Birthday's Birthday's!!!

My son is now 2 and I can now say that I have 2 successful party's under my belt! I am by no means an amazing party planner but I wanted to share a few ideas and tips on ways to save money when throwing a kids birthday party.

I love a good theme party but sometimes buying themed plates, cups, napkins decorations ect. at a party store can get very pricey!
Last year for my son's first birthday we went with a music theme...I chose 4 colors, red, blue, green and yellow. I bought solid color plates, napkins, cups, table cloths, streamers ect. all at the Dollar Tree! It saved us so much money! Then I tied the theme in by adding music notes here and there.
(I don't have any pictures of the decorations)


This year my son's birthday theme was Superhero's (but not batman, spiderman type hero's) Kid superheros! Again I chose solid colors...this year was red and blue, I bought all solid color stuff from the Dollar Tree and then added the theme by printing out (BAM, POW, KABOOM) words and a cute little Superhero boy (cartoon) that looked like my son!

I payed $5 for an e-file of this cute superhero boy...and many other little (BAM, POW, KABOOM) printables!

  Here is the link!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/littlefairyland

My friend made these signs out of poster board and let me borrow them!

Next PARTY FAVORS!!!

For my son's first birthday the music theme I may each kid a CD full of fun kid songs! I am a preschool teacher so I have a ton of kid music already but if you don't have any kid music ask around or download some from I-tunes...I put about 12 songs on the CD and I made labels with my son's picture and wrote "Cruz's Birthday Mix"

I also printed out a picture from every month leading to his 1st birthday then had a page for guest to sign.

I had a 'candy station' for the adults to leave with something yummy!

For my son's second birthday party Superhero Theme I made each child a cape and mask as the favors.

I wrapped them up in print-less newspaper and put a strip of ribbon with a BAM! on it and wrote their names...Super ALEX ...ect. 

I found some felt shapes with sticky backs and put them all over the table so the kiddos could open up their capes and masks and decorate them however they wanted!

This is what the boys capes looked like...

And the Girls capes....









This was a very FUN and very inexpensive  party favor!!!

Things you will need for the cape:
Felt
felt glue
sissors
iron on Velcro


I bought yards of felt from walmart...about $3 a yard...a yard made 4 capes and 4 masks. Then I used the small squares of felt (found in the craft section for about .49 cents each) to make each letter so for around a $1 I was able to make a cape and mask with the child's letter of their name on it! Pretty good!!! 

How to make the cape....I cut out a temp-let out of a BIG piece of paper first then measured it to my sons body and altered it were I needed it...


I got the mask temp-let from this site and shrunk it down to fit a 2 year old.

http://www.ambrosiagirl.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/superhero-masks.pdf



This is the basic shape of the cape.

Just cut, glue and I attached the iron on the Velcro to attach the cape in the front.

I made my son a special Birthday Boy Cape!








Next! Pinatas!!!

Now not all people are pinata people but my husband is Latin and we do Pinatas! I personally think that it is horrible to get your child's favorite character and then hang it from a rope and beat it.....but hey that's just me!!! lol

For his first birthday we just went with a big soccer ball.

For his second birthday I left it up to my husband and he came back from 'down town LA' with a 4 foot dinosaur looking thing....but it was really cute because he said it's 'Godzilla" and all the "Superhero's" have to save us! I LOVE him!


I personally don't think 1 and 2 year old's need bags of candy (although this year my husband put some candy into the pinata without me knowing) My son thoroughly enjoyed his lollipop!!!  I fill the pinatas with small toys, small packs of crayons, mini slinky's ect. (again all bought at the Dollar Tree) ....I'm really not cheap lol I just try to make good decisions with our money!


Next CAKE!!!!


Costco! Costco! Costco! They sell a sheet cake for $17

From his first birthday (music theme)

This year I bought the cake at Costco just plain no writing or decorations...I e-mailed my son's super-hero picture to a local 'fancy' cake shop and for $15 they printed out his picture onto rice paper and all I had to do was lay it onto my cake!






Next Balloons!!

Why, why, why would anyone every pay $3.99, $4.99 or even  $9.99 for a balloon that will either POP or Blow-away...Seriously...that's how much big party stores charge!!!
Okay I know, I know...I should just go work for the corporate offices for The Dollar Tree lol but seriously I got 8 'foil balloons' for $8 and the fill them up with helium and don't charge for that!  

So that's 2 party's down and a lot more to go....now...what will next years theme be???