It’s still a couple of weeks away, but we decided to take advantage of the fact that her almost twin, cousin M, was going to be in town and throw them a double first birthday party.  Apart from the continuing shock that C will be a year old at the end of the month, I am elated (and exhausted) by how well everything turned out.

We were lucky enough to celebrate their older siblings first birthday together a couple of years back and it seemed appropriate to do the same for them.  This time around though we were on a tight budget.  Along with most families around the country, we are dealing with the recession and planned accordingly to fit our new constraints.

I hope you will agree that what we put together is just as nice and possibly even more touching than any store bought bulk party kit or an expensive party location.  We decided early that we didn’t want to go too girly on the “theme”.  We have a ton of boy guests and we figured the girly parties will be inevitable later down the road anyway.  So we came up with a “Fall Festival” idea. 

We first found these adorable invites at Green Apple Paperie’s shop on Etsy and it helped give our theme some direction.  We absolutely loved the owls and were able to custom design the colors.  The finished product looked like we had spent hundreds of dollars on invitations and in reality we only spent a little over a dollar a card!

So going with the fall theme, we decided to make as many things at home as possible.  For food, we decided on a candy station that looked more professional by sorting the candy into different containers (glasses and jars we had at home). 

We made caramel apples that didn’t look perfect but tasted divine. These were so simple.  We got granny smith apples and made “mini” apples with a melon baller.  We popped in a stick we bought at a crafts store and then dipped them in melted caramel squares.  The mini cupcake wrappers were essential so the apples don’t stick together. 

Other sweet treats included premade smore cookies.  We bought a large container of these beautifully crispy Italian cookies at Costco and then smeared half with Nutella chocolate spread and Marshmallow Fluff and the other half had caramel and bananas. Delicious! And For healthier sweet snacks, we had some raisins, grapes, and applesauce.

Salty snacks included pretzels, microwave popcorn, and homemade sandwiches.  We made peanut butter and grape jelly, cream cheese and strawberry jelly, and ham and cheese.  So everyone knew what they were choosing, we made each type into a different form using cookie cutters.  The apple and heart shapes were a HUGE hit.  For the bigger appetites, we threw in some easy hotdogs and yummy macaroni and cheese.

And lastly, the perfect cake was a pull-apart cake we had made at our local supermarket, Publix.  We took a picture in of an easy to mimic owl, and they did a fantastic job.  Not only was the design just as cute as any high-end bakery, the cupcakes were so easy to give out and the kids loved them!

What we did learn is variety made the spread look expensive, helped satisfy each guests cravings and tastes and it also made leftovers more appealing.  There is nothing worse than having 5 pizza boxes left over and then you get sick of eating pizza after the second day and end up throwing it away.  We tried to put out small portions of each item and then are happy to have any leftovers to take us through the week.

The food alone was a huge decorative aspect of the party and took care of setting the theme at our house.  We also cleverly used our daughter’s toy wicker baskets and filled them with towels, a thin layer of “hay” and then placed apples and pears on top.  They made spectacular centerpieces and the fruit was a useful decoration that is making a great afternoon treat days later.

Continuing the home made décor ideas, we put together some flag bunting/garland that set the festive mood.  We bought  scrap booking paper and folded it in half and punched holes and weaved a pretty ribbon through them to create a fantastic effect in different areas of the house.  We now have them stored so we can reuse them at a future event.

Another nice touch was the tissue flowers that I had bought at a crafts store months before.  I finally had some time to pull them apart carefully and build them weeks before the party.  They looked amazing hanging from our patio tree and truly made the party seem glamorous.  I’m hoping to hang them in A’s room this week and make her feel like she’s living in her own special garden.

Oh and instead of the typical balloons that always seem to pop on me, we printed an inexpensive banner at home using plain paper that we hung on our front porch.  Using a rounded corner puncher made all the difference and I can’t tell you how many comments we got on it!  I got the images by googling “free stock image owl and apple” and was thrilled with the final result.

For activities, we were lucky enough to have ponies although the grandparent’s splurge was fantastic but most kids were either scared or were happier playing with the tricycles, wagons and cardboard houses in the yard.  We had also set up a “spooning” for apples (instead of bobbing) but the kids were really too young for that too.

The owl piñata was a huge hit.  Candy falling from the sky does not seem to get old which should come as a surprise to any of us.  We bought it on Etsy as well (Birchangel’s shop).  I have never seen such a well-crafted piñata and again we were able to custom order it with our colors.  We also used brown paper bags to continue the theme and it was so cute to see the kids wading through the stickers and toys looking for taffy and chocolate!

The kids were most enthralled at the arts and crafts area.  We created a simple craft table with washable paints, print foam letters, stickers, and stencils.  We preprinted cardstock paper with the kids’ names and the event and then hung them along the window with clothes pins.  Each child would come and pick his special materials and then hang it to dry and take it home at the end of the day.  (Make sure to have plenty of wipes handy for those spills.)

Along with their artwork, we found plastic apples that we filled with candy, stickers, mini cookie cutters and the most popular mini flashlight – perfect for trick or treating on Halloween!  We were hoping to hang them from a tree but due to inclement weather which thankfully didn’t come until after the party was over, we decided to hang them along our blinds and they looked great as you came in the house.

All in all, this thriftier piñata may have taken a bit more time to prepare than others but it was well worth it!  I’m glad we decided to make sure our little girls had a special day that they can look back on and that we had a day that celebrated how far we had come.  Wow all this reminiscing is making me crave some left over mac and cheese.