Birthday Party

First things first, before I get to the trip, I need to share some photos of the birthday party.  We had it a month after their birthday because that was when family from California came.  My husband's family, my mother, my sister and her son, who is only 8 months older than the girls, all flew in a week before we left for California. 

I learned never to invite house guests right before big trip.  I was exhausted from trying to get the house ready anytime the girls were busy playing or sleeping.  But it turned out well.  I was so busy during the party that I did not take a single picture.  So I am relying on pictures my father-in-law took.

"Under the Sea" was the theme using white, coral and turquoise for theme colors.  The girls wore onesies that I had added a ruffled bum and ruffled sleeves to.  D's had coral ruffles and a turquoise felt applique of a sea horse.  T's had turquoise ruffles and a coral starfish that you can see most of below.  Their Leila brought coordinating bows with seahorses and starfish.

I found great paper decorations of sea life at the dollar store.  I put them on the walls of the play room with green streamers that I taped up to look like kelp.  I did that little by little over the months leading up to the party while they girls played.  The morning of the party I threaded dark blue, light blue and  white balloons on fishing line and hung them across the playroom like ocean waves so we were really under the sea. 

I knitted five really cool looking jellyfish in the themes colors.  Beside being different color combinations, they were also very different because I wasn't always paying attention to what I was doing while knitting them.  One turned out really small because I didn't want to go back and correct a mistake I had made early on in the pattern.  My mistakes turned out well though; I like that they are so different and individual.
  

In the dining room I hung coral and white tissue poofs of different sizes from the light and in the corners.  I made a couple stuffed tropical fish and a star fish out of scrap material to hang around the coral "reef" of the poofs.

My sister-in-law cut great looking sea animals out of card stock to decorate the walls and even hang from some of the poofs.  Some of them were so detailed and looked great!

On the wall I hung two coral ribbons with picture from every month of the girls' lives from birth until their actual birthday.  Each photo was labeled with a starfish or seahorse that had how many months old they were.  I also printed out a sign with their name, birth date and time, how much the weigh and their length.  It is neat to see how they grew and changed during the course of their first year.

 I kept the decorations minimal in the hallway and living room because most of the action was happening in the other rooms.  Blue poofs with hanging sea life (don't you just love the octopus) and few bunches of balloons kept it festive but easy. 

 I made a great cake in the shape of a fish with a store bought mix for the head and tail and home-made low sugar sweet potato and banana muffins for the body.  Unfortunately, I don't think anyone got a picture of it.  The girls enjoyed it though.

 Here is T getting messy.  Their aunt brought them the matching birthday girl bibs that are now stained with icing.

D ate her whole muffin!  Then H came over to hang out with his little cousins.

The birthday party was a success and I couldn't have done it without my family helping get the house clean and decorated.  Thank you!