Most parents are eager to go to extremes to make their children's birthdays fun and memorable. Even when the kids are under five, a time when most of the extravagance is lost on their young minds and tissue paper and boxes are the true hit for them, we find ourselves going overboard with the birthday festivities. Is it for the photo op, something you can share with them when they're older so they can look back and think fondly of how much thought and effort their folks put into making their parties fun? That kind of appreciative retrospect doesn't hit until they're in their late twenties, if even then. I've concluded that we do it as much for ourselves as for our kids, and that planning and executing the perfect party is, for us, waxing nostalgic on birthdays we wished we'd had - or at least improving upon them. One-upping our own parents, if you will. And boy, did we ever!
When you're operating as a stay-at-home mom in a family of five on one income, your purse strings are cinched and your budget is very thin. I felt inspired on what I wanted to do for my twin daughters first birthday, but clueless on where to begin. Pinterest had some good ideas for DIY party planning, and Etsy had some great deals on props and outfits. I've never been the crafty sort, but this time I schooled myself hard on some of this DIY stuff, and enlisted the help of my best friend who is the Crafting Mogul Extraordinaire. Together, we pulled off a pretty awesome Twin Girl 1st Birthday, even though the circumstances ultimately ended up working against us.
Our theme was Fairy Princess, and in a perfect world where dad's wallet was a bottomless money pit, I would have opted for the freshest, most beautiful floral arrangements money could buy. I wanted there to be pretty flowers strewn about as far as they eye could see, and even silk flowers are expensive, so we opted to make coffee filter paper flowers. I'd love to credit the exact tutorial I found to do these, but I ended up using several different methods from several different tutorials and the truth of it is - I never bookmarked them. So I'll attempt to recreate the tutorial from memory as best as I can.
I used several packs of both small and large coffee filters, which you can snag at a Dollar Tree store, which I did - but I also had awesome friends who just happened to become ex-coffee-drinkers and just happened to have filters stockpiled. For the dye, I used several (extremely old) packets of Kool-Aid that I found stowed away in our pantry. Scotch tape and staples were the only other extra expense. Like I said, I wanted TONS of flowers, so I knew this was going to be a long, drawn-out undertaking. I needed to do these in bulk, and in my spare time, which is sparse at best.
I dyed the filters in the sink, because it can get pretty messy. The first night I failed to wear gloves so my fingernails and cuticles were several different ugly shades for a day or two. Doh! I'd add the kool-aid to a bowl and mix with water, submerse the filters until they reached the desired color, and then wring them out until they were only barely damp. Coffee filters are RESILIENT! The good part about using kool-aid instead of dye is that they smelled like strawberry, grape, blueberry and lemon-lime:
Then it was time to lay them out to dry. They were literally strewn everywhere until I finally figured out that sticking the damp colored filters in the clothes dryer would shave off many hours of wait time. This wasn't included in the original tutorial, but this improvisation gave an awesome effect by making the filters crinkle up and become less stiff and more pliable.
The most labor intensive part of the whole ordeal was flattening out a HUGE mound of coffee filters so they could be sorted and pressed. It doesn't look like it, but there's at least 900 coffee filters here:
The sorting of colors, then the pressing them in a stack of books to rid of dryer wrinkles. Others may iron them out, but seriously - who has time for that? The pressing left just enough fine creases to make the flowers look real.
The folding was a bit cumbersome and I'll admit that the first twenty or so looked kind of pitiful until I got the technique down pat, but this craft was well worth the time and effort! After the filters dried, six were stacked evenly, folded in half, then in half again. The edges were scalloped with scissors while all folded up. They were unfolded, and dented in the center until I had a "grabbable" stem to hold onto. I scotch-taped the stems to make them more stiff. Then I just scrunched up each layer of filter until the flower shape was achieved.
I had TONS of colored shreds of filters leftover, and frugality can sometimes lead to invention. I decided to save the shreds and was glad that I did! I ended up using them inside the clear vases I used for the DIY cupcake tier. It matched the flowers perfectly since they were literally cut from the same stock. If you make coffee filter flowers - save those shreds! I thought of a thousand other uses for them.
We had pink, purple, white, tie-dyed colors and a few light blue flowers strewn everywhere! After they were dyed, dried, sorted and pressed, I'd often take a few stacks in the bedroom with me at night and fold flowers in bed while watching television with my husband. I was pretty proud of these little gems!
A few more homemade decorations were made, like these cardboard circles I'd planned on using behind their high chairs. Markers, stickers and poster-board petals, which hadn't been glued yet:
My BFF Tracy helped me make such an awesome homemade cupcake tier using plastic platters and clear vases from the Dollar Tree. Some of THE BEST cupcakes prepared and decorated by said bestie made for an awesome table arrangement. I made pink Jello in plastic wine glasses leftover from our wedding. The *Smash* cupcakes were HUGE and intricately frosted. A plastic tablecloth was tied as a valance from two doorways. The result was a very nice birthday table! I found a few leftover dyed coffee filter circles hiding in a book and since they hadn't been cut, we used them as doilies underneath the silver Dollar Tree platters.
The balloons were up. The cutesie little princess tutu outfits were steamed. The little crocheted barefoot sandals with pearl buttons and floral embellishments were set aside. We were ready to throw the biggest, bestest twin birthday party EVER! *cue doom music*
...The morning of the party, our little Samantha woke up with 104° fever and cried non-stop. We tried bringing the fever down with children's Tylenol, but the mercury never budged. We ended up taking her to the emergency room after family (and some friends) had arrived bearing gifts and ready to party. With a "show must go on" determination, we left bestie Tracy in charge, notified the rest of the invited guests, and dressed sister Sophia in her party outfit. Luckily the viral infection Samantha had was relatively short lived, but it was a stark reminder of how no matter how much time, effort and preparation you put into a party - be ready to initiate a PLAN B to fall back on when the unthinkable happens.
Sophia shined that day, but she was acutely aware of her sister being absent for most of the party. Although we were relieved that Samantha's condition was going to improve and we were able to bring her home, it was weird seeing Sophia all dolled up without her sister by her side.
When Samantha returned from the E.R., she was in no mood to party. She just wanted to whimper and lay her head on someone's chest. She was a trooper as she watched her sister open their collective presents.
The next day, her fever was gone and Samantha was on the mend. We'd left all the decorations in place. We dressed her up and let her celebrate her 1st birthday with her twin sister, who naturally came down with the same virus several days later. It was great seeing them celebrate together even though it wasn't at the actual party! And who can resist photo ops in matching tutus?
SMASH-CAKE TIME. You're never too sick to smear frosting on your sister and enjoy some Jello "champagne"!
No comments:
Post a Comment