Relaxing Morning so here are some Birthday party ideas

This morning we are having a relaxing morning. Hazel slept in until 6:20 (much better than her usual time between 5 and 5:30). She is having fun coloring now, so I thought I would share some of the birthday party ideas I have been gathering.

To start I don't believe in going broke for a birthday party. I believe in an at home party with friends and family. I like to have a theme, but that is because I like to go a little crazy planning it. Hazel's birthday is New Year's Eve. We usually have a party for our friends and family on January 1st. When she is a bit older we are  hoping to have a small kids' birthday party for her half birthday as well. I tend to make most of the food and cake myself and I buy the appropriate paper supplies, but often buy special napkins and solid color everything else to save money. It is not about how much you spend but how much fun you have.

For her first birthday party we did a cupcake theme. We made invitations with pictures of Hazel saying "Our Little Cupcake Is Turning One". Needless to say instead of a cake we served cupcakes. I also made paper cupcakes and filled them with candies for favors. Of course this was before cupcakes were so in so I had trouble finding cupcake related items. Right after her party cupcakes became the very in thing. Resource: I bought a template because I couldn't find anything for free, but this site looks like it would work: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/templates-f143/cupcake-box-templates-go-linseys-card-t350478.html.

For her second birthday, we did a tea party. Our theme was "Tea for Two". Since it was still mostly an adult party, we served many different flavors of tea and typical tea time treats. I made a birthday cake and had my nephew paint a miniature tea set for the top of it that I bought at Joanns. I also had a bigger paint your own for everyone to sign so Hazel has a memory from the party of who was here. For the older kids that came we had white mugs to paint. I also had put together a bag of kids activities including a coloring book with pages I found on line with crayons and stickers. For a favor, I found garden teacups and saucers at Micheals on clearance in the fall for 39 cents each and bought them up knowing we were going to have this theme and put two tea bags in a nice bag and attached a tag that said "Hazel's Tea for Two" on one side and "Thanks for Coming" on the other. I attached the tags with a string to the bag and had them hanging out of the tea cups. Resources: http://www.coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com/tea-birthday-party.html, http://www.coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com/free-coloring-pages.html, http://familyfun.go.com/parties/tea-party-704536/#lollipop; http://hubpages.com/hub/Tea-Party; Pink Princess Tea Parties by Barbara Beery (I borrowed it from the library), Come to Tea by Stephanie Dunnwind, Let's Have a Tea Party by Emilie Barnes, The Totally Tea-rrific Tea Party Book by Tanya Napier. I borrowed all of these books from the library, but found I wanted to own some of them because of the many themes they had in them. From these books I took decoration ideas, recipes, etc. I also got many facts about tea and the history of tea and tea parties and printed them. I stuck them into my centerpieces and decorations so the adults could have something to read in case they got bored.

Ok, I need to go pay attention to Hazel. Some other themes I have ideas for Alien/Outer Space, Animal (Cat, Dog, Farm, Duck, Fish, Monkey), Cowboy/Wild West, Autumn Day, Building Blocks, Doll/Teddy Bear, Fairy, Dragon, Fairy Tales, Games, Garden, Bugs, Jungle, Movie, Music, Literature, Nursery Rhymes, Pirate, Princess, Shopping/Girls, Travel, Slumber Party/Night, Springtime, Summertime, Transportation (Trucks, Trains, Cars, and Planes), Twinkle, Twinkle (Star), Winter Wonderland (I saw recently Winter One-derland and thought that would have be great for Hazel's first, but I missed it). If you would like to hear the ideas of sooner than others, let me know.