I plan my party themes months in advance, so I had already started planning this one for Jay, when he changed his mind and decided on Superheros instead, therefore Andy- who was turning two and had less of an opinion and still loves airplanes got a Planes party.
A few months before the party, we took a trip to the small local airport to visit a friend who works there and took some pictures with planes.
After I decided on an orange and teal theme, I loved searching clearance isles and other places for things to fit the theme.
I also started working on making the planes logo (wings) to say Andy, but when I failed in my Photoshop skills I asked a friend (graphic designer) to help me finish it...and it looks amazing.
Here's the party:)
The Decorations:
I love chevron, so I incorporated it by using some borders from my classroom. I found them at my local teacher store, but you can also get them
on Amazon
I made the triangle banner using 12x12 cardstock and I couldn't find teal, so I covered the teal ones with wrapping paper.
This was the outside decoration, I used flags from
Oriental Trading here and on the inside. Normal orange cones don't have a hole in the top, but this one was very broken so it did.
This decoration says "Time Flies" and was inspired by
THIS pin. The cloud was made by his brother in 3 year old preschool:)
I bought this poster on
Amazon and it was inspired by
THIS birthday party I saw on pintrest. I used the chevron border around it.
Jay painted a mason jar orange as a vase for me at school, so I used it as a decoration
The clouds were stuffing left over from a pillow my mom made one time. I got the idea from
THIS pin. I bought the dusty flyers at
Oriental Trading. they are cute, but they fall apart pretty easily, so I hung a few on the ceiling and didn't even bother putting the others out. I put the tablecloths above the sliding glass door so it was easy to see the clouds, and because I loved
THIS idea from pintrest.
I used a small table and decorated it with similar decorations from the food table because Jay wanted to play with his planes on it. The point was for kids to pick up a plane or two and take them to different landing zones throughout the party...
That happened for like a min. or two before things mostly just got scattered around:)
No party would be complete without a balloon banner in theme colors.
I also have to give a shout out to
THIS picture, that inspired me.
The Favors:
I had a great time making the party favors for very cheap. I used Jay's suitcase that happens to be rimmed in orange, I bought a light up arch set after halloween for $1.00 and was about to throw them away because I didn't think the lights worked, when a few more came on...so I tied them together, hid the bottom and plugged them in inside the suitcase. The Dusty cups were .48 each at Target, the planes were .50 each when the dollar spot items went to 50% off about 8 months ago. Inside there were pipsqueak markers 4/.30 when Target dollar spot went to 70% off, the coloring sheets came in a pack of 100 coloring sheets that I found a coupon for (found in the Crayola area). Candy was leftover from Easter clearance (or maybe Valentines day). The slippers were from Goodwill and they fit him for a few months before he grew out of them, but I couldn't resist using them for decoration.
The Food:
I got the idea for Dusty's Dippers from
THIS pin, but wanted to have options for dip.
The cake was inspired by
THIS and
THIS. We already owned the orange hanger set from a different birthday, and I made the flags using checkered print duck-tape.
I loved that the inside was orange too, which was actually super easy to do (split the cake batter in 1/2 and put (Good) orange food coloring in some of it.
These cupcake toppers are meant to be part of a mobile, but for a
FREE printable they work great as cupcake toppers too. The Flags are from Oriental Trading and are called "Race Car Flag Picks"
I thought these "in-flight snacks" would be perfect for a 2 year old birthday party, but I also served tavern(sloppy-joes) and hot dogs from the crock-pot in the kitchen.
I have always wanted to use the fancy colored straws at a birthday party.
THIS party inspired these and the use of the tin can. I found some on clearance at Target this winter, and thought it would be perfect to make Cloud 9 Marshmallows. I dipped them in white almond bark that I dyed teal. They didn't turn out a cute as I thought (maybe because I displayed them too close together) and I never actually tried to see if they were good so I'm not sure if I will do those again.
It is very difficult to find cheap enough Orange and Teal candy. I could order online, but it would cost a ton. I ended up using goldfish, Reese's pieces (from an orange carrot looking Easter decoration, Sixlets (left over from Halloween that I got super cheap and took all the blacks out), and Easter M&M's (I kept all the teal and white, and bagged the purple, pink and yellow for other occasions:) I'm glad I got creative and didn't spend and arm and a leg for candy.
I wanted to think harder about how to make teal jello, but ran out of time. The spray cool whip on the top looked great at first, then started melting:)
I loved the drinks at
THIS party, so I attemped to replicate it..
Only Powerade was on sale, and I couldn't find a teal color. Then my nice drink dispenser broke two nights before the party, so John found this one at Walmart the night before the party and it is very cute, just not the right color...so the drinks got their own table.
I made
THIS punch which was delicious, but didn't take any pictures until a little later.
Pictures of us:
Andy fell asleep before we were out of the zoo parking lot. Then we visited uncle Chad
Then we stopped at the Candy Shop and got a tour and some free candy
