Banks is O'fish'ally TWO! - Safari Natalia

Man…I have a two year old. When did that happen? They were right when they said time would fly. We had so much fun celebrating him at his “nemo” birthday (hehe!) Planning the party was so much fun, but being this boy’s mom is the most fun I’ve ever had.

There are some things I want to remember about my Banks at age two. First of all….He gets cuter each and every day (not biased at all 😉 ) He has a deep love for cars and won’t go anywhere without his Lightning McQueen or Cruz Ramirez. (See above picture lol.) He is OBSESSED. He even puts them in a safe spot right before he climbs into bed. Cute, right? He has like eighteen cowlicks in his hair and Ryan and I can’t ever figure out which way it goes so usually it goes both ways or straight up in the air. ha ha His favorite word is “cookie” thanks to his best friend, Graham. Oh, he has a best friend named Graham. He loves Moana, Nemo, Cars, Coco, and The Greatest Showman. Yes you read that right, The Greatest Showman. His favorite food is The Cali Toast from the Protein Foundry and he loves juice. He is so social and adores other kids. He’s got the best little personality and does “knucks” with everyone he meets. He loves being outside and is freaking terrified of our Roomba vacuum. No one knows why? He says “Was that?” a hundred times a day, and you can find him with stickers on his face almost always. Lastly, he is obsessed, OB-FREAKING-SESSED with me. and I love it. so much. (low key bugs Ryan though lolz) Anyway, those are some of my favorite things about my favorite person. He is so special to me. I love him so much. Can’t believe he is mine. Okay, now I’ll get to what you came here for….THE PARTY DEETS!

I made designed these invites and just them printed at my local Office Max! That way they were exactly what I wanted esthetically, and affordable!

Loveland Living Planet Aquarium

So…Obviously I changed his theme THREE times before deciding on the aquarium! First, it was ‘Welcome to the zoo, Banks is turning two!’ then since he loved cars so much, I felt like I had to do a cars theme. I had already designed those invitations as well as purchased party decor when I had the idea to do it at the aquarium. We have season passes there, and he loves it so much! We were playing in their “Turks Playhouse” area when I spotted the nice and spacious party rooms! I immediately text my friends to see what they thought about the idea. They were all on board, so I got home and started researching! I vetoed the other ideas and contacted the aquarium to see if it was available. We were so happy to learn that it was and “Banks is O’fish’ally Two ‘was born! We had the best experience with them! They have decorated, private party rooms, they do all the clean up, and Aquarium admission is included. They also have delicious in house pizza they make as well as unlimited soft drinks. It was so nice to not have to worry about clean up! You can check out their party options here!

Decorations + Food

So the rooms at the aquarium already had beautifully painted murals (they are simple and not too much,) but I brought a couple of things to make it more personal for Banks! I designed and printed off a banner for the wall and made a balloon arch to hang above the dessert table. Other than that, it didn’t need much decorating!

Since they provided pizza with our rental, I decided to go all out for the most important part of the meal…dessert!

We had donuts by Utah’s best, Banbury Cross Donuts! My father in law made these adorable donut stands for me for less than $10! The owner of Banbury Cross said that the cake donuts stack better than the regular so we went with those. The blueberry were my favorite and I seriously crave them like every single day. SO GOOD.

This beautiful (delicious) cake was done by Kenzie of @kenzies_cakery she is so talented and super affordable! She brought my vision to life and hand delivered it to my party!

Okay, I found @sharescakes from a friend who used her last year and let me just say I was NOT DISAPPOINTED! She is so talented and made these cookies by hand! They were so cute and delicious. I am way too indecisive so I gave her the theme and the color scheme and let her get creative. Not. Mad. At. All. I think these cookies tie any party or theme together and I’ll probably always find an excuse to order them!

Anyone that knows me know I am big huge SUCKER for cake pops! Swirly Girls Bakery in Daybreak makes the best tasting (and most adorable) cake pops ever! I kept these really simple because I felt like there was a lot going on, but she can do ANYTHING you ask her too! She has so many different flavors to choose from as well.

I wanted to provide a Vegan and Gluten Free option for the guests that had dietary restrictions so I decided to go with Dough Co, which is edible cookie dough…Let me say that again, EDIBLE COOKIE DOUGH PEOPLE! We did the Chocolate Chip, Samoa’s, Loaded Brownie, Cake Batter, Cookies N’ Cream (vegan,) and Oatmeal MM (Gluten Free.) They were so easy to work with too! They cater to parties, weddings, etc all the time so they have it down to an art! They also offer Nationwide Shipping for all of you out of staters! 😉

Candy Bar…DUH! I am notorious for making way for a candy bar no matter what the occasion! I love them…and apparently so do random kids from other parties haha. Yes, some randoms were sneaking into our party room for treats. It was hilarious and we had plenty to go around! More the merrier right? I just ordered the blue candy off of amazon and got my clear canisters at Hobby Lobby!

Other Party Deets

Last minute I had the fun (and slightly crazy,) idea to make some shark hats from scratch..Literally had no Idea what I was doing. I reached out to my cutest friend Sarah of @calliandoak and she had a party hat template made for me in like five minutes. Literally pulled it out of her butt! She is so talented and has the cutest party ideas / tutorials on her instagram. Also she is just a good person…SO go follow her!