Balloon Party For Elle Belle

So after last year's somewhat involved birthday parties, I had declared that this year we would be doing simple parties for the girls. Parties involving kitty cat plates and such from Wal-mart. Then Elle requested a balloon party. Great! Easy peasy. I would buy a bunch of helium balloons and call it good. My mistake was casually typing "balloon party" into the search bar on Pinterest. : )

So many CUTE ideas. I was hooked and with Elle helping me design the event, here is what we ended up with:

Cannot say enough good things about the woman who designed these invitations! For less than it would cost me to buy generic ones at Target, she worked with me, making changes several times. She even included the envelopes. Her FB site is here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/That-Cute-Design/141701582527759

The striped party hats and cute party banner on the front of the table are from Target.

The rainbow jello instructions are on Pinterest. Very, very cute, but VERY time consuming. If you don't mind spending hours keeping track of 20 minute increments of time to pour the next layer, then go for it. : ) I personally won't be making it again. Ever.

The hot air balloon was on Pinterest, but no instructions were given. Just the cute little picture. How hard could it be, right? Hmmm. Let's just say those three little balloons took me more time than any other project for the party. Other than the jello. : ) If you're going to make them, be sure you have a bigger helium balloon and that it is fresh (is that the right description?). The more deflated the balloon gets, the less it is able to hold up even the skinny little strings I used. As for using cute ribbon, no way. The balloon couldn't handle the weight.

The recipe for flavored water is on Pinterest. As are plenty of rainbow colored food ideas.

The cupcakes were simple. Boxed cake mix, lightly frosted with canned frosting. Then, dipped in sprinkles. It took 3 bottles of sprinkles for 36 cupcakes. The plastic balloons were ordered online. My girls loved those plastic balloons. Just don't make the mistake I did and think you're ordering 12 of them, but instead receive 12 BAGS of them with 9 bunches in each bag. We will be decorating all of our food with plastic balloons for the next year.

My wonderful hubby made the giant balloon swag. It really was a show stopper. Here are the instructions: http://www.designmom.com/2011/05/balloon-banner-diy/  But don't let the blog instructions fool you. This is another time consuming project. Awesome when it's finished, but I firmly believe that when you start a project, you should know what it will take to finish it. It took Jason 2 hours to make it. He did use an air mattress pump to blow up the balloons, which helped. But, you still have to tie all those balloons and when it came to the sewing part, if the needle so much as grazed a balloon by accident, Pop! So, make sure you have more of each color than you think you need.