Twinkle Twinkle Little Party

I officially have a two year old. And just like him, his birthday weekend was pretty incredible. I made a promise to myself not to freak out during the planning and preparing process and I think I did a pretty good job. Well except for when people show up a half hour before the party is supposed to begin. Why do people do that?!? Oy. Anyway, the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Party turned out just like I had dreamed...and I'm reaching around and patting myself on the back because this was done on a maaaaaajorly tiny budget.

First up, the dessert table!

I knew months ago when I envisioned the invitation, I wanted to include the window as my backdrop.  A friend of mine was replacing her windows so I asked her to hold onto one of her old ones for me and I am so happy she did. My local antique store wanted to sell me one for 55 bucks! Insane. I covered the back with a navy shower curtain I found at Goodwill and attached some tiny twinkle lights to the back. I could have been done here and died happy.

I'd been looking for an excuse for years to pick up a Katie Daisy print so when I saw this one that could double as party decor then go into Gabe's room, I was sold. 

You may have heard me complaining around the internet about being on a tiny budget and not being able to afford the perfect midnight blue macarons I found on Etsy. Sads. So almost everything on the dessert table was homemade. The blue star cookies were a Target find around the 4th of July. I bought them, wrapped them up and froze them, praying they would be tasty once defrosted. They were fantastic. 

I tried to make the most impact using small (cheap) details. I bought the wooden candy pop sticks and glittered them myself with the pound of glitter I bought. That ish is everywhere obvs. You know that joke about glitter being the her-peeees of craft supplies? Totally true. And yeah, the oreo truffles made another appearance, topped with edible gold stars that I somehow found on clearance at Jo-Ann and paid $2 instead of $6.99. Pun totally intended but the stars definitely aligned for me for this party, cost-wise.

The white felt puffy clouds were a last minute addition and they make me happier than anything. In fact, I think I'll leave the whole shebang set up for awhile.

A roll of gold washi tape helped me immensely. I wrapped it around white vases and serving pieces to give them a little pizazz.

I learned my lesson from last year and started the party at 4pm, when Gabe is due to wake up from his nap. It also gave us time that morning to sit around and watch Sprout to see if Gabe's birthday card made it on the air. Did you watch (say you did), it was on!! It was pretty darn exciting for my lame ass. Anyway, after Gabe woke up, he came down to see the birthday treat wonderland that awaited him.

 

Match!

I kept the decor sort of simple (for me anyway) and focused on the dessert table and the drink area. I had seen constellation embroidery on etsy sometime ago and realized I had all of the supplies to make some, thus a Star Bar was born! Cute, eh? I had TJ's Sparkling Lemonade, Iced Tea and Skyy Vodka to make Arnold Palmers in addition to everything else. Another cheapy fun thing was buying a huge pack of teacher gold stars and putting them, um, everywhere. Like on every single blue plastic cup.

Sofie's Big Day on Etsy was my source for a mix of stripey and star straws. Aren't they adorbs?

Since these kiddos grow a ton in their second year of life, I wanted to do a little photo display. I used the frame I made for Always Crafty which just happened to be the right color.

Last year, we did cookie favors for all of our guests but went with favor bags for just the kids this year. A $2 pack of Target lunchbags was too hard to pass up.

Favors were star-shaped recycled crayons from a horrible etsy seller, yogurt stars, a lollipop, star-filled bouncy ball, a sparkly notepad and wooden star ornament. It was tricky not buying everything on 4th of July clearance just because it had stars on it, ya know? I wanted it to look cute not patriotic.

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After eating his weight in sugar, we decided it was a good time to open presents. He received so many amazing presents from so many awesome people. We really are lucky to know such generous people.

Of course, John and I had to roll out our present for him, a Strider PREbike Balance Running Bike. It's an adorable little bike that is missing one thing, pedals. Kids use their feet to learn to balance, then push off and glide on the bike. Word on the street is that it's an excellent bike to learn on and eliminates the usual need for training wheels. For a kid who is obsessed with cycles, this was a hit. He spent the next day learning to ride with the neighborhood kids, which made me die of cuteness. So yeah, the bike and party were a huge hit. Yay.