Last Sunday, my baby turned five. My baby:(
Months before hand, she told me she wanted a Lalaloopsy party so I started shopping around for cheap ideas. And since Lalaloopsy is a relatively new thing, there aren't any themed decorations out there yet so we focused on cheap and easy ways to bring the Lalaloopsy theme to the party.
First cheap idea...evite! I think my mom hates that I don't do paper invites anymore but between the invitation cost and postage, that's at least $15 saved. And I think the likliehood of people rsvp'ing is much better with an evite and I'm a rule folower so I think rsvp's are important.
One tradition we do with our girls is the Birthday Fairy. On the night before their birthday, after they go to sleep, the birthday fairy decorates the livingroom with streamers and balloons and piles all of their presents up on the couch. Matea's new pink scooter is hidden under the quilt and you can see her pinata in the background. I found some pictures of really cool Lalaloopsy pinatas but realistically, I knew I didn't have the time or talent to make one. So we bought this pink and blue pinata for $15 from Walmart and covered it Lalaloopsy images I bought from an Etsy seller. And directly behind Tatey, you can see a Lalaloopsy mini garland I made. I used one of my scrapbook punches to punch several scalloped circles in bright colors, stitched them together, glued on more Lalaloopsy bottle cap images and then hung the garland on the food table.
Here's a super easy way to save money...get your cake from Costco! It's huge (and yummy) and only around $18. Since none of their designs fit our theme. I just had them write "Happy Birthday Matea" in the center and I spent $3 to buy some pre-colored tubes of frosting. I added polka dots and a bunch of Lalaloopsy figurines from the girls' collection. So cute and reasonably priced!
Family picture (minus Bella). We always forget to do this at the girls' parties so this year, I remembered to do it before the party. The blue hair? Yeah, that was an idea gone wrong. The night before the party, the girls and I decided that it would be fun to curl their hair in ringlets and spray it a bright color like Lalaloopsy's for the party. Because we live at the beach, there was a lot of moisture in the air that morning so while the kids helped us set up for the party, their cute ringlets quickly disappeared.
And the bounce house killed the Lalaloopsy blue hair. All that jumping made the color jump right off. Budget tip for a bounce house...get your father-in-law to buy one and borrow his:)
I'm not really into getting all of the themed plates, napkins, cups, etc. since they just end up in the trash but my mom and I found these polka dot cake plates at the Dollar Tree. They definitely weren't sturdy enough for lunch, but worked fine for snacks and cake. We got plates in bright blue polka dots and napkins in green polka dots. We also picked up a few plastic polka dot serving trays and bowls that went perfectly with our bright and fun theme but can also work with lots of other themes at future parties.
Super cute Lalaloopsy birthday dress that Grandma bought from this Etsy seller...Night Owl.
Cheap decor stuff...bright colored table cloths from The Dollar Tree, Lalaloopsy dolls from our collection, and a huge bunch of purple flowers from Costco for $8.99 which we split into three vases that we already owned. I also re-used my fabric Happy Birthday banner and spent 3 dollars on 6 paper lanterns from The Dollar Tree which we hung at the entrance to our yard. Each table also had a bright mini metal pail filled with candy. I found the pails at Target when Easter stuff was 75% off so I got them for $.50 each and have been using them for storage in my sewing area.
I think Tatey LOVED her party and I loved all of the bright colors. It was so fun to see our little front yard transformed into party central for a few hours.
Months before hand, she told me she wanted a Lalaloopsy party so I started shopping around for cheap ideas. And since Lalaloopsy is a relatively new thing, there aren't any themed decorations out there yet so we focused on cheap and easy ways to bring the Lalaloopsy theme to the party.
First cheap idea...evite! I think my mom hates that I don't do paper invites anymore but between the invitation cost and postage, that's at least $15 saved. And I think the likliehood of people rsvp'ing is much better with an evite and I'm a rule folower so I think rsvp's are important.
One tradition we do with our girls is the Birthday Fairy. On the night before their birthday, after they go to sleep, the birthday fairy decorates the livingroom with streamers and balloons and piles all of their presents up on the couch. Matea's new pink scooter is hidden under the quilt and you can see her pinata in the background. I found some pictures of really cool Lalaloopsy pinatas but realistically, I knew I didn't have the time or talent to make one. So we bought this pink and blue pinata for $15 from Walmart and covered it Lalaloopsy images I bought from an Etsy seller. And directly behind Tatey, you can see a Lalaloopsy mini garland I made. I used one of my scrapbook punches to punch several scalloped circles in bright colors, stitched them together, glued on more Lalaloopsy bottle cap images and then hung the garland on the food table.
Here's a super easy way to save money...get your cake from Costco! It's huge (and yummy) and only around $18. Since none of their designs fit our theme. I just had them write "Happy Birthday Matea" in the center and I spent $3 to buy some pre-colored tubes of frosting. I added polka dots and a bunch of Lalaloopsy figurines from the girls' collection. So cute and reasonably priced!
Family picture (minus Bella). We always forget to do this at the girls' parties so this year, I remembered to do it before the party. The blue hair? Yeah, that was an idea gone wrong. The night before the party, the girls and I decided that it would be fun to curl their hair in ringlets and spray it a bright color like Lalaloopsy's for the party. Because we live at the beach, there was a lot of moisture in the air that morning so while the kids helped us set up for the party, their cute ringlets quickly disappeared.
And the bounce house killed the Lalaloopsy blue hair. All that jumping made the color jump right off. Budget tip for a bounce house...get your father-in-law to buy one and borrow his:)
I'm not really into getting all of the themed plates, napkins, cups, etc. since they just end up in the trash but my mom and I found these polka dot cake plates at the Dollar Tree. They definitely weren't sturdy enough for lunch, but worked fine for snacks and cake. We got plates in bright blue polka dots and napkins in green polka dots. We also picked up a few plastic polka dot serving trays and bowls that went perfectly with our bright and fun theme but can also work with lots of other themes at future parties.
Super cute Lalaloopsy birthday dress that Grandma bought from this Etsy seller...Night Owl.
Cheap decor stuff...bright colored table cloths from The Dollar Tree, Lalaloopsy dolls from our collection, and a huge bunch of purple flowers from Costco for $8.99 which we split into three vases that we already owned. I also re-used my fabric Happy Birthday banner and spent 3 dollars on 6 paper lanterns from The Dollar Tree which we hung at the entrance to our yard. Each table also had a bright mini metal pail filled with candy. I found the pails at Target when Easter stuff was 75% off so I got them for $.50 each and have been using them for storage in my sewing area.
I think Tatey LOVED her party and I loved all of the bright colors. It was so fun to see our little front yard transformed into party central for a few hours.
