I love parties. I love to think on them, plan them and then have it all come together. Color schemes get me excited, and although baking challenges scare me, I enjoy pushing myself to make something new.
This year especially, with everything going on (2020, amirite???), we decided to make our daughter's 2nd birthday party as budget-friendly as possible. This meant getting creative, and doing a lot of prep work ahead of time, but we managed to pull off a great party that was as fun and colorful as our little girl.
I thought others may find themselves in a similar situation - wanting to give your kid an unforgettable party, but also trying to be budget-conscious - so I decided to give you a few ideas on how to do just that.
1. Plan ahead - way ahead
Okay, I know not everyone gets as excited about kids' birthday parties as I do, but I generally have my kids' themes in mind months before their birthday. This allows me to buy things when they are on sale. For example, I knew I wanted these specific llama plates and napkins, and I knew which store carried them, so I kept an eye on them, and bought them when they were having a 25% off party items sale. This also can work with things like candles (pink and red ones are on sale after Valentine's Day), candy (after Halloween), fiesta decor (after Cinco de Mayo), etc.
2. Dried flowers (use what you have)
I have a stash of dried flowers and branches and stuff. I have everything from cotton, to poppy pods, billy balls (craspedia), etc. I have collected them over the years, and use them interchangeably. I tend to stay within similar color schemes in my home and for parties, so having them already on hand helps. Dried flowers ended up being a great choice anyway, because it was so blasted hot, any fresh flowers would've withered in minutes.
In addition, I used vases I've had for years, and instead of buying bottled water, we kept refilling a couple glass bottles with water. (Except for a couple large bottles of Radenska, because Slovenian pride, woot-woot!)
3. YouTube How-To Videos/Pinterest
I watched so many how-to videos on YouTube in the past couple months! You can literally find everything on there! I'll reference back to this in my next points, but it deserves its own mention. Also, Pinterest is of course great for inspiration, but you can also find a lot of tutorials, which is fantastic for us visual learners.
4. Home-made decorations
I know not everyone feels crafty, but the decorations I made for my daughter's party were beyond easy, and very affordable.
I really wanted a garland, but they are ridiculously expensive, and I had a large wall I needed them to fit, which meant I was looking at at least 2 of them. Tassels go with the llama theme, but they are also just "in" right now, and oh so easy to make.
So, I bought some yarn (in the colors of the party) which you can find for really great prices (in Slovenia you can find them at Svet Metraž or at Tedi, and in the States any craft store, or Walmart). I measured the length of my wall, then I measured out how spaced out I wanted them, and started making tassels in the evenings while watching TV, lol.
If you've never made a tassel before, it is beyond simple. There are numerous youtube tutorials out there, such as this one.
After I made the tassels, I sewed them (you could hot glue) to a piece of jute/twine that was the length of my wall.
Once I had that finished, I realized I had a bunch more yard, so I made a second garland to go around the table.
I still had yarn, so instead of buying a number balloon this year, I cut out a number 2 shape from cardboard, and then wrapped it in yarn (using hot glue to adhere it at the back).
I STILL had more yarn left, so I used it as ribbon on my daughter's birthday present. That yarn was the best thing I could've bought!
I've been baking bread (#thanksquarantine), so we decided to have sandwiches, for which I baked the bread the day before.
We also made a veggie tray instead of buying it (not that you could find one here, anyway) - it took one cucumber, 2 carrots, 1 1/2 bell peppers, a small container of cherry tomatoes, and then my husband made a sour cream dip. These were all things we normally already have on hand, so score one for the home team!
One of my favorite parts of the fiesta was this cactus watermelon.
I found an image of something like this on Pinterest, then watched a couple tutorials I found on YouTube, and got to work! It was actually easier than I thought it would be, although you do have to be careful, because as soon as you cut into a watermelon it wants to crack all over. But we did it, yay! (Luckily for us it's still watermelon season, so it was easy to find.)
6. Bake the cake/cookies/dessert yourself
I've only been really baking for about 3 years, so trust me, I've been there. For our son's birthdays in the past we totally ordered a cake. BUT, I really had this specific cake in mind, and thought that if I tried really hard, I could do it.
I got my inspiration from Peggy Porschen Cakes. I used Chelsweets vanilla cake and buttercream frosting recipe. I added a little more cream than the recipe says (although she suggests doing exactly that to achieve the desired consistency). I made her recipe exactly, and it was just enough frosting. If I were to do something more elaborate with the frosting, I would've made a 1.5 batch, but it was perfect for my needs.
I baked the cake layers 3 days in advance and froze them (according to her instructions). This made them easier to torte and frost.
I frosted the cake the day before the party, and stored it in my fridge. (Again, I watched a LOT of tutorials on how to frost a cake as smoothly as possible. Mine isn't perfect, but considering it's only the second or third cake I've every frosted, I'm happy with the results.)
Now the cookies. Ah, the cookies. So, I'm not going to lie, these were hard, and took a couple days' work, but were totally worth it in the end.
About a week before the party, I baked the cookies (I have my favorite recipe here), then I put them in the freezer.
A couple days before the party, I made my icing according to Ann Clark's royal icing recipe (their website is also where I found the cookie cutters).
I watched a bunch of "llama sugar cookie decorating" videos (mainly to see the order in which they iced certain parts). Then, I spent a whole day (thank goodness for school) icing the cookies.
Then, on the day of the party, I assembled it all, and was thrilled with the final result!
7. "Entertainment"
Since we were having the party in our backyard, we once again just worked with what we had. The kids spent the majority of the time on the trampoline, we took the kids' play tent outside, along with some Mega Bloks and our a doll house. We also had a little "coloring station", which I'm not gonna lie, not a single kid cared about, lol!
OH! And we had a piñata! Which was a complete hit! (Get it?)
And there you go! A very budget-friendly and super cute backyard llama party! At the end of the day, what the kids remember the most is that so many people who love them were there, and that they got to eat a couple too many cookies. And that, we had in spades!
