Emma's "Two Sweet" Fall Birthday

This past weekend, we celebrated Emma's second birthday! Let me just say: FALL BIRTHDAYS ARE THE BEST. (I'm not partial. Oh wait, me and my September birthday are biased.) Last year, we did a "our little pumpkin is one!" fall-themed party, and this year, I decided to do a "two sweet" party.....fall-style. That basically meant apple everything!

I snapped a few photos of the decorations while the kids slept during naptime, but once people arrived for the party, I only took a handful of random photos. So, most of these are just of the setup/decor...but that's because we were too busy having fun to document the actual party more! And in case you're wondering why there was no cake & candles picture: It's because I totally forgot to have Emma blow out candles, and we never even sang to her! Oops!! I was going to put a two candle in a cider donut........and completely forgot. Pregnant mama memory fail!

See more fun gatherings here: Backyard dinner party | Hosting a baby pool party | Friendsgiving dinner alternatives

If you're planning a fall party or wondering how & what we did, I've included the details below (including what worked and what I wish I had done differently)!

Our simple fall party menu:

Hot apple cider in the crockpot with a ladle
Apples slices and caramel dip
Cut veggies and ranch
Pretzel sticks, chex mix
Bruschetta, french bread, and artichoke dip that my aunt made!!
White chicken chili in the crockpot
Cornbread
Two trays of apple crisp
Apple cider donuts
Homemade waffle cones my sister made, with pumpkin ice cream!

The easy, low-budget decor:

Baskets, $3 each in the Target dollar section
Apples, on sale at Aldi
Small pumpkins from Trader Joe's
Mini hay bales from Home Depot
Mums
These pale red balloons for an "apple" balloon banner
Brown paper ($5 at Lowe's!) tablecloths because you can write cute messages/lettering on them, and they're recyclable when the party's over!

Things that made the day go smoothly:

Setting up the tables and chairs outside a day in advance
Peeling & chopping the apples for apple crisp a day before the party
Chopping the onion, garlic, and green pepper for chili a day in advance
Pre-measuring all the spices and saving them in bags in the fridge for both the chili and the apple crisp. When it came time to start the crockpot, I just dumped everything in! And for the apple crisp, I did the same thing and dumped everything in a pan and stuck it in the oven as we finished dinner.
Making the balloon banner a day ahead of time
Baking the cornbread the day before
Setting up the brown paper "table cloths" that morning
Chopping veggies during naptime before the party (could have done this a day in advance, too!)
Having yard games for the adults and a few outdoor toys for the kids already set up in the backyard. This gave people something to do as everyone was arriving and after everyone had finished eating

I wish I had asked my dear sister-in-law to snap photos on her dslr, and I wish I had gotten to talk to everyone a little more. I felt like I talked only a little bit to each person, as opposed to really getting to sit down and talk for a while with everyone. Also apparently I needed to put someone in charge of getting the candles out and starting the Happy Birthday song, since clearly I couldn't trust myself to do that! Haha!

There are way more cute kid photos than I'm sharing here, for privacy reasons, but just know that Aiden and Emma had a blast with their little friends :)