It's (Almost) Party Time!

Just 12 days till Sophia turns ONE! And just 16 days till her party! I'm so pleased with how many inexpensive, little details I've found to make this low-key soiree special for my little lady. With as much thought and research as I've put into this, you'd think it was going to be a large, blow-out affair. But alas, our gathering will be small... but special.

I've got a sort of naturey/owl theme going on with mostly blue and green colors, just like her bedroom is going to be one day. In fact, if you remember the Brooke bedding from PBK that we ordered (the quilt just recently arrived!), I kind of based everything around that. I googled "owl birthday parties" or "owl themed parties" and came up with a few random blog posts with some cute decorating ideas. Nothing over the top, but like I picked up these small, branchy, wreath-looking things from Hobby Lobby for like $1.50 each to set on the table at the base of a couple food bowls. I also found a pretty robin's-egg-blue vase there that I plan to stick some dried branches and maybe some pussy willow in for a naturey look. My boss offered to lend me a decorative bird cage to sit on top our wine rack in the dining room but I'm not sure I need that much. And also, those cute, little, owl dolls (Penny & Joy) that go with her bedding will be keeping watch over our guests from one corner of the buffet in the dining room.

Here are the invitations I found at personalizedpartyinvites.com:
They were super easy to order and arrived pretty quickly, printed on nice, quality card stock. I'm sure I paid considerably more for the ones we sent out at Will's 1st birthday. I know invitations aren't really necessary for small gatherings, but I think it makes them more special and I enjoy sending and receiving invitations. I even send invitations to my friends for our annual pajama brunch at Christmas time... even though they know it's coming every year. :)

Target had these Thank You's on clearance for about $1.50 or so and I picked up some shiny blue and green ribbon to put around some serving dishes and maybe vases?

I think I'm going to use all square-shaped serving dishes, so I found green, square plates too and blue napkins. Napkins from the Dollar Store and plates from Target.

The party starts at 4pm, so it's not quite dinner time and way too late for lunch. Therefore, our menu is going to consist of "substantial appetizers" and dessert. I'm planning a fruit and veggie platter, each with a dip, a veggie pizza, some cheese and crackers, a berry punch, bakery-made cupcakes (I'm keeping MY workload simple!) and then hopefully these cute, birds nest treats that I found on Family Fun: http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/hummingbird-nests-847672/. Casey is lending me some tiered serving trays for the desserts and I also have some Easter colored M&M's to put out in small dishes.

Remember that Etsy website I mentioned back in my Owl Crazy post? Well I also found a woman who makes custom, personalized cupcake picks! So I can just have the bakery frost them and maybe add some colored sugar flakes and then just poke one of these owl picks in. How cute are they?

I had to turn off the flash to get a close-up without washing them out.

I found these little favor bags at Target on clearance and I'm planning to stick one buttefly hairclip (also on clearance from Childrens Place - ~$1.50 for a set of two) inside along with those mini owl dolls I posted in my Owl Crazy post awhile back. Here's the lady that makes the mini owls: http://www.etsy.com/shop/aprilfoss?section_id=6316165. And the only other thing I'd like to purchase for the favors are small, bird-feeder treats that can hang in a tree. I thought that'd be a cute favor to go with our theme.

Depending on weather, Sophie's either going to wear her long-sleeved Easter dress with the tights (the colors go with the party decor) or a super cute dress my mom got her for Christmas from the Gap. It's a kelly green and blue floral print and short-sleeved. I searched Etsy for an owl hairclip and came up with this one, which I ordered: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=44110074. But I also have that one she wore for Easter as an option.

And lastly, I found this little gift bag at Meijer. I don't have anything to put in it yet, but it was too cute to pass up. :)

Okay, that's it! Now all I have to do is have my house clean and assemble the easy menu!

One more thing to share... Eventually we are planning to paint Sophie's room a blue and green (bottom half green, top half blue) and I was considering a non-permanent, non-damaging wall decal for decoration. Here is one I'm strongly interested in: http://www.landofnod.com/family.aspx?c=9676&f=4356