This post has been anticipated for awhile. Maybe so long that it's lost it's steam and excitement, but I'm going to put it out there anyway.
Waaayyyy back in February, my baby turned TWO. His current obsession is tractors, and he calls himself "tractor boy", so the theme for his party was pretty obvious!
I decided to go with what I'm calling a "Mod Tractor" theme, and I wanted to get big bang on a budget. I mixed vintage tractors {Johnny Poppers} with chevron and used lime green and school bus yellow accents. I'm also not a big fan of characters {Spider-Man and Batman, SpongeBob, etc}, so I limited the licensed John Deere accents too...
Because we don't have a TON of friends and family near by, I saved money and nixed invites. Everyone just got a text. LAME! I know, but I'm being honest...
I hope you're ready for a picture thick post, because here I go...
I happened to have a cake mix on hand, so I just bought some green frosting and some yellow stuffed Oreos. The idea was to make them look like tractor tires in grass. BIG fail, in my book, but they worked! I bought the yellow number "2" candle for $.60. The yellow and white striped cupcake liners were from HeyYoYo on Etsy {the green paper straws were from her too}. She's one of my favorite party vendors! Tip: Always add another cupcake liner after baking, so you can see the vibrant colors!
I added height to the cupcake display by turning one of my white square bowls upside down, adding a green plate I had on hand and topping it off with my cupcake stand. I just cut a circle from a yellow and white paper chevron bag and layered it underneath. Not perfect, but you have to be resourceful, and it ALWAYS feels good to save some dough and use what you already have. Open up those cupboards and start playing!
I kept the menu easy and SIMPLE. I preordered a dozen "tractor tire" doughnuts from Walmart {$3.60}. Then, I picked the doughnuts up on party day and grabbed the rest of the supplies. We served up a fruit tray "Harvest" {$5.97 with dip}, a bag of cheddar popcorn "Johnny Popper Corn" {$3.00}, some mini cookies and cream cupcakes {12 for $3.50}, butterscotch candies "Sunshine" {$1/bag and 2 bags filled my apothecary jay}, some lemons and limes and a gallon of lemonade. I also ordered pizza and bread sticks and offered bottled water to anyone who didn't want lemonade. That was it, and it was just enough!
His friends all got to take home a package of tractor shaped sidewalk chalk. Aren't they too cute?! They were $5.75/6, and Christie was great to work with. She even made me a custom order of all green and yellow tractors for the party {each friend got one of each color}. I couldn't resist and just ordered Preston a set for his Easter basket, because mommy was trying to save money and only ordered enough for his friends for the party! Go check Sunshine and Sidewalks out for this summer!
I got the adorable DIY printable favor packaging from chickabug. She created the "Happy Birthday" banner too. I just printed, cut, strung and hung! Easy peasy, and there's no ship time with PDF printable files! I did add yellow Easter grass to all the favor bags. The grass was bought at a dollar store. Don't feel compeled to go all out in the favor department. Sometimes one really cute treat is WAY better than a zillion matchy-matchy, sugar-filled, designer buckets that cost way too much and were way too underappreciated!
My Paper Pantry also made this larger tractor {$3.00} and added the number 2 at no cost...
The drink table cost next to nothing. The yellow plastic utensils, green dinner napkins, yellow dinner plates, green dessert plates and yellow cups were $1/package {the green table cloth on the food table was $1 too}. I used my grandma's vintage yellow and white plaid table runner underneath, my drink dispenser and a few other accessories I had on hand. That chevron ribbon and those cute little paper tractors were used over there too as "Tools" {silverware} and "Fuel" {lemonade}. I wrapped the silverware with the green napkins and some green twine I had on hand, and my mom happened to have the perfect straw holder already. She was gracious enough to let me borrow it.
Over at the gift/kids eating table, I tied some helium balloons to a toy tractor Preston already had.
The white tractor balloons were one of my favorite party finds, but they appear to be sold out now. I got the green and yellow "Happy 2nd Birthday" balloons from the same site {$.80/package}. The little white table and chair set was Preston's birthday gift from mommy. I got that at Pottery Barn Kids. Thank goodness for tax returns!
These streamer mobiles were the only real craft project I made for this party. I just bought two packages of crepe paper {one of each color} and two cross stitch hoops. I used the inside wooden hoops and tossed the outside hoops {the ones with the screws}. Then, I hot glued the streamers around the hoops and finished the tops off with the yellow chevron ribbon. Lastly, I hung them from my dining room light fixture with my green twine and trimmed the streamers to my desired length. Tip: If you decide to do this project, make them longer than you think you need and trim once hung.
I'll leave you with some party action shots. I'll warn you. I had a bit of fun playing around with Picnik.com
Note: I did do a 2nd Birthday photo shoot prior to the party. They had a tractor prop, so we snapped a few of my tractor boy, and I used some as party accents {one framed at the drink table and one collage hung on my dining room bulletin/chalk board behind the food table}. We went to Portrait Innovations. They were wonderful with Preston, affordable, and they print your pictures right there. No return pick-up trips! A HUGE plus for this mommy.
P.S.
I still don't have a working camera, so all of these party pictures were captured with my cell. That explains the less than blog perfect shots and poor quality, but that's where Picnik comes in handy. Did I mention I'm REALLY going to miss that site?!
Crystal xoxo
