Party Preparations

April 25, 2014
Once I joined the "Mommy" world and started pinning and looking at other mommies who posted their children's birthdays, I thought that I would NEVER be that mom who planned the big parties for my children until they were 8 (or older... or never). For Chelsea's first birthday, I held true to this suspicion. The most we did was wrap her presents and let her eat a chocolate cupcake (if you haven't already, you've gotta check out the pictures here). I did have one-year pictures taken as well, but as far as "party" and "party decorations" went, we just invited my cousin and two of Andrew's siblings (the third was out of town).

So, with Chelsea's birthday around the corner, I received a text message from my sister-in-law asking if we were planning a party for Chelsea this year... And something magical happened... Ideas for a little birthday party started floating around in my head. Decorations. Activities. Food. It all seemed to come together, kind of like in "Frozen."

"And one thought crystalizes like an icy blast!"

I bent in over my twisting fingers, crafting, creating, and voila! Chelsea's 2nd birthday party plans were underway!


But I still don't want to go overboard. She's turning two. She won't remember any of this, and she doesn't quite have the attention span for most birthday party games, so to be honest, it's more like an "adults get together and hang out while your kids are preoccupied with other stuff" plus some food, decorations, and oh yeah! Chelsea opens some presents and we eat cake. Actually, that sounds pretty great, doesn't it?

Anyway, the whole point of me telling you this is because I thought it might be kind of fun to include you all in on the preparations and, let's be honest, I'm getting super excited about everything I'm planning and just want to share! I'm buying decorations, food, presents, etc. while also trying to save as much money as I can and make it the best two-year birthday Chelsea will EVER have!

So here's what I've got planned. I want to have the party outside (less mess!) and have a BBQ on our back porch (and I am PRAYING that the weather will be nice). We'll have a table set up with food and drinks and get the grill going for hamburgers. I'll probably make some potato salad and there will be chips, fruits, and veggies for eating and some pink lemonade (or water) for drinking.

I began with the idea of doing an entirely pink birthday party, but when I went to Hobby Lobby to get some decorations, somehow my decoration plans changed and turned into summer-time, bright colors! Blue, red, and yellow are the main colors, but there are splashes of green, pink, and other colors in there as well.

For the kids, I'll set up our little toddler pool and fill it with just a little bit of water so the kids can splash around in it with toys and cups. I'm sure there will be some accidental immersions, but, hey! It's a party. I'll also provide a little picnic table with crayons, coloring books, and paper for the less-water prone children. And if that isn't enough to distract them, I'm making giant ping-pong paddles out of Popsicle sticks and paper plates and they can hit balloons around with them.

The biggest child-attraction I don't want to reveal quite yet because it is so totally AWESOME! The weather BETTER cooperate or I will be SO sad. It doesn't have to be sunny, but please don't let it rain or be super windy.

So that's the gist of it! I was really worried about spending too much money on decorations and the "extra fluff," but managed to find good ways to save. I'll share those tips with you throughout this coming week leading up to Chelsea's birthday, too.

The thing that I think I'm MOST excited about are Chelsea's birthday presents. Like I said, we're trying to save money here, so I decided that I would look through my bin of scrap and leftover fabric and see what I could do. So far, I've managed to make Chelsea three items of dress-ups and have a couple more planned, and guess what? I'm planning on sharing them with you, tutorials included!

So here's some of what you have to look forward to next week:

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You really never know how creative you can be until you're working with very little. I'm so glad I found these bits of fabric to work with. These little "labors of love" presents are really just making me feel good and I can't wait to see what Chelsea thinks of them! See you next time!

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