Maggie's 2nd birthday party

Maggie won't turn 2 until Friday, but we chose to celebrate her birthday early because Labor Day weekend gives more people the opportunity to travel and earlier is better when you're 9 months pregnant. :) Her birthday theme was Dora because, well, Maggie just loves some Dora. This made deciding the menu easy- Mexican of course plus fruits, veggies, chips & salsa for dip. I learned that soft taco shells are more popular than hard because I had almost as many hard shells remaining as I purchased. We like taco night, so no worries. This menu was also pretty easy on the budget and I had a smaller one this year than last because I'm not working part-time (from home) anymore, a baby is on the way and now a move, so less is more. I did still buy a few things- I'll detail them out below- it's a very long post.

First up, the invitation. We went to McWane Science Center on July 4th and one of their exhibits was Dora & Diego- a whole floor of fun stuff! Maggie absolutely loved the ginormous Dora replica and was more than happy to take pictures with her. I knew this would be the perfect picture for her invite, added all the necessary party info in Dora colors and voila!

I made food labels and cutlery bundles with free printables from nickjr.com. Instead of creating crazy names, I opted to name the food after several of the Explorer characters. I designed the water bottle labels on my computer and printed them on scrapbook paper.

 the food setup

The Dessert Table

I very much love Amy Atlas' work and have wanted to set up a dessert table for awhile now- I managed a small one at the Gender Reveal party, but I wanted to go a step further this time. I don't visit her blog very often because I'll set my own party expectations too high, but she is, at least to my knowledge, the dessert table originator so I'm crediting her with the idea. Here's how I did my table:

I purchased pink wrapping paper for the backdrop and scrapbook paper for the banner (though I did use a HL gift card, so didn't technically spend any money on it). I used items on hand to make the Maggie frame and the tissue poms, table cloth & streamers were used at my birthday party a couple months ago.

 I don't know if I bought a bad batch of tape, but we had the hardest time keeping this backdrop on the wall. The banner fell at least half a dozen times and before the party ended, the whole backdrop peeled away from the wall (you can see semi-fixed here)

 For the frame, I made colorful flowers in photoshop, arranged them as a border, printed it then added the M and Maggie in vinyl and placed them in a frame

everything finished (and the banner falling) Major props to my sis for making all the tissue poms- it really saved me some time! Plus I love re-purposing and they really add to the party decor. Thanks Trace!

The cake was a challenge this year. Dora was the first party I've thrown where I've been days away and still not sure how I wanted to make the cake. I'm not artistic enough to make a 3D Dora or draw her face on a cake. In the end, I decided a colorful cake with Dora figures would fit the bill. I did not, however, find the characters I wanted- the candles are ok. I bought one box of cake mix and separated them into two round pans, stacked them, added a layer of icing and covered in marshmallow fondant. Then I made stars and decorative balls out of fondant, wrote with royal icing (left from the cookies- discussed below) and added the only candles I could find. I wrapped a box to make sure the cake was the highest point on the table. 

I found a pack of unfinished wood boxes at Walmart for a couple dollars, covered them in scrapbook paper and washi tape and added styrofoam for the marshmallow pops (leftover from the fondant). The mason jars have so many uses, I decided to add lemonade and the kids really liked drinking out of them! I decided not to do favor bags this year and opted for treat bags instead so the kids could take home candy. I couldn't find purple bags, so I bought lunch bags (you can find a 50 pack for like a dollar at Walmart) and painted them purple with regular craft paint. I found the little cups (filled with goldfish) and the straws on Etsy. I tried to keep everything coordinated with the party colors. I bought all the candy at the dollar store- lemonheads, orange slices, jolly joes (purple mike& ike's) and pixie sticks. I chose stars, flowers and 2's for the cookies and used the same recipes for sugar cookies & royal icing as I did last year.

I added more tissue poms and balloons (I know, you're shocked) around the house for the remaining decor. 

The beautiful birthday girl and party guests

Presents & cake

Oooh, me me, I want cake!

 trying to dig in but can't get past the fondant!

Ms. Moosie had so much fun at her 2nd birthday party! And after all the festivities died down, we made the announcement about moving back to TN so I'm sure this will be a memorable day for everyone. I love you baby girl!! I'm so happy to have enjoyed your 2nd little party and made a special announcement to top off your day.