This little girl was so excited about her birthday. I decided to throw a Lady Bug Girl birthday party because I just adore Lulu for the Lady Bug Girl book series. (More of my favorite girl books here) And Georgiana loves the books too. I think she loves Bingo, Lulu’s dog the most. There are so many great birthday party ideas out there. I am so happy she loved her party so much. One of the best parts was that it didn’t cost very much. We don’t spend very much on their birthdays. And sometimes we don’t even buy them any presents but I don’t think they ever really noticed. Now that we have moved away from Grandma and Papa we usually get them one or two gifts. I am so thankful that I learned about to sew. I was able to use extra material and a $4 shirt to make Georgiana’s Elsa Dress. Birthdays are made special with fun decorations, yummy treats, and family and friends.
It just so happens that that her party colors coordinated with her Alice and Wonederland party last year. I was able to reuse all lot of our party décor. So thankful I kept our party supplies on Tupperware containers. My mom made the tissue papers tassels for me last year. I just removed the gold tassels. I love using my yellow dresser for holding party treats and water but I didn’t want to distract from and red and black color scheme. So I just used a large white sheet. I’m sure one of these days I will invest in some table clothes.
Birthday Bunting signs always look so impressive but are pretty easy to make. Another reason why I love having my Cameo Silhouette. For tips on making a banner read this post. I made some paper fans for her party as well as the tissue ones I had from last year. Adding black spots and a little lady bug heads made them perfect for our decorating theme. The fans were pretty easy. I read a great tutorial here. And I love that I can remove the spots and use them for a 4th of July mantel or even another party. I didn’t make the fans into a garland like the tutorial suggested. So I hot glued a ribbon in a loop to make them easy to hang up.
I grabbed my homemade chalk board to add some texture and color to the table. You may recognize it from this party. I also used some vintage ribbon from my dear friend Omera to tie around my water picture. I love that ribbon. My heart still isn’t sure what it’s suppose to be made into, but I know there is a project just perfect for that ribbon. I want to make inot some thing extra special so I can always remember my dear friend. I also love adding frames with pictures of my birthday child or a quote from the theme. We had a photo shoot with a church member’s basset hound and Georgiana was thrilled. She kept waving and saying, “Hi Bingo!”. Birthday photo shoots can be fun!
It may sound boring, but I usually always serve water at my parties. To switch it up I throw in some fruit to make it exciting. Frozen strawberries were perfect this time because they matched my decorations. (I used orange slices this time) Not only is it cheaper, but I don’t stress if a kid spills something. And when you have a diabetic is just makes life a little easier sometimes. I splurged and spent $2 on these cute straws. Georgiana loved feeling fancy.
Last minute I used my Silhouette to make a large 2 and covered it with dots. It will make life easier when we are trying to remember what age she was when we had this party. Georgiana loved helping with the cupcakes. We found Red Cake Mix on sale at Wal-Mart when we were buying paper for her paper fans. It was only a $1. We used milk instead of water and butter instead of oil. They were pretty tastey! I love serving cupcakes at a little kids’ party. They are the perfect size and are easy to pass out. My friend Jess gave me those darling lady bug liners. Aren’t they the cutest?
We swirled on the frosting using a ziplock bag and these handy tools along with round decorating tip . I love it when tricks help me look like I know what I am doing. The frosting was homemade and super delicious. Georgiana pretty much just licked her cupcake.
The ladybug pretzels were a great snack. Having a pretzel inside made it healthier, right? I love the combo of salty and sweet. I used red melts and Ghirardelli’s dark chocolate melts to make these yummy treats. Georgiana loved them. Just be sure to have some napkins or wipes around as they tend to melt in your hands. Maybe that’s just in Arizona. Or maybe because they were being held by a two year old. I was able to keep my hands clean.
I really love watching all those cookie decorating tutorials. And I thought I could try a ladybug if I kept it simple. I love this tutorial from A Bee in our Bonnet. She gives a lot of really good information. I have a long way to go. It probably didn’t help that I chose probably the two hardest colors to make. I seriously felt like I was stirring the black forever. And I got the texture all wrong. And I think the consistence of the frosting is crucial. Somehow I made it too watery when it should have been my outline thicker frosting. I ended up with a beautiful grey. It would be lovely to paint my oak kitchen cabinets that color. I ended up using some store bought black that came in a can that I bought long ago. I was able to work the red pretty well. And the next day I was able to make some black dots with that reject frosting after all. Moral of the story, I can do hard things. And I will keep practicing. Georgiana loved them and totally knew they were lady bugs. And they tasted great. My hubby wanted to give it a try to. So I am thinking Halloween Cookie decorating night for a family night.
Lady Bug Girl Birthday Party
Paper for the fans and bunting: $5
Straws :$2
Red melts: $3
Prints: $3
Napkins: $1 (dollar store)
Books on display: Free (unless you don’t return them to the library on time)
Pretzels: $3
(Everything else we had on hand)
Party price: $17
Her excitement and that smile on her face: priceless
I love throwing fun parties for my kids. And I love having fun themes. But remember you don’t have to spend a lot to create a wonderful memory.
To make our dinning room a little bit more festive I decorating with crepe paper. Call me old fashion but I love using streamers. Great way to make it look festive and colorful. I used my red lanterns again and put black dots on them as well. The felt garland was made by my sister in law last year. Out of the three kid birthday parties so far they have all been based on books. As I mentioned in my Raising Readers blog post this is a great way to get kids excited about reading. Yoda may have a book themed party as well this year. You will have to wait and see.
PS I love that my husband coordinated his clothing to make his daughter. He wore his Harry Potter shirt I made him last month. I will post a tutorial soon for her little Lady Bug Girl Costume. I wanted to buy her friends wings, but of course the dollar store stopped carrying them when I needed them. It was a great birthday! We are so thankful for all our dear friends that were able to celebrate with us.
Happy Birthday my sweet daughter!!!
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