Birthday Party Details!!

This past Saturday we had Lilly and Reid's birthday party. We had a beach party! In my opinion it turned out super cute and the kids had a blast! (I will be doing a separate post with party-goers and such.) Here are the details! The invite! My talented friend Laura designed them. The crab is really holding the address and phone number so I had to blot over it...but when trying to get the full image...imagine that. (: Of course the CUTEST details of the whole party will always be the birthday girl and boy!!! Ladies and gentlemen-she really is as sweet as that smile! And so is this guy!!

Guests were "welcomed" by this sign at the door. Lilly's is on the left and Reid's is on the right. That is correct...his hands and feet are at least the same size as hers if not bigger. Gulp.

Ok...confession...I didn't get a picture of the happy birthday sign until later that night after the party when some of the balloons had already fallen and the banner was sagging. So, again, just picture the ceiling covered and banner hanging straight at the end. I drew the letters for "Happy Birthday" in the sand at the beach and then took pictures of each letter to make the banner. I thought it turned out really cute!

The overall view of the this side of the room.

A picture of Reid from each month of the past year was to the right of the door. Thanks to DeDe for putting most of these together!

And a picture of Lilly from each of the past 12 months was to the left of the door. I can't believe how much they have grown in the past year!!!

The dessert table. All the labels had an ocean animal made out of the kids' handprints on them. I LOVED that detail!!! Of course, I LOVE all things made out of my kids' handprints!

The Sandcakes, Beach cupcakes, and Jumping Dolphin Jello. Thanks to my mom for figuring out this cute way to arrange them! It turned out adorable!

Beach cupcakes. I saw the idea for these on pinterest. Sam's made the cupcakes and frosted them (with a little urging on doing two colors) and then we stuck the umbrellas and beachballs (mints) on them.

Sandcakes. This is supposed to be the summer version of a "dirt cake". I got the idea/recipe here.

This was just made with blue jello and some dolphin suckers I got from Oriental Trading Company.

Clam cookies. These were pretty much a double doozie with a marshmallow and eyes. They were a BIG hit. There were none left over.

I forgot to get a close-up picture of these while they were hanging on either side of the light above the dessert table but I thought they were too cute to leave out. The kids each painted one and then I just added the ribbon and eyes. (Instructions here.)

"Sand dollars and Seaweed Spread"--aka chips and spinach dip.

Again, I didn't get a picture of this totally set up but our "Ocean Potions" were Kool-Aid and Sweet Tea.

Our Seafood Snack-Bar...We served all of this kind of food out of sand pails.

Sweedish Redfish, Goldfish, Whales, and Beach-ball mints.

Submarine Sandwich Bar

I just thought it was a cute touch that my mom set the napkins and forks up to look like waves.

Outside we had the sandpile (Wondering how in the world we got a huge pile of sand??? Check the post below this one!) for the kiddos to play on. It was a huge hit!! So thankful we were able to have this!

Our "Ocean". Ha! Complete with sea creatures. Haha! We also had a ton of beach balls because no beach party is complete without them.

The octopus pinata I made. I wish I would have taken a picture before we started trying to hang it. More details on that in another post.

Sea Urchin Sponge Bombs. This was our first experience with sponge bombs and we love them. I didn't really advertise that they are really to be thrown at one another for the party but the kids seemed to have fun just playing with them.

Ocean animal water squirters. I got these from Oriental Trading Co.

Color-Your-Own Beachballs for the kids to color and take home. (From Oriental Trading Co).

Make-Your-Own Oceans (They just put sand and seashells in a bottle of water). To be honest, the kids were really to busy swimming and playing in the sand to do much of this. But the idea is still cute!

I thought it all came together (with the help of MoMo and DeDe) and turned out awesome!! We had such a fun time and my babies are still talking about their party. (: