Tropical Birthday Bash

Kendra at My Insanity is celebrating two years of blogging and having a party themed linky party. I never shared ER's second birthday party and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. Plus with so much snow on the ground, who couldn't use a little tropical fun?Guests were greeted with this fun hanging sign I made for our front door. It's just a piece of foam core cut to 11X11. I glued on a sheet of 12X12 patterned scrapbook paper, folding the edges over for a smooth edge. Then I created the rest of the sign with a Coluzzle lettering template and Sizzlets die cuts. I think dies from three different sets were used. Some of the flowers have metal brad centers. (Note the two candles on the cake, cause I am that cheesy☺)
I made two banners to decorate the house. The first one out of inexpensive leis from the party store, cut two and tie together. To personalize it, I printed out six photos from the past year and tied on with ribbon. It was a fun way to show how much ER had grown over the past year.
This banner was in our kitchen. Just cut out as many pieces as you need for your saying. So it wouldn't look quite so random just hanging in the middle of the wall, I used the same die cuts from the door sign above, on each end. The PARTY letters were created out of lots of little tropical flower die cuts.Here is a better view of one of the letters from the banner.

Every good party has lots of pretty flowers, right? This was the centerpiece on one of our long tables. I love the bright green of the limes and the yellow of the daisy's. I halved each piece of fruit but if I did it again I'd slice them. You'd probably need fewer and have less waste, while getting the same look.

We didn't have a tropical inspired lunch, I thought about it and looked for some recipes, but stuck with family favorites I knew most people would like. It was a simple buffet style meal with grilled chicken, potato salad, pasta salad, Asian slaw, fruit, veggies & dip, and fresh tomato & basil salad.
For lunch I made what has since become a bit of a trademark of mine, these easy wrapped utensils. It makes things easy to grab and go when you're also carrying a full plate of food. Plus it looks pretty. All you do is wrap up your utensils in a napkin. Tape on a strip of cardstock and then tape on a coordinating die cut. I've made versions of these shell wraps for three more parties so far.
Extra forks and spoons were in this wrapped toddler snack food container, ready for dessert time. These are the same type of container I used last Easter for my upcycled treat containers.
The container was wrapped with patterned paper and then embellished. This time I started with a vellum quote I tied to a tag and then adhered. I added yet more tropical and beach themed die cuts either below or around the printed vellum.

I even added a little tropical flair to my Tupperware Serving Center Set, with some ribbon and embellished tag. I super duper big ♥ this set, it's been used so many times over the years!

We made the birthday cake out of two box mixes, half was yellow and the other side chocolate. I was inspired by Bakerella's Bikini Beach Bears. It came out pretty cute but was almost the cause of the disintegration of my marriage. I had wanted to order a cake, Brad said no way are we paying for a cake. How hard can it be, well when I was hysterical the day of the party and nothing was working out, he found out. For ER's third birthday, one of the first things he did was order a cake. I thought the surface should be flat like a sheet cake, but trying to even it out was a nightmare and caused the whole thing to begin to crumble. We were short on frosting and then the "sand" wouldn't stick on to the cake. Funny thing was, that my aunt asked us how we got the cool "wave" into the cake. LOL, um...it occurred naturally.

While it might look pretty easy to my more experienced friends, let me remind you we are not bakers. Not in the least and this was probably too ambitious for me, with too many first times involved. My bears are no where near as impressive as Bakerella's, but then again who's are, but in the end I was quite proud of myself.
Here's our birthday girl, with her own little cake, that Grandma Norma made her. Grandma was sweet enough to make two more personal cakes for each of ER's little guests too. It was a very fun and memorable party:) But a lot of work, we decided to give ourselves a break and take the party on the road for her third birthday party. Then I could concentrate on what I really wanted to, crafting the favors.

Don't forget to stop by Kendra's to wish her Happy 2nd Blogiversary tomorrow and to see what everyone else has linked up. I can't wait to see all the party ideas and get some inspiration for our next one! It's also a part of Blue Cricket Design's Show & Tell, DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land, Making the World Cuter, and