The $50 Birthday Party - and it was fabulous!

In the midst of planning Fletcher's birthday party, I also had to get ready for Piper's party the following week.

Fletch turned 3 the week Piper was born. I asked the doctor if there was anyway Piper could come a few weeks earlier or later - since it would be more convenient for our family and he said they have a word for that. It is called "malpractice".

So - the first part of January, we are up to our elbows with party planning. We have tried it a variety of ways, one year we even threw the parties back to back on the same day. In case you were wondering - this was NOT a good idea. It was also the year Fletch picked a space theme and I decided that we should cover one whole room in black garbage bags to create a space room complete with

glow in the dark planets and space ships and we also built our own baking soda rockets (they fly about 10 feet in the air). I seem to take the "At Home Party" a little seriously.

This year I was feeling overwhelmed since Fletcher's party grew so quickly (both in number of kids and cost). Piper wanted an American Girl party to celebrate her new doll, Julie.

As I started to plan, I mentioned to a friend - I think I could possibly do this party for under $50. She didn't out right laugh at me, but she did smile and pat me on the shoulder and say, "I always think that, too. And then when I check out I can't figure out how the bill is for $100.

Well, that got me determined... you just don't tell me I can't do something! I was determined I was going to pull off an AMAZING party for $50. And here it is...

Decorations: I have always wanted to make these darling Pom-Poms that hang from the ceiling. Loved them!!! And all girly colors - pink, hot pink and red. They are so cute - I STILL haven't taken them down!

Table: Being a southern girl, whose mom worried a

bout the table setting weeks before a party... this is important. We made these darling flowers from an American Girl Flower kit.

And then, because American Girls are crafty and recycle - we used tin cans to create vases. The girls at the party would also make their own flowers as a craft and would use the vases from the center piece to take their flowers home. I placed the flowers on top of a mirror to add a little more sparkle (five year olds can never have enough sparkle) and used a pink table cloth.

Food: I walked into Michael's and saw the cutest Mary Engelbreit cupcake holder boxes on clearance. That got me thinking... I had a friend that did a cupcake party and it went well - why

don't we make cupcakes and each girl could bring home 4 cupcakes as her goody bag. I made the take home cupcakes before the party (partially because I knew it only takes one good sneeze from a preschool girl to ruin a whole batch of cupcakes - and it was more fun to decorate them without the help of lots of little hands).

We all made one batch together at the party - taking turns adding ingredients and stirring (lots of volunteers to crack eggs!). We put the

batter in zip lock bags and cut off a corner for the girls to squeeze the batter into their personalized cupcake liner (so there are no mix ups - it is flu season, you know!). Very fun and believe it or not - not very messy! Afterwards they decorated their cupcakes to look like cats with Oreo faces, M&M eye and whiskers. Also on hand we had carrot sticks, pretzels and strawberries to try and reduce the sugar buzz.

Last but not least, I made some darling sugar cookies. I think I had enjoyed making the Lego cookies so much - I wanted to do it again.

Over the past 2 weeks I have used over 5 POUNDS of powdered sugar!!! Piper picked all of her favorite princess cookie cutters - and a heart and stocking (??whatever???). We made some big cookies for the girls and tiny ones for the dolls and stuffed animals that would be attending.

Happy birthday little 5 year old!