The Breakdown: Fire Truck and Butterfly Birthday Parties

Well, the last two months or so have been all about my kids' birthdays. I am happy that everything turned out so fabulous, but I am even happier that they are done. Not sure their birthdays will be more than a special breakfast and dinner next year. We shall see.

So here is what I did and where I found the ideas for Calan's Fire Truck 2nd Birthday and Maisie's Butterfly 1st Birthday:

Decorations

• Calan's fire truck birthday was inspired by FREE fire truck birthday printables I found online. I used the printables for the everything from the invitation to his birthday banner to party favors. It was a life saver. I kept everything in the red, black, yellow color scheme. I used crae paper and fire hats I found at the dollar store decorated, as well balloons. Pretty simple and easy. 
• For Maisie's, I did a few things the same and added a few more. I fell in love with butterfly printables from Amanda's Parties to Go on Etsy months ago and used that to base everything else from. I used it for her invite, birthday banner, high chair decorations, and cupcake toppers to name a few. I even used it to make a Butterfly Hunt in our backyard. For her dessert table, I found adorable butterfly wall stickers from the Dollar Store of all places and then got a few photos together that I clothes-pinned to some extra ribbon from her birthday banner. I also found a pink flower garland and pink butterfly nets from the Dollar Store. I used a 50-percent-off Michael's coupon to get Martha Stewart's tissue pom-pom kit to finish up outside. 

Food

• Calan's party I did not do a lot of homemade foods. A lot was easy prepared food from Costco. A big hit was the Spinach Ravioli served cold with olive and the seasoning mix that comes in the package. The main dish was just Costco pizza. I thought about making our own, but just did not have the time. I did try to keep the food related to his color scheme of red, black, and yellow. Red, orange, and yellow peppers and did, chopped strawberries, carrots, cheese and crackers, etc. 
• For Maisie's party, I again hit up Costco. Easy peasy. We had pulled pork sliders on pretzel buns,  Asian coleslaw, pesto tortolini (served cold), and chicken caesar salad. Appetizers were meatballs, cheese and butterfly crackers, goat cheese spread, chips with guacamole and salsa. I also made homemade strawberry lemonade and had izze pops (delicious). 

Dessert

• I made vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting with red sprinklers on top and served with vanilla ice cream. My mother-in-law made adorable sugar cookies cutout as fire trucks, hydrants, and fire hats. 
• Maisie's desserts were obviously pretty amazing looking and absolutely delicious. I baked and decorated strawberry cupcakes and frosted with vanilla and Duncan Hines Frosting Creations strawberry shortcake frosting. My mother-in-law again made her amazing sugar cookies decorated to match Maisie's butterfly decor. And Bob's aunt made the amazing cake served with vanilla ice cream. I also had chocolate covered pretzels for anyone with a chocolate sweet tooth. 

Miscellanous

• I found a cute reasonable definitely be able to wear again shirt for Calan at Kohl's. I had to buy Maisie an adorable butterfly pillow-case dress from Etsy that matched her party perfectly. 
• For party favors, Calan gave fire hats, whistles, stickers, and fire truck tattoos. I found bug catchers from the Dollar store that I filled with stickers and butterfly tattoos for Maisie's party. 

Everything was pretty easy to put together. I hope this helps some else plan a fun party for their little ones. Not sure if I mentioned everything, so if there is something you saw in pictures and want to know what I did, please feel free to ask.