Of course the birthday girls got to have a party filled with PINK, candy, cake, and balloons! I'm glad things like pinterest exist, without websites that pool creative ideas I wouldn't have been able to do what I did on the budget that I gave myself! All the treats were homemade except for the girls' smash cakes. I chose to have those made and decided to just stomach the cost of the cakes (but seriously, $12 per cake wasn't bad at all! Especially for how cute the cakes were and they tasted awesome!). I set up the desert bar with chocolate dipped marshmallows, iced rice krispie treats, assorted pink candy, three types of cupcakes, and displayed the girls' cakes. I put my cricut to good use making the little signs for the treats, the birthday banners for inside, outside, and the girls' high chairs, and for some of the embellishment on the treat bags. Pinterest provided me with an awesome tutorial on how to make crowns out of lace and it was cheap! I also saw a cute post on the high chair decor with the ribbons so I made those. Thanks to planning ahead and Hobby Lobby sales I didn't pay full price for any of the materials. Yes, my family calls me tight, I prefer thrifty. Plus you would've never known if I hadn't said a thing...
The biggest cost of the party? BALLOONS! The girls got their first balloon from Nana and Papa for Valentine's Day (a helium bear) and it's still semi floating in the playroom. From that point on the girls were obsessed so I figured I'd use them to decorate. Then I got the bright idea that included 10 36" balloons and 66 12" balloons. Holy helium! After doing the math we figured out that the cheapest way to do it was to have the party store blow up the balloons. It means a lot of trips back and forth but it worked! I had worked up a diagram with the exact number of balloons I needed so once we got them all to my parents we divided the small ones into their bundles and used plastic stakes meant for Christmas lights (my mom already had these) to tie the balloons into the ground. My plan was to line my parents driveway and sidewalk, add some accents to the deck, and put a few in the house, and it worked! Pink balloons everywhere :)
My mom mentioned to me a couple weeks before the party that she ordered pink polka dot dresses for the girls and I immediately thought of the party. I had already bought material and planned on making the dresses for the party but April has been an insanely busy month so I decided that pre made dresses would work better! That left me with material that I ended up cutting and hemming to be used as table decor (the runner for the desert bar and a couple smaller scarves for the lunch buffet). Much cheaper than buying fancy tablecloths AND they looked cuter in my opinion ;)
The girls were spoiled by family and friends, so many cute clothes, toys, and donations to their college funds. Grandma & Grandpa A along with Aunt Jodi and Alli came in from Illinois, and Uncle Jeffy flew in from Boston. It was nice to see everybody and for the girls to spend some time with family members they don't see on a daily basis.
::keep in mind, I am NOT a cake decorator so this frosting job was as good as I get!::
I think the memory that Scott and I both will take from the party is the cake time... We both knew that the girls would love their cake but there's always that slight doubt in the back of your head based on stories of kids clamming up you hear from other parents. Not the case for our girls! They destroyed their cakes! Ellie Jo even shared some with mommy's hair when she latched on to my hair during a family picture, with her cake covered little hand, and wouldn't let go as she was encouraged by the crowd of family. Oh child... The smiles they had were priceless and made everything worth it!
I could be all sentimental and reflective right now but I think I'll wait... that deserves a post itself ;)
But for the family and friends that read this: thank you for taking the time to celebrate our girls! We appreciate all the love they were shown and truly feel blessed to have so many loved ones in our life!
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