A sweet little birthday party for a sweet little girl. (With only $25!)

When I start travelling 530 miles round trip to decorate for a bday party, I know I’m close to needing an intervention. I just can’t help it. I hear the words, “I really want to do a birthday party for my little girl, but I just don’t have time to get it together. And quite frankly, I’m out of ideas,” I kinda go nuts. Like, my brain starts spinning; I can’t sleep because my heart is racing – like my mom’s when she drinks caffeine right before bed.

And all she wanted was a pink party.

That’s it. By the time I’ve even discussed the possibility of leaving town with our family’s one and only vehicle for the weekend with my sweet generous husband, I’ve already got the entire thing planned out.

We had a low budget for this one. (Like $25!) So my creative stockpile was put to the test. DISCLAIMER: snacks and cake was not included in this budget – but pigs in a blanket, carrots and celery with ranch dip, potato chips, heart cookies, and a homemade cake was easy and cheap to come by.

Actually, it was my schoolroom closet stockpile that was put to the test. And my cricut.

And they performed beautifully.

And so did my ever faithful frappacino bottles. Cost: $0.00.

If you want the straws, I get ’em from here. Her stuff is A-DOR-A-BULL! Straw cost: $5.50

Thanks to some seat covers I made for my little girls’ bday party last year, I was able to dress up the (already beautiful!) dining room chairs without any cost at all. Cost: $0.00

I used a roll of tulle – 30 yards – Cost: $2.50

Paper for banner (letters done with my Cricut – the Plantin Schoolbook Cartridge). Cost: $.59 a sheet of 12×12 scrapbook paper x 8 sheets = $4.72.

Tissue paper pom-poms (easy tutorial here) – $1.29 a pack x 2 colors = $2.38.

Friends and cousins? No cost. Just necessary for the loads of fun we had. We played about 15 minutes of some of my Laurie Berkner music and danced around the living room. That got out some of the excited energy and they had a blast going to the moon and back, marching like dinosarus, running like bees, and jumping on all the stars. Cost: $0.00 (It was already on in my iTunes library. But feel free to check it out here. If you have a toddler or a preschooler, it is WAAAAY worth the $8 purchase!)

Smiling faces? Again, no cost. Just nice to have around.

Egg race. Put the egg in a spoon. Run a race on the porch with it. Don’t let it fall. Sound easy? It was. Because they all had this fabulous idea. “Hey, Party Lady? Why don’t we hold the egg on with this hand, that way the egg won’t fall off!”

I still used boiled eggs. That made it nice, because invariably, even with “holding them on” they still fell off, and I didn’t want any heartbroken 5 year olds on my hands.

Cost of eggs: $1.29 for one dozen.

See? It just makes so much more sense to play the game this way. You have two hands. Why not use them both? And keep the egg on the spoon? Minor details.

A beautiful birthday girl – she was easy to come by. 😉

Something about drinking out of a swirly straw…kids LOVE ’em! I think I should try putting my kids medicine in one of these bottles the next time they need it. I don’t think I’d have any problems.

We made some “diamond” candles for the birthday girl. They turned out really nice – and everyone had a blast making them. Even the 2 year olds!

Tealight Candles: $.99 for 12

Candle Holders: $.50 each x 10 = $5.00

Giant pink heart crystals: $2.89 a pack

Small round clear crystals: $2.89 a pack

Even the boys didn’t mind getting involved with making “crystal diamond magic” candles for the bday girl. 🙂

Especially when we lit them all, then brought out the bday cake. They all got to blow out their candles when the bday girl blew out hers. It was fun all around the table! These also doubled as their party favors. They got to take them home to their rooms and keep enjoying them.

Happy Birthday, Gwendolyn! Thanks for being such a great friend to my girls!