he made from the lining of a wrapping paper roll he pulled out of recycling, a cigar box and dowels. I know, he's just crazy...

Several years ago, my parents had a northern barred owl in their pine tree - I used up a whole roll of film photographing him (and thought then, what am I going to do with all these pictures? Well, seven years later, I had my opportunity) - they made a great backdrop for all of the owls we made out of pine cones, acorn tops, felt, and H & S's new favorite crafting piece - pom-poms

Mantle owls lined up - okay, we got a little carried away...

I've seen other people do this - and I must admit, their attempts came out looking much more like the feathery inspiration. Admittedly, the pizza crust came out amazing - and will be the subject of a future post - two year olds and homemade pizza dough? A match made in heaven. We also made chicken-or-the-egg salad sandwiches (one that had peppers for wings and olives for eyes, but came out so abysmal, I couldn't embarrass you by photographing it)

Attempt #2 at the owl cake - this time I gave him tail feathers, made him blue and a nest of pretzel sticks to sit on - the wings are made out of sugar cookies I cut and frosted with a small leaf cookie cutter.

Too much cake batter leads to extra cupcakes in need of decorating? Arguably, not a bad thing.

After twenty minutes in the oven, the pizzas looked no more like owls than when they went in. You can kind of see bird features if you squint.

I am especially horrible at folding paper hats (after 20 minutes they were still 8.5 x 11 sheets) - so instead we made masks for our little guests...

...and then put them on the paper bags (which have an insanely easy owl craft inside - two paper plates - one cut in half - crayons, pre-cut eyes, ears and nose and a glue stick - see the result in T's perch above)

Sophia with her dad (awww.) - I know, where are the other guests? I didn't clear posting their pictures with them, so they are noticeably absent from this post - but trust me, they were there. 

Silenced de-whooo-ed (hahaha) blowers and owl masks

Felted and feathered utensil holders made with Mason jars; H & S especially ogled the googly eyes

Of course, their actual birthday wasn’t quite so be-feathered. We had singing and presents, yes, but we also had the most beautiful, peaceful snowfall (as seen here on our not-really-disposed-of-yet-Christmas-tree), attempt #1 at the owl cake and Henry’s discovery of his father’s mandolin.

 

Sigh - happy birthday, guys.