Spring Fling

I know that this is pretty unimaginable, but we are once again in the throws of birthday party planning for little Miss C! And like I said a few posts ago, I'll save my can't-believe-she's-that-age-already remarks for a post closer to her actual birthday. Her party last year took place on the day after the royal wedding. Despite all of my spread-sheeting, I remember waking up at 5 am to watch the wedding and then being up until 5 am the next day because I was trying to get things done for the party. Whew!

So the big day is April 21st, just a little over a week away! For this year's party we kept some elements from last year that we thought worked great, left out others, and added in some new things. Based on the spread sheet, I'm pretty excited to see it all come together! My goal was to make it special without going over-board. I didn't want to make a gigantic investment in lots of decor or designer cupcakes. She is only 2 and has no idea what an elaborate birthday party looks like. I know she'll just be delighted to spend the morning with all of her favorite people... and have a little chocolate while she's at it :)

Here's a little breakdown of the plans so far, though I'll wait to share specifics and pictures until after the party.

Theme- We'll be celebrating our spring baby with all things spring this year! I chose Spring Fling as the theme based on it being spring time (obviously), and her love of playing outside. Everything will tie into spring time and outdoor play. Most things I'll be able to make myself which will save us some money and make the whole party a little more personal.

Location- What better place for a party based on spring time and outdoor play than a playground? We're using the same location that we used last year. It's a playground near our house that has two big pavilions with picnic tables. The playground gives the kids a place to run and climb and something to do at the party so it's not necessary to plan a bunch of structured activities to keep them busy. I'm also going to bring along some other fun outside play activities to offer an alternative to the playground equipment.

Guests- This year we kept the guest list to our families. C has a lot of cousins so there are plenty of kids for her to play with, and our families alone gave us a guest list of 23 people. Had we both started adding our friends and their children to the list we could have easily doubled that number in no time. So although we included our friends for her first birthday last year, we opted to keep it at family for the big 0-2.

Food- We're keeping things fresh and fun with fruits and veggies (bite-sized and munchkin-friendly of course), mini bottles of water, and "dirt" cups! We'll also have some pizza since the party takes place around lunch time.

Goodies- I'm really excited about some home-made goodies that I plan on giving as favors, but since they're going out to people who read the blog, I'm going to wait until after the party to write about them. I'll just say that they go along with our theme :)

I have a to-do list that covers now until the day of the party with a few small things to accomplish each day. It might sound extreme to some, but this will prevent me from running out of time to get things done. It also keeps me from feeling overwhelmed since I can see what needs to be done each day and know that by the end of the week everything will be all set. Just like with anything else, I'm sure there will be snags and some things will take longer than I anticipated, but all of the things I'm making seem like lots of fun so hopefully it will be an exciting week of preparation!

Of course we also have a very special day planned for our sweet Bebe on her actual birthday, Tuesday the 24th. More on that later :)  For now, let the party preparations begin!