Yellow & green makes... PARTY!

After seeing these cakes floating around on the internet, I decided (a year ago!) to have a rainbow-themed birthday party for the kids.  A platter of rainbow-colored fruit, an assortment of rainbow-colored candies (hmm... Skittles, anyone?), a rainbow layer cake as the star.  The possibilities were endless.   

But then Keren (who did our maternity & newborn pics with Lilah) did a rainbow party for her daughter, and decided I had to be different (especially since she's going to photograph the party and attempt to capture a family pic beforehand.)  So I took inspiration from Chad's brother's wedding last summer, and chose... lemon & lime!  Of course Lilah will be the sweet & sassy lemon (dressed in yellow) and Aidan will be the sourpuss lime (in green.)  heehee  JUST KIDDING Aidan.  You're not always a sourpuss. 

Kam's whipping up an outfit any 1-year-old at a lemon-lime party would die to wear.  (inspiration pic below.)  And she's making a shirt for Aidan too.  She's just that good.  (Check out her etsy business, Punchkin Wear!)

Invitations were the easy part.  HA!  Yeah, right.  They literally drained the life essence from me.  Sort of like a podling (name that movie!!)  But I was so pleased with them in the end.  My uber-talented card-making friend Hollie offered to whip them up for me, and I almost took her up on it.  But I'm glad, in the end, that I can take 100% credit for making these bad boys.  Well, except that I totally stole the idea off the internet (here and here.)  What can I say?  I'm a great copycat. 

I changed a few things from the tutorial I linked above.  I didn't punch holes for the stick - just taped it down on the inside (tape runners are awesome!), and then taped the white insert (which I printed on my computer) to the stick (not to the green card, so it was kind of raised.)  Love how it turned out.  Oh, and I found the fonts here for free (the party info font is called "Pea Sarah Lynne" and the artsy font in the center is called "Pea Aimee."  Love how hand-drawn it looks!)  For anyone who has used kevin & amanda fonts before, they now have a link to download ALL of their fonts at once (over 200!!)  The hardest part was narrowing down my favorites!      

I stamped the envelopes with my citrus stamp and ordered these adorable silhouette labels with the kids' names on them.  They had several "big brother/little sister" options.  I liked "Carrie & Wyatt" too, but for some reason, I could only picture Kam's kids, Natey & Arielle.  Maybe it was the longer hair in the back of the boy, like Natey's gorgeous curls.  So I went with "Lucas and Carrie."  The cowlick on the boy's head looks just like Aidan's.  And I thought the balloons were fitting for a party.  : )

And I've been working on the grand centerpiece of the party... a lemon & lime candy buffet!  Here's my inspiration, courtesy of Amy Atlas events. 

Of course mine won't be as colorful, since I'm only using yellow & green candy.  But I've spent many an hour online, researching prices, finding just the right treats.  Hardest part was finding candy in bulk that wasn't a 5 lb bag (maybe for a wedding, but not for a small party!)  I really, really wanted these yellow malted milk balls (Whoppers), but could only find them for $80 for 5 lbs.  Boo.  And some companies had ridiculous shipping costs (seriously, $48??), which I didn't discover until just before checkout. 

I almost bought these swirly lollipops (they were in my "cart" for a loooong time), but the price was just too much for the quantity.  On the same site, though, I found these cheaper, smaller lollipops, that won't break the bank (or my kids' teeth!)  Don't you love these 18" tall unicorn twister lollipops?? Just a passing dream.

I found plenty of other goodies too, including lemon & key lime pie jelly slices, green apple gumballs, lemonheads (of course!), and banana Laffy Taffy ropes... just to mention a few.  Picked up a few more containers at Target.  And can't you see glasses of lemonade on that tray?  (the Nerds and Groovy pops are ready and waiting in our garage, right next to the kitty carriers!)

And that's not all!  I'm also attempting to make my first cake pops!  Kameron has inspired me (she's going through Bakerella's Cake Pops book in Julie & Julia style), so I thought I'd give them a try.  Then I just need a smash cake for the kids (ya think Aidan would want one too??) and I'm set!  My mom and I are doing a couple hors d'œuvres, but mostly, it's just sweets.  My kind of party!!   

(more finds at Michael's - a frame, placecard holders, $1 pails & bubble wands.  And some fun ribbon from Art & Soul, a rubber stamp store here in Olympia.)

Found this cute lollipop candle for the smash cake.  Even after telling the girl at the checkout that I was so excited I found a lollipop candle, she warned me THREE times about not eating the candle.  She kept repeating, "You know it's not edible, right?"  "You're not going to feed this to her, are you?" (pointing to Lilah.)  "Um, this is a candle, not a real lollipop."  I know it's a freakin' candle, ok???? 

I'm also doing some DIY decorating!  Found this fun art print online and thought, I could make that!  So I did (I'll take a pic of my final product at the party.)  Just found a similar font, did a lot of tweaking of font sizes and placement, and voila!  It's waiting for me at Costco right now, all printed out. $2.99 instead of $29.  (mental note: I must stop saying voila!  I swear, it's in every blog post.) 

Here's the part where I'm stumped.  I need some activities/games for the kids.  Of course, I would love them to be lemon/lime related, but they don't have to be. We're having it at our house, so space is limited.  Hopefully it'll be nice that day, so we can kick the kids outside.  But since Aidan's train table (and our plethora of toys) are inside, I imagine the kids will be lingering indoors.  Maybe a craft project?  I don't have a huge dining room table, though.  I thought about having them decorate their own cupcakes, but that was nixed when the "cake pops" idea came on board.  Help!!  Anyone have some fun ideas that your own kids liked at other parties?? 

I'm trying to get so caught up in the party-planning part, that I'll hopefully forget the fact that Lilah's turning 1 and Aidan's turning 3 (so I can avoid the sob-fest I know is coming.)  I'm not ready to be a mom of a  preschooler and a toddler.  They're still my babies, aren't they??  Then again, I could be a mom of a fifth grader (my kids at school remind me all the time that I'm OLDER than their moms.  And you were wanting an "A" in music?  Ahem.) 

So there you have it, folks.  Obsessive party planning at it's finest.

p.s. stopped in at the Dollar Tree tonight, just for kicks, and guess what I found??  The pièce de résistance of my candy buffet... yellow and green toothbrushes!!!  heehee  Thought that'd be sorta funny, don'tcha think?  I didn't actually expect to find 'em, but I literally walked down the first aisle, looked to my right, and there they were.  I know, exciting stuff.  : )   I only bought 6 packs (each came with one yellow & one green), since I figure not everyone wants a dollar store-quality toothbrush.  Gotta have standards.