A Budget Birthday

In the months leading up to Riggins' birthday, I will confess that I got a little overwhelmed by all the blogs and Facebook photos of really spectacular first birthday parties.  Much like weddings and having babies, our culture seems to have morphed children's birthday parties into huge productions that might ultimately miss the entire point of the milestone.  One negative effect of the World Wide Web, I suppose; pictures and videos of others' events just seem to set the bar higher and higher until we've created this whole new set of what one "must" have at a certain event.  

It's no secret that we're on a tight budget.  When it came to planning this party, I forced myself to tune out the Internet; no more Ohdeedoh or party blogs making me feel like less of a mother for not spending a boatload of cash on my child's party.  I aimed to keep the party cheap, simple, and cute!  And just in case you were looking at pictures thinking, "Man, Leslie went all out...I bet she was exhausted and broke when that was all said and done," I wanted to write about how I pulled off a fun party on a shoestring.  

First of all, invitations.  This was one area that I didn't go totally cheap on, just because at the end of the day it's cheapest to do an Evite.  But I am a Southern girl with a deep love for stationary, and I just believe in real invitations!  When I saw this one on Shutterfly, I knew it was the perfect way to showcase all of his monthly photos, and serve as a fun memento for those who wanted to keep it (i.e. family members).  It was almost like a pre-party favor in my mind.  So I did pay for invitations and postage, but I was able to get free shipping AND a discount coupon code for Shutterfly, so I saved there.  I also kept the guest list short, so that helped too.  

Now for the decor!  My old office has a helium tank, so I was able to barter some helium in exchange for baking cookies for the next Student Activities Board retreat.  All I had to do was get balloons and ribbon, which I snagged half off at Hobby Lobby.  

My favorite detail of the party was the bunting that hung between the house and the trees across the yard.    Jonathan had a trash bag of old dress clothes that he was taking to Goodwill.  I pulled out all of the button-up shirts in shades of blue, white, and brown.  After making a rectangular template from the side of a cereal box, I cut as many rectangles as I could from each shirt, using every single part of the shirt; I even split the sleeves and got a couple rectangles from each of those!  

Then I bought a roll of twine at Home Depot for less than $5.  I measured the length across the yard, factoring in a bit of draping, and then cut the twine.  Then, I took it in the house, tied it between two chairs, and pinned each flag into place (I had ironed each flag with a 1'' hem to hold the twine).  I then machine stitched each flag into place.  It sounds tedious, but it really went fast...I cut the flags one night while watching a movie, then pinned and sewed another night while watching the CMA's Girls Night Out Special :)  

I used the leftover flags to decorate Riggins' high chair tray.  The seat itself was draped with a couple of yards of fabric that I already had, pinned into place, and then tied with some bows made from the same twine as the bunting.  All of the furniture is our regular old patio furniture and kitchen chairs.  

All of the food was set up on the patio.  Notice that the whole party was in the backyard, which is another way to keep things simple; I wasn't worried about my house being clean other than the bathroom, and I didn't decorate inside at all.  

I used a white sheet to hide the junkyard that my neighbors call their back yard :)  Then I made a bunch of tissue paper pom poms using this tutorial.  Cheap, cheap, cheap!  I arranged those with a bunch of paper lanterns that I bought half off at Hobby Lobby (each color came in a 3-pack of different sizes).  The table linens and serving pieces were all things that I already owned or borrowed from my mother-in-law.  Jonathan borrowed the big table from the optometry school.   

Now here's where the "simple" comes in.  You know that I love cooking and love food.  It is really hard for me to rein myself in when it comes to this area of a party!  But while my planning started with me having a cookout for all of our friends, my "simple and cheap" mantra steered me in a different direction.  We ended up doing brunch for 20, which allowed me to keep things really simple.  No standing over a hot grill or feeding the masses a full meal.  I didn't even have cake for everyone!  Just donuts from our favorite local shop, Gibson's, fruit and cream cheese dip, and mini quiche from Sam's.  I was going to make mini quiche/frittatas from scratch until I came to my senses and was reminded of my "cheap and simple" mantra.  I got them ready-made at Sam's instead!  For drinks, I made a simple citrus punch from pineapple, grapefruit, and orange juices with ginger ale, and mocha ice cream punch.  So essentially, the grown ups got their cake (cake donuts, that is!) and ice cream!  

I did make Riggins' cake (starting with a mix), and since I really don't have any cake decorating skills, I made a little topper that would keep me from having to do any writing with icing!  For the topper, I painted two kabob sticks, hot glued a piece of twine between them, and glued on little flags made from the leftover bunting fabrics.  Then I stuck on some foam stickers that I already had to spell out his name.  The blue decorative icing was from one of those canned decorating tubes in the baking aisle.    

And while favors definitely aren't necessary, I just had to do some iced sugar cookies from Paul's Bakery in Van Buren, Arkansas.  These were at all of my events growing up in Fort Smith, Jonathan and I had them as favors at our wedding and gave them as hostess gifts at Riggins' baby shower.  It was only fitting that we have them as favors at his first birthday party!  It doesn't hurt that they are super cheap...gotta love small town businesses!  I packaged them with treat sacks and ribbon bought half off at Hobby Lobby.  

The other way that I kept things simple is with the things that you DON'T see.  For example, while I planned to make a cute garland of all of his monthly pictures, I realized that it was one of those things I felt like I had to do because everyone does it these days.  Since those pictures were all on his invitation, that was one thing that I decided to eliminate.  There were lots of other ideas that I had that I just had to say to myself, "Leslie, no one cares about this but you!" and just eliminate it to save myself time, energy, or money.  I tell you what, folks, motherhood is mellowing out my inner perfectionist Martha Stewart and I really like it!  :)  

So there you have it!  It IS possible to throw a cute party without spending a lot of money or making yourself crazy over preparations.  Keep the guest list small, the time frame short, and the food simple.  Find creative ways to make do with the things you already own.  And remember the reason why you are celebrating...and that he or she won't remember this party at all!  

Even so, I hope that Riggins will look at these pictures someday and know how very loved he is.  But that we also love him enough not to spend his college savings on a Bounce Around or pony rides*.   

*Not hating on inflatables or pony rides...I just don't think Uncle Sam intended for us to spend our student loan money on them.  ;)