DIY Birthday Party

I know every parent ever says, "I can't believe Suzie is [insert age] already," but seriously, you guys! How has it been 2 years already?! The calendar says so, so I guess it must be true. My baby is hardly a baby anymore. I won't bore you with the sentimental drivel. The point is, Jackson turns 2 next month, and it's time to talk birthday party.

Now, last year we spent a small fortune in supplies and decor at the local party store, and for what? It was a nice party and all, but it was kind of hard to see where the money went when it was all said and done. It was a Sesame Street-themed party with mostly licensed paper products and decor, so the cost of everything was highly inflated. I should know better, but I fell for it because I was short on time and wanted my first kid's very first birthday party ever to be special. The first birthday will never happen again, I reasoned! I even bought bulk-sized products from Sam's Club (my dad is a member) to make sure we had enough to feed a small army, in case one showed up at the party. Some of my super-size condiments are still hanging out in the fridge to this day.

When March rolled around and I brought up Jackson's second birthday party, hubby was extremely apprehensive, and I got it. But this year, I told him, I am armed with DIY inspiration! We can still have a great party on an appropriately small budget! The key is to start early so there is ample time for stress-free DIY projects. As a stay-at-home mommy to a very clingy toddler, I don't get a lot of free time for crafting, so planning ahead is extremely important to make the most of it.

Our theme this year is "Jackson's Favorite Things," so the plan is for most of the party elements to tie into something my son loves.

First, I wanted to create the illusion that all his favorite characters came to wish him a happy birthday. I found images (via google image search) of the characters that were simple enough to sketch and printed them out so they were handy for spare moments in the middle of the day. I bought poster board (between 50 and 75 cents a piece) and used a pencil to freehand images of the characters on the posterboard, erasing and tweaking until I was happy with them. Then I outlined the images and colored them in with markers (and in a few cases, used crayons for detail). I was psyched to find blue and red poster board at the dollar store, because that saved me a lot of time coloring in Elmo, Thomas, and Blue! Jackson watched me excitedly and shouted their names. I was thrilled that he could recognize them, since I don't have a huge amount of confidence in my artistic ability.

             

Next, I did a little searching on my favorite craft sites for birthday party ideas. I found this fantastic post full of DIY/inexpensive birthday ideas, which led me to this free banner template. I printed these letters and symbols to create templates for the banner. Then I traced the templates onto a leftover poster board, cut them out, and colored them with markers. Brian helped cut out all the little details in the letters. I could have saved time by buying colored poster board or cardstock, but I decided to use the white board and markers because I already had them on hand. I strung the banner together with yarn (which I already owned as well), and voila! A perfect birthday party banner.

I remembered that the Nick Jr. website has tons of free printables, so I poked around their site for awhile and found some great stuff for the party. I printed and assembled this Dora the Explorer birthday wish poster so guests can write birthday messages for Jackson as a party keepsake.

 I found Yo Gabba Gabba masks that I know Jackson and his cousins will adore.

I decided to do small goodie bags for the kids that follow the "Favorite Things" theme. I found craft foam bookmarks and stickers at the dollar store and made cute bookmarks for party favors. Some are transportation-themed (for Jackson's favorite toys) and some are Eric Carle-themed (for Jackson's favorite books). I found mini shape pencil sharpeners with stars, circles, squares, and rectangles (all different colors) and divided those up, one per bag. Jackson loves to find and identify shapes, especially stars. The Dora the Explorer tops were two for a dollar at the dollar store. I rounded out the goody bag with red Thomas the Tank Engine whistles and Thomas plastic goodie bags. These are licensed party items, of course, but they were inexpensive at K-Mart, and I decided that it doesn't have to be all-or-nothing when it comes to DIY parties. A couple of cost-effective, ready-made items can save time and stress, and if you choose wisely, can even help keep you on budget.

Heather at Dollar Store Crafts has some fantastic free/cheap birthday game ideas. I will definitely be borrowing her block-stacking game for our party, since Jackson has tons of blocks in a variety of styles. I think we may modify this game a bit by having guests play on teams. I also anticipate Jackson trying to knock the block towers down as they are being built (his favorite part of blocks), so we figure that's just one more challenge to spice up the game. If Jackson knocks it down, tough luck - start building again! Whoever has the tallest block tower in a TBD time frame will win a small prize. I haven't decided on prizes at this time.

I'm also imagining a "car corner" with Jackson's road playmat and all types of cars (which we already own, of course) for the kids to play with throughout the party.

Our current menu for the party is as follows:
-Pizzas! Who doesn't love pizza? It's a favorite of kids and adults alike.
-raw fruit and veggie trays with homemade dips
-Jackson's favorite crackers
-O Cookies
-delicious ice cream from a local dairy farm
-a giant cookie cake

Regarding the cake: I try to minimize the amount of artificial dyes in Jackson's food, so I wasn't comfortable making or buying a cake with tons of color. I considered a train cake, block cake, or a regular sheet or round cake with an image, such as Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar or Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I researched natural food dyes for icing, and found some interesting ideas for making your own food coloring (such as boiling spinach or beets), as well as ready-made natural food coloring. There are more options out there than I thought, so I would encourage anyone interested to consider this option when serving artificially colored food to children. Ultimately, I chose simplicity over what felt like an immense amount of additional work required to make icing of various natural colors to decorate a cake that will probably be devoured in no time at all. Since Jackson is only turning two - and isn't particularly picky about what is on his cake - I opted out this time, but I would consider it again in the future. Instead, we are going to try to make a giant cookie cake inspired by Jackson's love of cookies, especially Ginger-O's. We found the perfect "2" candle with a pair of star candles at the dollar store to top the cookie cake. We haven't decided on the exact cake and filling at this time, but we will be baking it from scratch and will strive for healthy as well as delicious cake. The writing on the cake will most likely be a natural cream color. One possible decoration or filling idea up our sleeves is to use SunDrops candies, a natural alternative to M&M's. These are sold at our local health food store.

We still have plenty of leftover paper goods from parties past, so many of the basics are already covered. We also have tons of red balloons and some punching balls from the dollar store to add color and festivity.

So far, this party is shaping up to be low cost and full of fun. There's still more planning, crafting, and cooking to be done, but we're confident it will all come together fabulously. I can't wait to have a party that is truly inspired by Jackson; a party that celebrates all the wonderful things about him. Not only will these DIY projects result in cost savings, but they will also make for a more meaningful, memorable party.