Oh Heather the party turned out A-MAZING! I knew it would but WOW! Great work. It almost made me think twice about posting Indiana's party but the story was too hilarious not to tell. I had half the kids and twice the chaos!
When we got back from Cali we had a week to plan and implement Indiana's birthday party. We usually go to Chuck E Cheese with the family every year and call it good. Not this year. Indiana wanted to have her first official birthday party, friends and all. Being my first little girl birthday party I got to throw, I thought it would be a lot of fun! That's Jody....the eternal optimist :).
In my defense I had been thinking about her party way before we got back. Indiana had wanted to have a Tea Party. I was stoked because I have a full set of vintage crystal serving trays with teacups that would have worked great and I had already thought through the activities and the "Tea". Easy enough....until we got home and Indiana saw some carnival party plates and instantly changed her mind.
Sigh.....Carnival party it was. It didn't take me long to switch gears and get excited about the idea. I got straight to work on the details. Coming off of a budget breaking trip I gave myself the ever unrealistic goal of a 50.00 limit. Yeah....you can already see where this goes :). I did however squeak by under 100 bucks. That takes some talent!
I was off....to EVERY dollar store in Utah County, two Partyland's, Pinterest....if there was a free printable, I was ON IT!
On a side note, may I just say "Thank you Pinterest" for making me feel inadequate in every form of the word but that is a whole other blog post ;).
I did score on the printables. I was able to find quite a few really cute FREE Printables.
First with the invites:
Thank you
ONE CHARMING PARTY for helping make my party a little more "Charming". If you have a minute check them out they have super cute party ideas and just posted some AMAZING 4th of July party decorating ideas.
I spent the entire week prior to the party focusing on the decorations, the menu, the invites all the things the kids really could care less about. The thing I didn't focus on.....the GAMES! Crazy right?
PARTY DAY:
The big day had arrived and I had only one official RSVP. There is something about Utah County people and their aptitude on the RSVP subject. Heather and I have had a couple convo's about this issue and never had I thought how incredibly serious the RSVP is, until this party. Would I have 2 kids for Indiana's first party or 15? Would I have all the parents or none?? Who knew. We ended up with 12....and I will NEVER not RSVP again!
Day of the party and I had cupcakes to make....I NEVER bake and thought it would be a great activity for me and Indiana. Was I ever wrong. After one batch of failed cupcakes I was off to Walmart with the batter left in the Bosch.
Next on the TO DO LIST: Cotton Candy.....One word DISASTER! Not only did our first attempt fail miserably but I had a sticky floor and cotton candy SPIDERWEBS all over my kitchen. Yes, Spiderwebs!
Third on the list POPCORN: I had bought those cute popcorn boxes and the menu was: Hot Dogs, Popcorn, Fruit and Lemonade. Once again the word DISASTER. I filled all the cute little boxes, put them on a cute little serving tray and walked out (after the party started) and they all tipped over and spilled popcorn EVERYWHERE. I had popcorn from my kitchen all the way through my sunroom and out the back door. We barely had enough to go around.
Oh and let me just add, my camera was NOT WORKING! The few pictures I
got were thanks to my pops. Unfortunately he is not a blogger so the
best pictures (the close ups of the party favors, the table settings,
the bomb of a kitchen, the cotton candy spiderwebs, the popcorn
everywhere) went "un-taken".
By now the party was in full swing, kids were early, games weren't set up and they were already looking at me like hungry puppy dogs.
So I sent them all to Grandma for FACE PAINTING:
B's was the first customer
We Had:
Face Painting
Beanbag Toss
Pin the Nose on the Clown
Squirt the Clown
Race the Duck (which quickly turned into catch the duck when the duck we had didn't float :)
Ring Toss
Fish Pond
and the kids burned through all of them INCLUDING face painting in 30 minutes!
So we loaded them up with prizes and rounded them up for a good ol' fashioned game of duck duck goose....hey we were desperate!
Finally we were on the downhill slide of the party.....Food, Presents, Cake.....HOME :)
Funny, none of the kids said a thing about the cutesy little popcorn boxes, hot dog holders, striped straws. Oh yes, that's right....because they DON'T care about that kind of stuff :). Do you blame them? Popcorn boxes are boring, games are fun!
Poor adults got kicked to the hot tub cover....this is how I treat my guest/workers. Poor little carnies!
I went with cupcakes, ice cream cups and a piece of cake.....it's all about the easy clean up.
We still finished 15 minutes early. I learned many lessons this party: Plan the games 1st, Organization is key, don't spend too much time on the details...the kids really don't care and always test your camera before an event starts ;).
Am I ready for round two....of course! Best thing about having your girls share a birthday month and one of them too young to know the difference? Repeat birthday party! I am using my leftover carnival swag to throw family party #2 for "B" this weekend.
Wish me luck. Maybe I will get some "blogger" style pics this time.
Thanks for sticking with me....this was a long-y. Good night everyone!
JODY
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