Sunday, October 9, 2011

Happy 2nd Birthday Ella! Pink and Orange Balloon Themed Party...

Ella's 2nd birthday party was yesterday (on her actual birthday), and I think it was a huge success!  I didn't scale back much this year, but we did do it at our house, which made it much easier.  I remembered to get some photos before the party started, but once guests arrived, I hardly got any photos of Ella or anyone else!

The invitation.
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The front yard and some closeups (can you tell I became obsessed with balloon flowers? It was windy so they kept turning around- I will do centers on the back next time!)...
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My mom made this balloon wreath for the front door- isn't it cute?!  You can find directions here.
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The backyard.  I lined all the flowerbeds with balloon flowers (good thing since almost everything else in them is dead!) and hung balloons from the trees...
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We have a big fountain in our backyard that is clearly not appropriate for babies so instead of water, we filled it with balloons for "Balloon Ping Pong"!
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The paddles...
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The sweets and snack table (the main course- make your own chicken tacos- were inside).
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On the right are the white chocolate covered oreo pops that I monogrammed. They were a huge hit so I'll definitely have to make them again!
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I made these cupcake toppers using pink/white baker's twine as the balloon strings...
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I made these balloon cookies- some on sticks, others not.
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Yes, I even color-coordinated the veggie tray (my mom asked if she could add some celery, and I said, "celery is GREEN mom!")
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I had 18 of the huge 36" balloons, but they take up SO much helium and are SO difficult to blow up/tie that we only blew up 6 of them with helium- 3 for the sweets table and 3 for the bbq area...
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We hung a bunch of different size paper lanterns from the patio cover...
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Inside. Ella's birthday banner I made- I love how it turned out- that is pink/white baker's twine that I used to string it together and as the balloon strings.  The silhouette in the center is the same one I used on the invitations.
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Her ONE year birthday photos had to be decorated!
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We filled the entire ceiling of the family room with balloons (Gary and I both had blisters on our fingers from tying balloons- remember I bought 518?!).
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Some of the few Ella shots...
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With grandma, grandpa and grammy...
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Think she liked her cupcake?
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I LOVE this photo of Ella and her Godsister, Sydney, because she is so happy to be "holding" her- it's the first time EVER that she's done that fake smile...she usually turns her head and yells NO! whenever I get near her with a camera. :)
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The favors. I spray painted the boxes, used scrapbook paper for the orange polka dot, grosgrain ribbon, and adorable stickers from this Etsy seller.
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Ella's dress that I made (and the fabric that inspired the entire color scheme!). It was supposed to have tulle around the waist, tied in a big bow in the back, but I was running so late getting everything set up that I didn't have time to put it on her before the party started!
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I have to give credit to this beautiful party, which gave me so much inspiration!!

2 comments:

  1. The party looks great! Ella's dress is so cute.

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  2. W.O.W.!!! You're amazing. Everything looks perfect - I bet Ella had a blast. Which photographer did you end up using or maybe you didn't, but I was wondering about the post you put on ocmommies.com looking for a photographer and you got a lot of replies :) Thanks.

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