DIY Personalized Picture Frames for a First Birthday

Good morning!  It's the last day of April, which means it's also the last post relating to my little guys' first birthday.  I've spent the entire month sharing all sorts of things that I created to help celebrate their big day.  Today, I want to share the personalized picture frames I made for their first birthday.

If you're like me, you've seen those custom chalkboards that have been personalized to describe all of the "firsts and favorites" that occur in your child's first year.  I've seen them all over Pinterest and discovered they can be custom ordered from some Etsy shops for a pretty penny.  I would make my own before I'd pay $50+ for one.  The other issue I had with the chalkboards is that they are rather large in size.  If I'm going to make one, I want to display it for more than just a birthday party, and I didn't really have a place in the house to permanently display something that large.

While I'm not too fond of the price tag, I really do love the idea of the personalized chalk boards.  I love that they visualize special moments of the first year, along with other things that capture the individual personality of the child.  I particularly loved this idea, because my little guys are twins.  My little guys may be twins, but they each have their own individual personalities that are completely different from one another!  Since I loved the idea so much, I decided that I would do my own version of the personalized chalkboards.  Rather than a big board, I was going to turn small picture frames into chalkboards instead!

To do this, I bought two wood picture frames from Hobby Lobby, found in the wood craft section for $4.99 a piece.  I had chalkboard paint leftover from a previous project, which is what I chose to paint the frames with.  Once the frames dried, I used a white paint marker with a fine tip to write a description of each boy on the picture frames.  Lastly, I put a picture of each boy in their frame and displayed it at their party.  After the party, I displayed the frames in their bedroom.  

The only issue I ran into with this project was that at times my paint marker had an issue with the flow of the paint.  It could be because I used a marker I already had, and the marker had not been used in a few months.  I'm not sure exactly what happened with the marker, but it did make the finished results look a little sloppy on my frames.

The frames may have not have turned out exactly like I wanted them to, but they were still good enough to display.  I chose to put the following things on each boys' picture frame:

• Name
• I AM ONE
• I Love My ____.
• I am __(personality description)__.
• I love to _____.
• I can __(walk, dance, give high fives, say Mama, etc.)_.
• Favorite Food
• Favorite Toy
• Weight
• Length

And that's it!  I hope you enjoyed this project and all of the other ones I shared this month, as I celebrated the fact that I have two healthy one year olds to keep me busy each day!

DIY Little Boy Highchair Banner for First Birthday

If you're like me, you've seen all of those cute highchair banners on Pinterest and Etsy that are used for first birthday celebrations.  I really wanted one....or in my case two....for my twin boys' first birthday, but I didn't want to pay $20-$30 for each banner.  Even if I could afford to buy custom highchair banners, I can't seem to justify spending $40+ for two banners on something that is only going to get used for one day.  

I know I have been sharing Dr. Seuss projects lately, because we did a Dr. Seuss party for the boys.  However, I chose not to make Dr. Seuss highchair banners, because I was nearly over budget for my party and didn't want to buy any supplies for the banner.  I decided I would make my highchair banners using scraps of fabric from leftover projects.  So basically, this project didn't cost  me anything.

To make my banner I used the rest of my leftover fabric from the "TWINS" banner I made for the boys' nursery. I had three different colors of flannel fabric leftover from that project.  I tore my fabric into one inch strips and tied the strips to craft twine. I tied seven strips to each side of my highchair banners, leaving an inch in between strips. To make the banner look more full, simply tie more fabric. 

Once I tied my fabric to the twine, I cut three flags out using the leftover burlap from the table runners I made for the party seen in the above picture.   I cut out the letters "O-N-E" from leftover scrapbook paper and hot glued the letters to the flags.  Lastly, I hot glued the flags to the twine, and wa-lah ~ I had one high chair banner finished and one more to make.

I used clear scotch tape to attach my banners to the front of the high chairs as decorations for the party.  The banners stayed on the high chairs really well until Ethan tore his off during the cake smash. So for part of our cake smash pictures, Ethan's banner is hanging from the high chair, but oh well.  It's not like high chair banners will make or break a first birthday party.  I just think they are a fun decoration, and they really didn't take too much effort to put together:)

DIY Little Boy First Birthday T-Shirts

I have a quick post to share this morning.  A few weeks ago, I posted about these onesies I made my little guys to wear for their one year old pictures.  I loved the onesies with the bow tie and suspenders, but I wanted my boys to be really comfortable at their first birthday party.  I knew they'd be running around and playing hard, but I still wanted them to wear something that let everyone know they were the birthday boys.  

I decided I was just going to have them wear a t-shirt and jeans for the party.  On average, I was finding birthday shirts for $10-$15 in stores.   I ended up making my own for a little bit less money.  

I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up two 12 mo white t-shirts and two "I am 1" iron-on-transfers.  The t-shirts are $4.99 and the transfers were $1.99.  I used coupons for the t-shirts, so I didn't have to pay $5 per shirt.  There is a 40% off coupon in Hobby Lobby's weekly ad.  You can also find the coupon in the Hobby Lobby app.   I use t the coupon from of the app every time I buy something from Hobby Lobby.

The store had a few options of first birthday iron-on-transfers in the stores.  This particular transfer is also sold online.  I know I've seen it sold on Amazon's website for the same price as Hobby Lobby.

Instructions for any iron-on-transfer is pretty easy.  As long as you know how to use an iron, you'll be fine.  Just follow the directions on the packaging of the transfer.  And that's it!  Easy-peasy!

DIY Thing One and Thing Two Birthday Party Hats

After my blog series on our twin boys' Dr. Seuss first birthday party, it's no secret that I really enjoy a little Dr. Seuss fun!  When we found out we were having twins, I knew I was going to dress the boys up as Thing One and Thing Two for their first Halloween.  In a previous post,  I shared the DIY Thing One and Thing Two Halloween costumes I put together for the boys' first Halloween.  The whole "twin" thing made it really easy for me to pick the Dr. SeussThing One and Thing Two theme for the boy' first birthday party.  This morning I want to share the DIY Thing One and Thing Two birthday party hats I made for the party.

You can't have a party without party hats for the birthday boys, right?  I had a hard time finding Thing One and Thing Two hats, so I made my own inexpensive hats.  Truthfully, on the day of the party, I couldn't even get the boys to keep the hats on their head.  The hats ended up being more of a decoration on the cake table, but that's ok.  They didn't cost me much to make, and they looked really cute, even if they weren't on my little guys' heads.

Party hats are really easy to make and can be made to customize the theme of any party. Here's how I made mine.

1. I purchased scrapbook paper that matched my colors for the party.  I made sure the paper was card stock, because the thicker paper was better for this project.  
2. I cut the 12x12 paper to the size of computer paper, and printed a party hat pattern that I found online onto the card stock. You could also print the pattern onto regular paper, and then trace the pattern onto the paper being used for the hat.  The party hat pattern I used can be found here.
3. I then cut out my hat and taped it together.
4. For embellishments, I bought a bag of small blue poms poms from the craft store and hot glued the pom poms to the bottom and top of the hats.  Any kind of embellishments will do. Tassels, fringe and sparkles, just to name a few.  
5. For the Thing One and Thing Two logos, I Googled the image, copy and pasted the image to Microsoft Word, adjusted the size, printed the logos, cut out the logos and pasted the logos to the hats.
6. Lastly, I used ribbon (attached to the hats with Velcro) as the hat strap, making sure to measure each boy for the hat first.  

Dr. Seuss First Birthday Party for Twins - Part 10 (overview)

This is my final post in this series about our twin boys' first birthday party.  I've enjoyed sharing all sorts of Dr. Seuss fun on the blog this week. I hope you got a few ideas from my experience.  I am by no means a professional party planner, and I am certainly not loaded with cash to pay for a party that looked like it was planned by a professional.  I'm just a mom. A mom who wanted throw her kids a birthday party. Not just any birthday party.  A first birthday party.  

The first birthday is special.  In a lot ways, the first birthday party is more for the parents than it is the kids.  My boys won't even remember their first birthday, yet it is one of the most celebrated birthdays they will ever have.  There are so many milestone in the first year of life!  Babies grow so much that first year!  They come into the world tiny and fragile.  After just twelve short months, they are somehow walking and talking and have quadrupled their birth weight.  The most amazing thing about my boys turning one is that their Dad and I survived their first year! We survived our first year as parents, and parents of twins at that!  If that's not reason to throw a big party, I don't know what is! 

Click the links below to visit other posts in this series.

• Part 1 (Planning andPreparing)
• Part 2 (Decorations)
• Part 3 (Look How We've Grown Display)
• Part 4 (Welcome Table)
• Part 5 (Food/Snack Table)
• Part 6 (Dessert/Cake Table)
• Part 7 (Party Favors)
• Part 8 (Drink Table)
• Part 9 (Photo Booth)

Dr. Seuss First Birthday Party for Twins - Part 9 (Photo Booth)

Fun photo booths are all the rage right now at parties.  They usually aren't even booths, but rather a designated area for silly pictures with fun props.  I've seen these fun photo booths at all different kinds of events.  Everything from wedding receptions....to graduation open houses.....to baby showers and birthday parties ~ photo booths are all the rage.

I knew I wanted to have a photo booth for my twin boys' Dr. Seuss first birthday party.  I found Dr. Seuss photo props at several different Etsy shops, but chose not to buy them.  I also considered making my own by using free clip art and printing them onto card stock, cutting out the props and taping the props to craft sticks.  

I was going to go the DIY route, until I found a pack of photo props at Hobby Lobby for $5.  No, they weren't Dr. Seuss, but they were still fun.  The pack was full of all sorts of card stock props on craft sticks and had everything from bow ties to hats. 

In addition to my package of photo props, I added a boa and a Dr. Seuss hat to the basket of props.  The boa was purchased from the craft store and the hat was borrowed from a friend.

I had my photo booth area on an empty wall by our bedroom, where I knew there wouldn't be too much foot traffic. I also happened to find a Dr. Seuss dry erase board from Target's Dollar Deals and hung it on the wall of my photo booth.  I placed all of the photo props in a plastic basket from the boys bathroom (purchased from the Dr. Tree) and set the basket on top of a stool placed in a corner.

We made sure to get pictures of all of the guests dressed up with the photo booth fun. That's really what the photo booth is about.  It's just about making memories with silly pictures.  

I'm not sure how all of the guests would feel about me putting pictures up of them on my blog, so I'll just share our family picture from the party.  Mommy chose the boa, Daddy chose the hat, Ethan had a mustache (that he was more interested in eating than keeping by his mouth for a picture, Ha!) and Aaron had a bow tie (that he thought he'd tear apart before we could snap a picture of us, Ha).  

Dr. Seuss First Birthday Party for Twins - Part 8 (Drink Table)

I am almost to the end of my blog series on the Dr. Seuss first birthday party we had for our twin boys.  Yesterday I shared with you the food/snack table and the dessert table. This afternoon, I want to share with you how we did the the drink table for the party.  

Because this party was an in-home party upstairs in our loft area, I had to be resourceful and use whatever I could find for tables.  Our drink table was actually just two wooden filing cabinets that are usually behind the couch in the our loft.  I pushed the filing cabinets against a wall, placed a plastic table cloth over them that I got from Walmart in the party section for $1, and wa-lah...all of a sudden I had a place to put drinks.  

Ok, so lets talk drinks.  I saw all sorts of cute Dr. Seuss drink options on Pinterest with fun Dr. Seuss names.  The problem was that I didn't want to use any open cups for the party.  Normally, I don't care if people have open cups in my house (as long as they use coasters, Ha!).  This particular party was being held in an area of our home where people were eating and drinking in chairs without tables, and therefore were more than likely going to be setting their drinks on the floor.  Are you following me here?   My mommy brain was seeing thirty open cups on the floor and several little kids, five years old and under, running around the open cups, potentially knocking over and spilling the liquids in the open cups.  Yeah, my mommy brain was saying, "no open cups for the party."  That's why I chose water bottles as the main drink, which most adults would want.  Low sugar juice boxes were also offered, which most moms would want for their little kids.  The squeeze-its were also offered. Honestly, I bought them because they looked fun on my table, but also because bigger kids would like those over the less flavorful juice boxes.

I also chose to place the plates, napkins and utensils on the drink table, only because I did not have room on any of the other tables.  I think I bought the blue dessert plates, forks and spoons from the Dollar Tree.  The napkins were from Walmart.  The large polka dot plates were from Hobby Lobby, purchased using the weekly 40% off coupon.  The forks and spoons were placed in a wire basket from my pantry.  The party favors that I shared with you this morning in this blog post, were also displayed on the table.

For decorations, I hung Dr. Seuss quotes on the wall, along with a couple of tissue paper flowers.  I also used a crate to display the water bottles in.  I bought the crate as a photo prop for the boys' one year old pictures and decided I could use it on the drink table to get a little more use out of it. On top of a the crate, I put a Dr. Seuss stuffed animal and book that the boys had given to them by a friend.  I made the fun Dr. Seuss water bottle labels myself.  I loved the idea of the labels. I only made them, because it was cheaper than buying them from Etsy shops.  Below, you will find how I made some of the decorations, as well as my list of things to buy for the drink table.

Things to Make:

Water Bottle Labels
Supplies: computer, printer and paper
Directions:  I Googled "red and white striped paper", found a pattern I liked, copied and pasted the image inside of a text box in Microsoft Word.  I adjusted the size to be what I needed for the water bottle labels.  Using shapes in Microsoft Word, I placed a circle in the middle of my red and white water bottle label. I then Googled "free Thing One and Thing Two Dr. Seuss clip art" and found an image I liked.  I copied the image and placed it in another text box that I formatted with out lines. I placed that text box with the Thing One and Thing Two image in the middle of my circle.  Lastly, using Cosmic Sans font, I wrote Happy Birthday above Thing One and Thing Two image, and I wrote the birthday boys' names below Thing One and Thing Two image.  Once I had completed one water bottle label.  I copied and pasted the entire label enough times to fill one page.  I then printed as many pages as I needed for my water bottles.  
JUST SO YOU KNOW: Because, I was using my own color ink, and ink is expensive, I did not make enough labels for all 48 bottles of water.  I made just enough for the water bottles that were displayed on the table (I think about 20).  The extra water bottles were on the floor in the corner next to the table.  I brought the extra water bottles out when we ran out of the ones on the table, but they did not have the Dr. Seuss labels on them.
Tissue Paper Flowers to hang on the wall
Supplies: green and blue tissue paper, floral wire
Directions:  Take a stack of tissue paper that has been layered by every other color and fold long ways back and forth like you would a paper fan, then fold in half and secure with floral wire, cut off the ends in a semi-circle, then pull apart and fan out the paper to look like a flower. See here for visual directions.

Dr. Seuss Quotes for the Wall
Supplies:  construction paper, glue stick, computer, printer, paper
Directions:  I found this free download for the Dr. Seuss Quotes.  After I downloaded them to my computer, I printed them on computer paper and glued them to construction paper.

Things to buy:
Water Bottles (two 24 packs)
Juice Boxes (two 8 packs)
Squeeze Its (one red pack, one blue pack)
Dinner Plates
Dessert Plates
Forks and Spoons
Napkins
Red Table Cloth
Green and Blue Tissue Paper
clear party favor bags (pack of 50)
Sugar Cookie Dough (two packages)
red cookie glaze (one pouch)
white cookie glaze (one pouch)
black edible writing gel

Dr. Seuss First Birthday Party for Twins - Part 7 (Party Favors)

Good morning blog readers!  I hope you are having a lovely Sunday.  I'm actually home from church this morning with a sick kiddo.  Daddy took Brother to church, so it is just me and baby number one lounging around in our pajamas and watching cartoons on the couch this morning.  I'm currently enjoying my second cup of coffee and a little blog time, while my little man takes his morning nap.

If you've read my blog this week, you know I've been sharing all sorts of Dr. Seuss fun, regarding our boys' recent birthday celebration.This morning I wanted to share the party favors I used for the boys' first birthday party.  Since this was a family party full of kids and adults, I chose to make Dr. Seuss themed cookies as a little take-away for the party guests.  I saw all sorts of Dr. Seuss cookies online that could be order from bakeries, but they were way too expensive for me.  Some were upwards of $30 a dozen.  I needed over thirty cookies, so that was just not gonna happen!  After buying my dough and my icing, I think I maybe spent $12 on my cookies.  

I could have made them for less if I made everything from scratch.  To simplify my life, I made the cookies the day before the party with store-bought Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix.  I didn't have a round cookie cuter, so I used the top of a cup to cut my cookie dough.  Once the cookies cooled, I used store-bought cookie glaze to make my red and white stripes.  I only needed one pouch of each color for all of  my cookies.  I used black writing gel to make the number one.  What I did not realize, is that unlike the cookie glaze, the writing gel did not dry or harden very well.  Once the cookies were placed in bags, the gel stuck to my bags a little.  If I were to make them again, I would have just used black glaze and cut a very fine tip to make it easier for writing.  Both the gel and the glaze can be found in the in the cake and candy section at Walmart or in craft stores that have cake decorating supplies.

Once the icing on the cookies were dry, I bagged the cookies in individual clear plastic party favor bags I purchased from Hobby Lobby.  I think I paid $2 for 50 bags.  I tied the bags with twine and then around the twine I also tied my party favor tags.

I made the tags myself.  In Microsoft Word, I made a circle using shapes and adjusted it to the size I wanted for my tags.  I then added a text box, formatted it to have no lines and placed it over my circle.  Inside my text box I added the clip art.  I found the Thing One and Thing Two image online when I Googled free Dr. Seuss clip art.  I copied and pasted the image inside my text box.  In the text box I wrote, " Today was good, Today was fun.  Thank you, thank you, everyone!" above the image, and I wrote the birthday boys' names below the image using cosmic sans font.  I copied and pasted the finished circles/party tags until I filled a page, and then I printed several pages.  I then cut out my circles and glued them to red construction paper.  Then I cut the out the circles again using scalloped scissors. Lastly, I whole punched each tag, before tying my finished tags to the bags.  I thought these party favor tags were adorable, and they didn't really cost me anything to make!

I placed my bagged cookies inside a tray I already had, along with a message I made to go with the cookies.  The sign was just an image I found when I Googled free Dr. Seuss clip art.  I copied and pasted it to Microsoft Word and adjusted the size.  Then I made a text box with no lines.  Inside the text box, I wrote my message in Cosmic Sans font.  I placed the text box over the sign and printed the finished sign onto card stock.  I then taped the sign onto one of those red and white paper straws that I used in many of my Dr. Seuss projects.  As I mentioned in a previous post.  The package of red and white straws were found at Walmart in the cake and candy decorating sections.

I chose to set the cookies on the drink table where I knew all of my guests would see them.

Before I end this post about my party favors, I wanted to share that Target had a ton of great Dr. Seuss stuff that would have made great kid party favors in their Dollar Deals section around the time of Dr. Seuss' birthday.  Dr. Seuss' birthday happened to be around the same time I was planning this party.  I bought two of the tote bags and filled them with Dr. Seuss coloring sheets for kids to color during the party. I printed the color pages on my computer. I just Googled free Dr. Seuss printable coloring sheets and a variety of coloring sheets showed up. 

Inside the bags I also had some Dr. Seuss book marks and Dr. Seuss erasers for the kids to take home.  A pack was only a $1, so I bought two packs of erasers and two packs of bookmarks.

The Dr. Seuss tins were also Target Dollar Deal finds, for $3 each.  I filled them with crayons for the kids to use.  After the party, my birthday boys got to keep the tote bags and the tins.

Also, just a side note - Pin the Cat on the Hat would have been my party game of choice if I had enough kids that were big enough to play party games.  Most of the kids were too small to understand how to play a game, so I didn't bother with party games.

The coloring worked out great, and the bags and tins went great with the party.

As you can see, even some of the big kids enjoyed the coloring;)

Dr. Seuss First Birthday Party for Twins - Party 6 (Dessert/Cake Table)

This morning I posted this post about the food and snacks we had for our twin boys' Dr. Seuss first birthday party.  This afternoon I want to write a post about the sweet treats we had at the party.  

I wanted the dessert table to be fun, but I also needed the desserts to be easy. And by easy, I mean all of the cakes and cupcakes were boxed cakes.  They are not from scratch.  The only thing from scratch was my cream cheese frosting on the red velvet cupcakes, because I don't think that the store bought stuff can compare.  Not making everything from scratch kept things easy, and not buying everything from a bakery kept things cheap.  Of course, I would have loved a beautiful three tiered cake with fondant and some coordinating cupcakes, but that was not in the budget....unless I could magically become a cake decorator...which I can not.  For this reason, I decided on the following:

• The chocolate sheet cake had butter cream icing and was the main birthday cake.  To make it look a little fancy, I ordered a custom dehydrated icing sheet from this Etsy shop.  It was only $7.75 and was very easy to place on the top of my iced sheet cake. I was very pleased with this purchase.
• The cupcakes were red velvet with cream cheese frosting and topped with cotton candy that looked like Thing One and Thing Two hair.  I found the cotton candy at Walmart for $2. I bought a card board cupcake stand at Walmart and taped red polka dot ribbon around it.
• The smash cakes were vanilla confetti cake with cool whip frosting.  This was my Mama brain thinking, "white cake equals less mess and cool whip equals less sugar."  
• The oreos were dipped in microwavable white chocolate (found in cake and candy decorating) and topped with sprinkles.
• The marshmallows were placed on lollipop sticks and dipped in microwaveable milk chocolate (found next to chocolate chips in the baking section of the grocery), and then dipped in red sparkle sprinkles.
• The pretzels had white chocolate melts (found in cake and candy decorating) placed on them, then were put in the oven at 250 degrees for 3-5 minutes (just until the chocolate melts), and a green sixlet (found in cake and candy decorating) was placed on top of the melted chocolate.
• The Jello was two boxes of blue raspberry jello.  Once it started to set up, I stuck Swedish fish (found at the Dollar Tree) in the jello.

I made all of the treats the day before the party, since I knew I would not have time the day of the party.  Below you will find my dessert menu, my grocery list and a few tips about what I learned from this experience.  I am not a baker.  I repeat...I AM NOT A BAKER.  I am just a mom, trying to throw a first birthday party for the first time.  Here is what I learned about making the desserts in advance:

1. All of the chocolate dipped desserts did fine once cooled and stored in zip lock bags over night.
2. The Swedish fish in the jello got soggy over night.  It would have been best to just top the jello with the fish, since I didn't have time to make the jello the day of the party.
3. The cool whip that I iced the smash cakes with started to sweat in the fridge, and as a result the cakes looked like they were starting to melt when I served them.
4. I need a cake cover.  I had to use a foil tent over the sheet cake.  As a result the cake got smashed in some places and the red border started to slide off, making it look a little blemished before serving.
5. DO NOT PUT THE COTTON CANDY ON TOP OF THE CUPCAKES UNTIL RIGHT BEFORE THE PARTY STARTS!  I put the cotton candy on an hour before the party, and by the time my guests arrived the cotton candy had melted!  Luckily, I got a picture before it completely melted.

The dessert table was an old kitchen table that we store in the basement and bring up for moments like this.  I made most of the decorations.  Below you will find what I made and how I made them.

Menu:

Happy Birthday Cake
(Chocolate Cake with Butter Creme Icing)
Thing One and Thing Two Cupcakes

(Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cotton Candy Toppers)
Individual Smash Cakes
(Confetti Cake with Cool Whip Icing)

Cat in the Hat Pops
(Chocolate Dipped Marshmallow Pops with Sprinkles)

Lorax Vines

(Red Vines)
Dr. Seuss Cookies
(White Chocolate Dipped Oreos with Sprinkles)

Green Eggs and Ham Treats

(Pretzels with a Melted White Chocolate Candy topped with a Green Sixlet)
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
(Blue Raspberry Jello with Swedish Fish)
Bowl of Mints
(Wrapped Peppermints)

Decorations to Make:

Truffula Trees for the Table
Supplies: green and blue tissue paper, red and white paper straws, two red tins, floral wire, floral molds, blue and green paper grass
Directions:  take a stack of tissue paper that has been layered by every other color and fold long ways back and forth like you would a paper fan, then fold in half and secure with floral wire, cut off the ends at an angle so it looks like a triangle, then pull apart and fan out the paper to look like a flower, tape the flower to one end of  two paper straws that have been taped together, secure the other end of the paper straw in a flower mold that has been placed inside the red tin, fill the rest of the tin with the paper grass. 
See here for visual directions.
Table Runner
Supplies: 1 yd patterned fabric, 1 ft burlap, Heat N Bond, hot glue gun
Directions: hem patterned fabric with Heat N Bond, hot glue burlap to the ends of the two hemmed pieces of fabric)
JUST SO YOU KNOW:  I am not a seamstress.  This was my no-sew version of a banner.  Sewing would be just as easy for someone who has a sewing machine and is good with a needle and thread. 
Food Tents/Labels
Supplies: 2 pieces of 12x12 scrapbook paper, paper cutter, printer, scissors, glue stick 
Directions: using paper cutter, cut scrap book paper into 4x4 pieces, fold pieces in half to make tents; make labels on Microsoft Word using shapes, fill shape color black, use center type in white font, print, cut and glued to paper tents 

We Are One Banner
Supplies: printer, color ink, card stock, construction paper, scissors, scalloped scissors, tape, string
Directions: use some of the banner pieces from the Happy Birthday banner that was ordered from from this Etsy shop, print, cut and a tape triangles to string; then make We Are One in Microsoft word by putting larger letters in a circle, print, cut, glue to construction paper, cut, whole punch and string them to the banner)

Pictures for the Wall
Print a 5x7 of the twins' newborn picture and a 5x7 of their one year picture and tape to scrapbook paper.  Print a 8x10 of their 7 month Halloween picture and frame it using a spare frame from around the house.
Dr. Seuss Quotes for the Wall
Using free clip art, find Dr. Suess quotes and print them for decorations and glue to construction paper

Grocery Store Shopping List:
pretzels
marshmallows
melting milk chocolate
melting white chocolate
white chocolate candies
green sixlets
two packs of blue raspberry jello
red velvet cake mix
chocolate cake mix
confetti cake mix
2 butter creme frosting
2 creme cheese
powdered sugar
butter
cool whip
sprinkles
lollipop sticks
red and white paper sticks
two small plastic cake platters 
Cup cake stand
ribbon for the cupcake stand

Dollar Store Shopping List:
two small green and blue platters 
plastic cake cutters
blue and green tissue paper
two red metal stands
blue and green paper grass for the stands
red vines
Swedish fish
Peppermints

Dr. Seuss First Birthday Party for Twins - Part 5 (Food/Snack Table)

In continuation of the blog series I have been working on, I want to share more Dr. Seuss fun with you this morning.  Today I want to talk food!  You can't have a party without food, right?  

I chose to keep the food simple for our twin boys' Dr. Seuss first birthday party.  I needed to be able to do most of the food preparation in advance.  The party was on a Sunday afternoon, and we had church Sunday morning.  The meatballs (frozen meatballs and a good brand of BBQ sauce) were able to simmer in a crock pot three hours before the party started.  The deviled eggs (regular deviled eggs with green food coloring), ham roll ups (deli ham and sliced cheddar cheese) and pasta salad (spiral pasta, cucumbers, tomatoes, Italian dressing and Parmesan cheese....black olives and fresh basil is also good in this dish) were made the day before the party.  The fruits and vegis were cut up the day before. I gave my mom the job of overseeing the pizza pockets (half of a cheese stick and pepperoni or ham wrapped up in a crescent roll).  She started them an hour before the party, so they could be served warm. The rest of the food was easy for me to assemble on the table thirty minutes before people arrived. 

I also made sure to time the party, so it wasn't at lunch or dinner time. The party started at 3:00, so I was able to just have snack food.  While it wasn't a meal, I made sure to have plenty of food to snack on.  I didn't want people to leave hungry.  I also kept in mind that this was a party for one year olds.  I wanted to make sure the menu I came up with was adult friendly but also something my little guys would eat.  To keep things fun, each food item had a Dr. Seuss title.  Below you will find my menu along with the grocery list I used. I was expecting about forty people for the party.  We had about thirty people show up, and there was plenty of food leftover.

I arranged the food on a table that we have in our loft.   I just pushed the table against the wall, put a table runner on the table and hung a birthday banner over the table. Next to the table I had a bundle of balloons I bought from Party City they day before the party. I served the food in dishes that I already had with the exception of the large bowl for the pasta salad and the large platter for the green eggs and ham.  Both of those were Dollar Tree finds. I made the birthday banner, the table runner and the food tents.  Below you will also find instructions on how I did that.

Menu:

Green Eggs and Ham

(deviled eggs, ham and cheese roll ups)

Wocket in a Pizza Pocket

(pepperoni and cheese crescent rolls with marinara dipping sauce)
Biggle Balls
(BBQ meatballs)

Beezlenut Berries

(strawberries and blueberries)
Poodles N Noodles
(pasta salad)

Truffula Vegi Tray

(vegetable platter with ranch dip)
Cheese and Cracker Stackers
(crackers and assorted cheese)
Pop on Pop Corn Puffs
(cheddar corn puffs)
Stink Stack Stank Sticks
(vegi straws)
Fish in a Dish
(gold fish crackers)

Decorations to Make:

Table Runner
Supplies: 1 yd patterned fabric, 1 ft burlap, Heat N Bond, hot glue gun
Directions: divide patterned fabric in two, hem patterned fabric with Heat N Bond, hot glue burlap in the middle of the two hemmed pieces of fabric) 
JUST SO YOU KNOW:  I am not a seamstress.  This was my no-sew version of a banner.  Sewing would be just as easy for someone who has a sewing machine and is good with a needle and thread. 

Happy Birthday Banner
Supplies: printer, color ink, card stock, scissors, tape, string
Directions: order printable banner PDF file from this etsy shop, print onto card stock, cut and a tape triangles to craft twine)  
JUST SO YOU KNOW: It took a lot of color ink to print the banner.  I would have made my own banner out of scrapbook paper, but I couldn't find Dr. Seuss scrapbook paper.  I specifically wanted the Dr. Seuss banner, and didn't want to pay $30 for one online, which is why I chose to print my own.  I only recommend printing something that uses this much color ink if you are wanting something specific, as color ink is pricey....but not as pricey as buying a Dr. Seuss birthday banner online.  I paid $3.70 for my printable PDF file of the birthday banner, and then used my own ink to print it.

Food Tents/Labels
Supplies: 2 pieces of 12x12 scrapbook paper, paper cutter, printer, scissors, glue stick 
Directions: using paper cutter, cut scrap book paper into 4x4 pieces, fold pieces in half to make tents; make labels on Microsoft Word using shapes, fill shape color black, use center type in white font, print, cut and glued to paper tents 

Grocery Store Shopping List:
sm. bag baby carrots
bag of broccoli/cauliflower mix
1 green bell pepper
2 cucumbers
 cherry tomatoes
strawberries
blueberries
2 bags frozen meatballs
two dozen eggs
3 packs crescent rolls
1 lg pack string cheese
assorted cheese
2 packs pepperoni
mayonnaise
mustard
ranch dressing
Italian dressing
marinara sauce
2 bottles bbq sauce 
2 boxes spiral tricolor pasta
1 box Ritz crackers
green food coloring

Dollar Store Shopping List:
large platter for green eggs and ham
large plastic bowl for the pasta salad
pack of two plastic scoops
pack of four plastic tongs