My little preemie baby is growing up and we can see his character traits coming through. A strong-willed little boy who loves, loves, loves balls, going for walks to the port and our chocolate lab.
The last two years I have also seen our worries about possible long-term preemie effects go away.
So finally Friday was the big day again. We decided this time to keep things very small. We only invited one married couple with their two daughters, and had a great time.
Party preparations started on Thursday evening. I had decided on homemade ice cream cake. So, after dinner I prepared a simple chocolate cake, which I then cut in half.
I added slices of strawberry and then covered the cake in foil to keep it from turning dry.
I also covered the same sized form with aluminum foil and then used this as a form for my ice cream, which I added while slightly soft. The form was then also covered and put in the freezer.
The next day, I then assembled the cake and the ice-cream layer, to create this:
Since my mixer gave up on me a few months ago, and I haven't gotten around to buy a new one, I used the ready whip cream to decorate my cake. Not ideal, but it worked. But a new mixer is definitely on MY birthday wish-list.
After the little one went to bed, the hubby and I started blowing up balloons. Our son loves them, so I thought it would be cute to see how he would react to a room FULL of balloons when he woke up.
About 20 minutes of blowing up the balloons our living room looked like this:
I used some of the balloons to create a garland for our party corner and the rest was brought next to the baby's bed.
Friday morning was great. Our little one woke up to a room full of balloons and had a blast (although it took him quite a while to really wake up). It's amazing how something as simple as balloons can leave a child so happy.
Somebody hadn't woken up yet, lol.
After breakfast and a few pictures with Mommy, I was off to work and the birthday boy had the whole day to spend with daddy, who was lucky enough to have a day off.
I got home and then quickly assembled and decorated the sideboard, prepared the table and table wear:
I re-used last years dark blue table clothes, as well as napkins and plastic forks and knifes. Then I took a curtain panel found in Ikea's 'as is' section a few months ago for $ 3.00 and used it as table runner.
A blue bucket from the dollar store held little gifts (from the dollar store) for the guests. I also used blue and green hard plastic cups, which I had purchased for my son's 1st Birthday and which we use to this day every day.
I believe, the balloons, the bucket, and the little gifts altogether were around $ 10.00.
After making final preparation and ordering 2 large pies of pizza to be delivered later on, our two little guests arrived.
We played, ate and had lots of fun to end the night with a birthday song and wish-wishing.
Now for my final approximate budget breakdown:
- 2 large Pizzas and Ice-tea: $ 28.00
- Ice-cream cake ingredients: $ 10.00
- Decoration, balloons and gifts: $ 10.00
Total: $ 48.00
There you have it. I think balloons are such an easy decoration for kid's parties and cheap too. And one also doesn't have to break the bank to feed the guests.
Let me know if you have any cheap and easy ideas I can use for next year.
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