First of all, we rented a bouncy castle. That was our big ticket item at $125, but it provided hours of (outside!) fun for both children and adults! It was more than worth every penny. It was easy to set up and we put it facing our deck so parents could sit on the deck while supervising their kiddos.
We made our own cake, cupcakes, and cookies, which did save money but took hours to bake and frost. It doesn't look like a professional (it's a dinosaur!), but it was tasty and made with lots of love, which to me is more important than a perfect appearance. :) I also constructed the cupcake stand out of cardboard boxes, a plastic table cloth, some ribbon, and hot glue. It probably cost me $3 to make (and an hour or two). Super bargain.
Perhaps my favorite element was a wall that housed a photo from every month from positive pregnancy test to present day. It was beautiful and just what I wanted but it did take way longer than I had anticipated. Probably at least 3 hours. But oh so worth it. I backed each photo on brightly colored scrapbooking paper. Cutting out the paper, then gluing on the photos, and then affixing them to the wall. Sounds quick and easy, doesn't it? Ha! But it was a bargain at under $15.
Another great way we were able to pinch some pennies was with our balloon garland. We bought 5 bags of 15 count balloons from target for $1.50 a bag. With a lot of help from my niece blowing them all up(!) we strung them together and made some really gorgeous garland to hang both inside and out. We were able to have heaps more balloons for way less than if we had chosen to go the helium route.
We made lovely tissue paper pom poms with a little help from Martha Stewart . They were so insanely quick, easy, and cheap. I bought two packages of colored tissue for around $2 each. One 20-sheet package gave me one large and two small poms. We hung them from the recessed lighting in our dining room. (photo to come soon!)
For drinks I refused to have soda, so we served iced tea, lemonade, apple cider and water. Kid friendly beverages and cost effective. We also had a selection of bottled beers and two boxes of wine (ok, maybe not classy but it is green!) for our older partygoers. For food we had some of Big A's favorite foods and other crowd pleasers. Homemade hummus with bagel chips, popcorn, chips and salsa, veggies with dip, and melon. Then we had a make-your-own sandwich bar. This was more expensive than I had anticipated but wildly successful. Little to no prep on my part was a huge bonus. Just some slicing of tomatoes and onions. Then we just plopped
a selection of meats (including Tofurkey for our vegetarian friends!) and cheeses and breads and rolls out on the island in the kitchen. Pickles, olives, baby spinach, condiments and viola! Lunch. It was very child friendly food, easy clean up, and makes lovely leftovers in omelets and on pizza. :)
We splurged a bit and spent $30 on 12 colors of Wolfe face paint. It's really great paint and will last us ages. We had some wonderful volunteers step up to paint some faces at the party and it was the perfect extra something special.
In my opinion, the day went as well as it could have. However, in a perfect world, I would have asked someone specific to take photos all day. There are big gaps in the times when I would get distracted and also very few photos with me in them. I feel like I didn't get to visit with anyone long enough and some people not at all, but with a party this size (about 55 guests), there really is no avoiding it. I feel like I learned so much in this planning process and will be able to do things even better next time with *hopefully* less time and effort. Hopefully!
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