Party Time!

I absolutely LOVE party planning!  Since my due date is so close to Juliana’s birthday and Easter is the weekend before we decided to have her birthday party early.  I have been planning her second birthday party for months!  I have been Pinteresting ideas, designing images to use and crafting decorations for a while.  The thought of having a party at our house being so close to giving birth terrified me… there was no way I would have the energy to clean the house (I’m lucky if I can find the energy to vacuum or fold the laundry these days!) and I had no clue how I would entertain ten two year olds! SO I booked a party at the gymnastics studio and I am very pleased with how it turned out! It was 45 minutes of free play in the gym and 45 minutes in the party room.  I thought the amount of time was perfect for this age group.  The instructor set up a huge obstacle course and the kids were allowed free range!  The kids were able to climb, jump, slide, balance, swing, run and play in a fully padded area!  It was awesome and I think everyone had a really great time! Since I booked the party late, we got the last time slot of 4:30.  Thankfully there was a pizza place next door with $5 large pizzas so it worked out perfectly! My husband was able to sneak out for 5 minutes and pick up some dinner for everyone.  The best part, I didn’t have to clean up and we drove home and I was able to relax while Juliana was entertained by her new toys before bed.

For this blog post, I want to share with you some simple, fast and easy party ideas.  Surprisingly, most everything was done the morning of the party! We even did a run to the grocery and dollar store.  The thing that took the longest was designing the images I used for the water bottle labels, invitations, napkin holders, and goody bag tags.  I designed those over the past few weeks.   I don’t have a fancy computer program for this like Photoshop or whatever, I just use Accessories Paint and Microsoft Word!  You can also buy already made ones from Etsy or try to find some free ones on Pinterest.

Below are some photos from the party with info and links on how to make them:

 For the goody bags, I found white paper bags at the craft store, filled them and then folded over the top, punched two holes and threaded ribbon and tied them shut!  Inside I put Playdoh (the mini ten pack is on sale at Target now and with the store and manufactures coupon makes it CHEAP! Time to stock up on Playdoh!),  a Mickey and Minnie coloring page with crayons tied with a ribbon, Mickey and Minnie gummies, lolipops, sticker sheets, and the girls bags had minnie necklaces and the boys matchbox cars.  I also made Minnie Mouse hair clips and clipped them to the outside of the bags!! I used this Tutorial I found on YouTube to make the clips.  She even includes all the measurement  written under the video! They were pretty easy and didn't take long at all. 

Tip: When using hot glue, use a lighter to quickly melt unwanted glue (then quickly wipe away with your finger or something.. its usually not too hot but maybe I'm just used to it lol and glue strings also melt away!  I also recommend heat sealing the edges of the ribbon with a lighter after you cut them.

 For the party hat I used this tutorial but instead of using fabric, I cut out a piece of sparkly thick scrapbook paper (I used a party hat as a template like she does in the tutorial). I cut out a mickey mouse shape and the number 2 also out of scrapbook paper and hot glued those on.  Then I added a marabou trim and ball which I made by tying knots in the marabou.   Finished it off with some ribbon and skinny headband elastic!

Almost everything for the cupcakes was bought using last weeks Commissary coupon match up list that I posted.  Currently you can find a coupon for ALL the ingredients! I wasn't really a fan of the Frosting Flavor Creations though (I used the two pink packets, strawberry on the vanilla cakes and cherry on the chocolate cakes). I also used an ice cream scoop to scoop the batter (anyone watch cupcake wars?!) and WOW what a difference it makes!  All my cakes were exactly the same size and had the perfect amount of batter and it didn't drip anywhere.  For Juliana's smash cake I used my favorite frosting recipe.  I wish I had used this recipe on the cupcakes instead of the can frosting, but I already had the cans in my pantry.  

The BEST cream cheese frosting recipe

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 stick cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar (I make my powdered sugar by putting granulated sugar and 1 tbs corn starch per cup of sugar in a blender or food processor)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*Combine all ingredients in mixer and beat on high until you get a frosting consistency.

Water bottle labels look super fancy but are SO quick and easy!  Just peel off the old label and tape on a new one.  My two year old was a HUGE help with these.  She loves helping and copying mommy and daddy so we are always finding little ways to try to include her in case she offers a hand.  She had fun taking out all the water bottles and peeling off all the labels.  Then she lined them all up and counted, "one, two, four, six, seven, eight, nine mama!". This entertained her while I was able to do something she wasn't able to help with and it saved me 20 minutes since I didn't have to peel the labels!  Since she cooks and bakes with me almost everyday, she can now pretty much crack all the eggs and dump in ingredients and mix them all by herself with just me verbally guiding her! This is also a big time saver for me since I can be right next to her doing something else. She has really cut my kitchen time in half! I hope she always is enthusiastic about helping around the house ;-)