For the flower vases, I used recycled oatmeal containers. I created the stripes in Photoshop making sure the file was 8.5 x 11 inches. Luckily, the oatmeal containers were about 11 inches tall, so I didn't have to buy any special paper. I printed out two sheets of regular paper per container and taped them on. I happened to have two glass vases that fit perfectly inside. The flowers were purchased at Trader Joe's that morning. Cost: Free for the vases. $10 for flowers.
I bought the three Coca-Cola glasses and the candy inside of them at The Dollar Tree. The candies are Red Hots, Lemon Drops and bubble gum. Cost: $6.
I borrowed the white cake stand from my mom and she made the angel food cake on top of it. Cost: I have no idea. Free to me!
The books and stuffed animal were Christmas gifts.
I purchased the table cloths, plates, cups, and napkins at Party City and probably paid too much, but it was easy. I think it all cost $40.
I borrowed the cupcake holder from my mom. I bought the different colored cupcake papers on Amazon for more than I probably should have, but I HAD to have them! For each color (yellow and red), they were about $5 for 40 papers. For the toppers, I found some random blue circle things in the scrapbook aisle at Michael's. I printed out red H's and meticulously cut them out. Also in that package were the fancy yellow rectangles I used for food labels. I think that package was about $3. I didn't have enough blue circles for all the cupcakes, so I used leftover yellow and red scrapbook paper from the banner, cut out some pictures of Curious George, and glued them to the back. I got the white sticks at Walmart for about $2 for a huge package (I had a ton leftover.) I just used boxed cake mix and premade icing.
Total cupcake cost: $25 for 40.
I made the chocolate chip cookies and put them on two white plates purchased from The Dollar Tree. Cost: $4.50
I took a photo out of this white frame that we already had, printed out this quote and glued it it to yellow paper.
Cost: Free
The main food table.
For food, we had taquitos, a veggie tray, chips and salsa, and peanut butter and banana sandwiches. I made everything from scratch, including the salsa. I really don't know how much the food cost, but I'm going to guess about $30.
Every month, I took a photo of Hannah. I printed out all the photos, taped the month number to the corner, hole punched the corners and strung them together with ribbon. I bought an assorted pack of balloons at The Dollar Tree and just picked out the colors I wanted. They are strung together with thread. Cost: $2
In the room off of the living room, I put a red table cloth over our coffee table and called it the doodling desk (an idea from one of the linked blogs above.) I printed off Curious George coloring sheets for free, and i got the yellow box from the dollar section at Target. I made the sign in Photoshop and glued it to leftover red scrapbook paper.
Cost: $2
I got the popcorn tub at The Dollar Tree. Inside are the goodie bags. I wish I had a better picture of the bags themselves. Inside of the clear cellophane bags is a banana, a yellow lollipop, and a small bottle of Curious George bubbles purchased from Amazon. We had 7 bags total for a cost of about $1.75 each.
Total Cost: $14
We set up the drinks on our island. I already had the metal tub. I borrowed the water dispenser from my sister. Keeping with the color scheme, we added lemons to the water, and we had Coca Cola and Squirt (yellow and red cans!)
Cost: $12
I made this sign for the door.
Cost: Free
For Hannah's cake, I made a no-sugar recipe from wholesomebabyfood.com, used low sugar Cool Whip for the frosting, and surrounded it with sliced bananas. She really didn't eat any of it. Oh well!
Cost: I don't know...maybe $7 for all the ingredients.
Grand Total: About $160
All of the numbers I gave above are complete estimates because I'm going off of memory from months ago. I think they are all pretty close to what I spent though.
Now that she is almost a year and a half old, I guess it's time to start planning the 2nd birthday party!
And let's not forget the dress I made from a thrift store adult sweater. My mom added the scarf because my sewing skills are mediocre at best! This is the tutorial I used.
