Two Good to Be True

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Details and DIY Projects

I used http://www.gabbafriends.com/ for a lot of ideas. There is an entire page with submissions from families who have thrown a YGG party for their little ones. Nickjr.com is also a great resource. There are party planning blogs that feature fabulous ideas too.

I found my way to the blog http://www.hostesswiththemostess.com/ and fell in love with this tissue paper sign. I knew I had to make one for R & E. I already had the gallery canvas, tissue paper, and glue gun so all I had to purchase was the fabric and a staple gun. This project was easy, quick, cheap, and so super cute! I completely burned my fingerprints off gluing the tissue paper, but it was so worth it!

I also made Ryan and Evan's birthday hats myself. This was the first project I completed and I think it's one of my favorites. Orange boa feathers, hot glue, foam, and a pack of dollar store party hats and voila! There you have a DJ Lance Rock inspired party hat made with love for the birthday boys.

I saw these boombox favors on gabba friends and loved them. One of the moms explained how to do it, and all you need is a color printer and boxes of animal crackers. As luck would have it the grocery store had the animal crackers on sale for $1 so I stocked up on what I needed. I printed the boomboxes from nickjr and attached them using double sided tape. Easy! I put these in the kids' favor bags. And the favor bags?? Love them!! I purchased a PDF file from etsy seller aKymKreation and printed them on sticker paper. It is extremely time consuming to cut out all the faces. You have to cut out each and every little piece. Took me forever! I found the bags in a party store and the faces fit perfectly.

Also included in the favor bags was a bottle of bubbles. I added the labels for a personalized touch. The DJ Lance Rock glasses were a hit with all the guests--even the adults! They were a Dollar Tree find and all I had to do was punch out the silly lenses. Kim of aKymKreation made the personalized blowers for me as well. She was great to work with and I told her I'd give her a shout out on the blog. She makes a lot of other things and I would definitely recommend her.

The napkin rings were made by etsy seller letsPARTYon. They also made matching water bottle labels, food tents, and cupcake toppers.

I loved making this balloon wreath! I started it when my daddy was visiting and I made it while I kept him company as he watched the NBA playoffs. It was so easy and I love that we can use this year after year and make it a birthday tradition for our family. I think I'll hang this to celebrate all of our birthdays. I found the tutorial on-line at http://www.howdoesshe.com/ and was able to follow the steps with no problems. No matter how many balloons you think you might need, buy more! You could always get someone on etsy to make it for you for $45! See why I DIY?

Yo Gabba Gabba

Ryan and Evan love Yo Gabba Gabba! I must confess that I enjoy the show too. It was a no brainer that a YGG themed party was in order for their second birthday. I started planning back in February, and I needed all of that time! I love to create things so I knew I wanted to complete a lot of DIY projects. Since I'm a mom who works outside the home I had to start early so that I could do a little at a time. I knew I wanted to incorporate the YGG characters rather than feature them so I gathered ideas from all sorts of places and then set out to work. Here is the invite I decided to go with:

The designer is Stacia from http://www.serendiptydesignco.com/. She also has an etsy store. These were custom designed, but honestly the process wasn't as smooth as I would have liked. Overall, though, I was pleased with the final product.

The party was supposed to be a backyard bar-b-que bash...HA! This is Connecticut and maybe by now I should have known that just because it's June doesn't mean that we'll have good weather. Last year it rained on our parade and we had to make a mad dash to get things set up in our house. This threw me for a loop and I wasn't able to do all that I wanted to do. This year, though, was different. Early last week the weatherman announced that the weather was going to be "perfect" on Saturday, but by mid-week rain was in the forecast. I learned my lesson from last year so I had a plan B. I even sketched out a floor plan. This mama was ready! So when we woke up to the gloomiest, coldest day we'd had in weeks on Saturday morning we switched gears and our backyard bar-b-que bash was moved indoors. I was bummed about it for 10 seconds, got over it, and then got to work. Let me tell you, best.decision.ever! Everything turned out so well!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Monday, June 13, 2011

Ryan and Evan's 2nd Birthday Party was AWESOME!

All I can say is wow! I don't even know where to begin to post about the boys' birthday party. I have over one hundred pictures to sort through and that's going to take a little time, but I will post the pictures and tell you about the wonderful day the Peas had. For now, here are pictures of the birthday boys. They had a ball!