Party Planning/A Look Back to Adeline's 2nd Birthday

Since having kids and owning my own home, I've really become interested in party planning and decorating. Everyday I'm looking at decorating or party idea blogs. I love looking at all the creative ideas people come up with! I also love to look at wedding inspiration blogs, but to be honest I get jealous looking at them sometimes! Kinda dumb, huh? I can't help it though! When Matt and I got married it was six weeks after having Adeline and my time and attention was preoccupied with her rather than planning my wedding. I had great help from my mom, sister, aunt, and mother-in-law and I appreciated everything they did...BUT I felt like I didn't even plan my own wedding. It was nice and simple, but totally not something I would plan today. I did very little research on wedding planning and I wasn't really interested in decor and party ideas at the time. Now I love those things!  I would've totally changed the decor of my wedding, my wedding dress that I wasn't too thrilled about even at the time, and even the size of the wedding. I can't complain too much though because all that matters is that Matthew became my husband that day no matter the design, style or type of wedding it was! :) I've hinted at having a 5 year anniversary party or a re commitment ceremony, so we will see if that ever happens!

Now that I'm interested in planning parties I have so much fun planning my kids birthday parties. As they get older hopefully their parties get better and better! A lot of the time, I just can't let myself spend that type of money like they do on parties that are featured on blogs. I'm talking THOUSANDS of dollars put into a kids party. No joke! It's a little too extreme for me. So I try some DIY things and use as much stuff of mine that I can. Once we start throwing the parties at our own home, I'll be able to do more decorating and planning since I won't have to lug everything I have to my in-laws.I also enjoy planning and throwing my kids parties because eventhough they may not remember them when they are young, they will look back at pictures and know that I spent time and thought into making their day special. The day they both were born, were 2 of the best days of my life and on that day every year I want to show them how special they are to me and always will be. It's a celebration of their life and I want to go all out celebrating! :)

Adeline's 1st birthday party pictures are on a different computer so that's why I'm starting with her 2nd party. Now these parties aren't great, but hopefully there are a few ideas that can inspire other people when planning a party, just like I've been inspired by others parties! FYI these pictures are not the greatest quality...it always looks better in person!
I try to do a theme every year, but for her 2nd birthday we didn't want to spend a lot of money so I used everything I already had and just tried to make it girly! I know my kids will probably want to pick their own themes at some point and I have to accept that fact...even if it is Spongebob or Dora! ha

Invitations from Zazzle.com

Red Velvet cupcakes made by Jenny Haas. She also let me borrow the adorable cake plates

Chocolate cake also made by Jenny Haas

I had a jar full of smarties on every table and candy necklaces (my sisters idea...thanks Ash :))

I saw this idea on a blog...covering a whole table with craft paper so the kids could color and put stickers all over the table. They loved it and it gave them something to do

Favor bags I made for the kids...nothing great but they were cheap to make!

Adeline had on the white tutu she wore as flower girl at my sisters wedding