Leyna's 2nd Birthday Party!!

For Leyna's 2nd birthday, it was easy to decide on a Rockstar theme since she absolutely LOVES music. You'll always find her playing the piano on the edge of tables, drumming on anything she can find, beat boxin', singing tunes and making us get up dance with her to music. I came across some great rockstar themed parties as inspiration, but of course I wanted to make her party unique. Being that we're on our last year living in Okinawa I hoped to fuse Japan into it somehow, and so it evolved into a theme I call "Kawaii Rock!" Kawaii (pronounced like 'Hawaii' with a 'k') is the Japanese word for "cute" and how girls describe things that are absolutely adorable. This was a great avenue to keep it fun, girly, turn objects into characters, and incorporate anything just plain cute, which is characteristic of so many things found in Japanese pop culture.

First thing's first, render Leyna into a Japanese style cartoon as a lil rockstar. The iconic peace sign that many Japanese pose when photographed was perfectly fitting to also represent a 2 year birthday!Then on to a custom party invitation, mixing a bit of grunge with kawaii music notes and stars. I threw in a QR code, a barcoding system widely used in Japan, and I'm sure you're starting to see a lot more of it as the U.S. is now picking up on the trend. You scan it with your phone and it uploads a website to your device. In this case, it links to Leyna's website, which some of you have already seen from the last post.
Upon entering the "VIP lounge" the kids (and any adult that wanted to sport one) got their own All-Access VIP Pass. The barcode numbers are the date and time of the party, and the Japanese characters on the back is Leyna's name in kanji - translating to "Reina" =)
Here's the main dessert table. Some other decor included felt stars and music notes, all handmade. (Big thanks to the help of my friend, Precious, who did an awesome job stitching and stuffing each one!)
The dessert table featured Leyna's strawberry lemonade birthday cake bursting with stars and 2 varieties of cupcakes made by our friend Shannon. For the strawberry lemonade cupcakes I created music note toppers to soar from the cream cheese buttercream frosting. The chocolate cupcakes set a delicious stage for fondant stars to sing out a sequence of 'do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do!' (Something Leyna loves to sing!) I'm so happy my paper arrived in the mail juuust in time for me to try this new topper concept and I think it came out nicely.
Here's Leyna oh so gently trying to blow out her candles. And not surprisingly, our neat eater was more interested in nibbling on all the stars than getting messy in the cake!
Treat cones for our lil popcorn lover were designed with "yummy" words, including the Japanese characters spelling "oishi" (means delicious), "nom nom," and it wouldn't be kawaii without happy popcorn characters!Other sweets included a mix of American treats, like chocolate dipped marshmallow pops (the star shaped marshallows, thanks to the 4th of July holiday, made a nice addition!), simple sugar cookies, the classic Pop Rocks candy -- and Japanese goodies, like Pocky sticks, fruit jellies, and Leyna's favorite assortment of rice crackers (which of course already come in such cute packaging). The jarred items had labels tags that say "We ❤ all things kawaii and delicious"
Later we handed out Japanese vanilla mochi ice cream, which was another fun treat for people to try whose never had them before. These flags I made with washi tape and the food labels carry over a hint of the theme design.
The drinks I wanted to have some fun with. Juice boxes I packaged as mini guitar amplifiers. The back of them has the word "juice" written in Japanese, and parents could write in their child's name where it says "This juice is getting ___ amped up!" to keep track of their drink. The side panel held the straw with washi tape and says "Plug me in!"
For the adults to have a little fun too, we served 3 flavors of Ramune which are Japanese sodas packaged in a cool bottle. A glass marble seals it, so when dislodged using a special cap, the ball jingles inside, then when held correctly the bottle design holds the marble out of the spout while drinking. Instructions to open them were certainly needed & provided. I wanted to keep part of the original Japanese packaging since it already has cute fruit characters and bubbly Japanese fonts. So I added smaller labels on the back to explain the drink in English, gave an area to write their names on the bottle, and of course it boasted the "Official Drink of Kawaii Rockstars" seal. I also re-named the flavors to Strummin Strawberry, Rhythm & Bluesberry, and The Original Score. People must have enjoyed them, only a few were left from all 25!
And don't forget good old H2O ('mizu' in Japanese)...like the label says, "Rockstars gotta keep their vocal chords hydrated!"
In addition to the dessert table, we had other muchies too. Star shaped PB&J, heart shaped lil smokies, and homemade sushi was served with drumstick chopsticks. The napkin holders encourage VIP loungers to "Dig In!" while the Japanese characters read "Itadakimasu" - a phrase said before eating.
As for some entertainment, RockBand was standing by for anyone wanting to rock out. I made some coloring pages for the lil ones to color and decorate with stickers. Leyna is expert at putting stickers everywhere else so I will forever find them randomly scattered throughout the house. haha

Leyna did a great job opening her gifts.

The kids departed with handmade guitar favor bags (another great collaboration with Precious), some glowsticks, rock star stickers, and play microphones (which Leyna enjoyed personally handing out to everyone.)

Here's pics of some of her fans!

Speaking of fans, one thing I didn't get around to finishing in time were these postcards designed to be fanmail to Leyna. One side features a photo of Leyna and a Rockstar Tip, and the other side gives room for fans to write a message. So the idea doesn't go to waste, instead I'll just add any personal messages from her birthday cards and any messages posted on her website to these. If you still want to send her a belated birthday message, feel free to write her one on her website! Just follow the link that says "Fans Worldwide..."
In closing, here's a few more photos of the birthday girl. It was a great time with everyone and we're grateful for our Okinawa "family" while being so far away from our family and friends in SoCal. Managing both food and decor is no easy task, so again huge thanks to everyone who helped out!
We love you Leyna Taylor and looking forward to a (not so terrible) 2nd year with you!\(^o^)/