Maura's 2nd Birthday Party

We had Maura's birthday party on Saturday, it was so much fun! This year was a lot less stressful than last year because we only invited her close family and three friends (which made it 18 adults, 6 kids and 1 infant). Plus we had it inside, which is way better for being able to decorate/prep in advance (thanks for all your help, Mom)! I also used a lot of the decorations I had bought last year (which I looked at as kind of an investment - ha!) but used them in different ways and updated them with some new paper products.

I was actually ready enough in advance (like 4 minutes before people were supposed to come) this time to take some pics of things:)  (Sorry, this is gonna be long.) Here's the birthday girl!!

Last year I ordered one of these custom birthday banners from etsy seller Cow Country Creations. I even got to pick the ribbon color. Each word is a separate strand, and you can push or pull the letters closer together or further apart along the ribbon. This thing is awesome! Since I went with the rainbow colored assorted one, I figure I can use this every year for her, no matter what the color scheme of the party. Plus, I could use it for anybody else by just not putting up the Maura banner. At her first birthday party I hung it outside above the food, this year I put it on the mantel, and I even brought it to my parent's house to hang up for her pre-birthday party celebration when my family was in town.

We set up a spot for gifts on top of my Gram's bow front dresser. I used the chalkboard that I bought for her photo booth last year again but just redid the saying...by accident it ended up looking really cool in front of my vintage map! (Another good investment - used the chalkboard for both my Christmas and spring decor.)

If anyone's interested, I took in progress shots of the chalkboard as I went along, so I could post those at some point with more info.

Another item reused from last year are these cupcake/polka dot fabric buntings that I snagged at Target. For a few bucks each, you can't really go wrong with hot pink, turquoise and polka dots. I mean, that stuffs always gonna be in style:) So I just went crazy and hung them everywhere.

There's a big blank wall in our dining room (where we served the food) that gets put to good use for functions (I'm waiting to find the perfect hutch or buffet, but until then I'm not afraid to put a couple of thumb tack holes in the wall if it helps the party cause). So that's where I hung the monthly bunny pics I've been taking since Maura turned one.



I had them printed up as 5x7s at CVS and mounted them on some pink card stock I already had. I've used this jute twine and these little clothespins for lots of other things before too, so this was a pretty easy, cheap project.

 Remember when my sister and I made old school paper chains for Maura's party last year and then put some of them up in her room afterwards? I had the rest stored in the basement, so I broke those out again and hung them from the ceiling in the kitchen and dining room (last year they were outside strung between trees and cascading off the deck).

For food, we just kept it simple with hamburgers and hotdogs and lots of side salads, served buffet style in the dining room. I got flowers at Stop and Shop and put them in white pitchers for the centerpieces. Then I bought 2 wooden letter "M"s at Michaels and painted them a sea foam blue color (one was originally white and one was black).

Target has great patterned paper goods (which I think are hard to find) so the plates, napkins and tablecloth came from there. I found them early on and they were a great inspiration and way to pull everything together.



Striped pink straws from Pick Your Plum (bought as the deal of the day - sign up so you know what's going on) made all the drinks seem more fun, and people really used them:)

Maura's not a huge cake fun, but she loooves ice scream, so we had a DIY ice cream sundae bar.

Nothing elaborate, just threw 4 kinds of ice cream, 2 sauces, whip cream, cherries and lots of toppings on the kitchen table, but these ice cream cups (large rainbow-colored ones from Pink Lemonade Party Supply Shop and medium white ones from The Tomkat Studio) made it seem a lot cooler!

{Trust me, the adults loved it too. Man, the sundae I made for myself was awesome!!!}

She was so excited when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her!! I loved watching her face light up!!

Favors/goodie bags seem like the most stressful part of kids' parties to me. Do you guys do them? How do you keep it easy when there's kids of different ages? We only had six, so I wanted to do something special with the actual container the stuff came in. I ordered cotton muslin draw-string bags from The Cotton Bag Company and stamped each one with their name and a unique pattern. It was really fun and not hard at all (each one only took about 10 minutes). I also took some in progress shots, so I can share those later in a semi-tutorial post. Only thing I would do differently next time is get the next size bag up for more room and larger goodies:)

I hung them on the wall in our entryway, so that no one would leave without them (more jute and mini clothes-pins).

Maura loves the wind turbines that have recently gone up in our town (well, I do too, they are really fascinating!) so everybody got a pinwheel from Paper Polaroid. The other toddlers got stickers and some of Maura's favorite snacks and the 3 older kids got stuff specific to their likes.

I guess its a good party when you end up lying under the table with your uncle (my brother/Maura's godfather) and aunt (his girlfriend)..with your Crocs on instead of your pink ballet shoes and no hair bow!!