I have two January birthday girls, so I thought it would be fun to do a combined half birthday party for them in July. We made it “half” themed, and it was simple but sweet and fun. Penny turned two-and-a-half, and Olive turned just a half. Here’s a recap:
The Menu
We started at half past 10am, so we served breakfast-y fare. This included:
- Half caff coffee with half & half
- Farmers market fresh doughnuts cut in half
- Fruit salad (many fruits halved)
- Mimosas (half oj, half champagne)
- Bloody Mary bar (half homemade mix, half vodka) with fixins
- Kiddie cocktail: “Penelive” half lemonade, half chamomile iced tea. In my book, Penny is the lemonade and Olive is the chamomile! 😉
- Birthday cake (two halves)
The party
I used my go-to healthy birthday cake recipe. This time I just used cream cheese, heavy cream, and vanilla whipped together for the frosting and added pureed raspberries to make it pink for the writing. The raspberries worked at least as well as the all-natural food dye I found at Whole Foods. I baked two rounds, stacked them with a layer of frosting in between, then cut them and frosted the outer edges of each separately.
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I upcycled one of my husband’s old dress shirts into a dress and shirt for my daughter. I absolutely adore these tutorials and was so happy (but not at all surprised) that they won their week on Project Run and Play. They are in the intermediate range of sewing ability I’d say. They were perfect for this party because each girl’s outfit came from half of the shirt. Plus, they were half contributed by Josh and half by me, as he provided the material and I provided the construction.
The kids had a blast playing with Penny’s toys and running around the backyard with balls, bubbles, and sand toys. It is so fun and easy to have summer parties!
It was a super fun party and a great way to celebrate our girls. We will probably combine birthday parties for them in January, so celebrating in July too is a fun way to still have two parties a year — and of course we will get input from them as they get older.
See Elle’s other parties: A Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday party you can totally pull off and A Go, Dog! Go!-themed birthday party.
I just did this for my daughter in June. She turned One and a Half. Her birthday is in the beginning of December and we don’t have a home large enough to fit friends and children so we have decided to do the half-birthday summer party for everyone to enjoy and her actual birthday will be reserved for us and the grandparents.
Some gave us *that* look. You know, the one where they think you’re just digging for gifts. But I figure once they see we aren’t doing another party in December they’ll be more open to it.
Thanks for sharing!
I love it. My friend has triplets born on December 26th, and she does a half birthday for them every year in June.
This is pretty much the cutest thing ever! My son is also a January baby who just turned his first half last week. I may have to start this next year. It sure would be easier in the northeast to have a party in the summer. We’d never have to worry about canceling due to a wild snowstorm.
What a great idea! My little guy’s birthday is Dec. 26, so we might try this in the future.
That’s a great idea for a kiddo with a bday so close to “the holidays”. My nephew is December 23 and I know his day always gets a little swallowed up in chaos. We might have to make a tradition of a half birthday with auntie!
I found out last month that half birthdays are a thing. I decided immediately to embrace it because my b-day is in January too, so unless I spend it downunder (it’s on my bucket list anyway) it will never be summer. I wanted to bake myself a nice half cake and everything.
Then I completely forgot about it 🙁
it was two days ago. BOOOOOOO 🙁
I love this! I have a summer birthday, but my wee-one was born in January of last year. Even though it was much to cold to have the whole of the party outside and our home is too small to fit a large group of people comfortably, it felt important to me to do it anyways. It was cramped and loud. So maybe for her second birthday, we’ll just do family and then wait for the summer for a half-themed outdoor celebration. Thanks to my mom, I’ve always celebrated my half birthdays (very low-key), and I love the idea that the continuation of that tradition with my daughter could be practical, too! Thanks for sharing your fun ideas!!
This is wonderful – I love how you fully embraced the 1/2 theme! My brothers were both December babies, but I was June, and since they were younger, they didn’t understand why I got presents twice a year and they only got them once. So my Mom started celebrating their half-birthdays on my birthday, and I would get a little gift on their birthdays, too. It worked great when they were little. In fact, I still do it for one of my brothers today, and he’s 37.
I have a friend with a January birthday who throws a half-birthday for herself some years–she’s in her thirties. It’s lots of fun at any age, as it turns out!
My family did something similar when I was little. My Mom’s birthday is in January, my Dad’s is in May, and mine is in March. Every year we would have an Un-Birthday around September. We had cake and presents and always did something fun as a family. Seeing the looks on the bakery staff’s faces when we would ask for the birthday cake to say Happy Un-Birthday was always fun. My FH and I are planning to continue this tradition. Who doesn’t like an extra reason to party in a down time of the year?