I love parties!

I love planning parties, decorating for parties, and hosting parties.

During the year, we don’t buy our kiddos a lot of extra except what they need, such as new shoes, clothes, items for an activity and ect.  So when their birthdays come around, I always want to make them special.  I will just say for the record, that yes I sometimes always  go overboard.  It drives the husby crazy!

But I also like to host birthday parties for family and friends as well.  And when I plan birthdays for them I have to stick to a budget.  I will say it’s not always easy.

My two great nieces turned four and five a few weeks back.  they came to stay with us for a few days the week of their birthdays, which happens to be two days apart from each other, and I wanted to make it special for them.

Since I have been tutoring this summer, I happened to have two of the kiddos at my house that day, whom my nieces know from church.  I thought wouldn’t it be fun to throw them a small birthday party!  Of course my mind started spinning as I got to planning.  Even though I wanted to make it special, I also needed to keep it small, in the budget and on a time schedule.

My daughter Lindy started looking for leftover party supplies I keep stashed around the house while I started on cakepops.  I prefer making cakepops for small parties.  They are fast, easy and so much fun.  I make my cake and icing homemade and I had white chocolate and sprinkles on hand from all the baking I do so I was out no expense.

Lindy found green and yellow streamers that a friend had gave to me, that I thought would make a great background.  Next we  found a roll of leftover pink tablecloth from a church fundraiser last year.  I also found a teal tablecloth that was leftover from Lindy’s birthday last month,  that we used for a table runner.

It was starting to come together and so far I hadn’t spent anything.

I realized that we didn’t have plates, forks and napkins so I ran to the store to pick those up  and found the cute yellow striped straws for .50.  I left the store with my supplies and only spent $4.00 plus tax.  When I got back home I placed the forks in a cute pink bucket, finished the cake pops and decided on strawberry lemonade to drink.  I mixed together half a package of sugar-free lemonade koolaid and 1/2 pack of sugar-free strawberry  koolaid, added a lemon slice on the side and “voila” we had party punch.

Instead of using party cups, I used these cute plasic hug juice containers that I save and reuse.  they were perfect with the yellow striped straws.

At Lindys party, we had photo props, so I pulled those out, put them in a cute bucket, added a couple frames that I had picked up at a thrift store several months back and hadn’t used and we had a really cute photo booth.

I used a couple cute colored bowls for goldfish and gumballs, also left from Lindy’s party.

I placed the cakepops on a cake stand and we were almost ready.

The last thing we needed was party hats.  I found a few pieces of leftover scrapbook paper that I had used for a craft and elastic string I had bought for another project I am working on, and we made these cute, tall party hats.

The kiddos love them!

Meet Jessie!  Look at that sweet face!

It was fast, threw together all before 1 pm.  It was cheap, spent appx $4.50 total and it was fun!

Meet Silly Maddie!

Instead of games we let them draw with chalk on the driveway, have fun with the photo booth and watch a movie.

They had a blast.  Happy Birthday Girls!

I got to thinking, I know other bloggers must have amazing party ideas as well.

So I got with some fellow blogging friends and we shared ideas.

Dawn from  HomemakingHacks has an amazing post on….

Creating your own party decor will help make your party a success! The best news is that it’s probably a lot easier and less expensive than you think! With the help of basics and simple color coordination, you can make all different types of matching party goodies in under an hour.

I am so in love with the tape bunting around the jars!  So adorable! And so creative!

Another idea I love comes from Katelyn from What’s Up Fagan’s

Several years ago, I decided not to just throw a birthday party for my daughter, I decided that she needed to do it with me. And not just her, the rest of her siblings needed to help too. It was a perfect way to teach them responsibility, kindness, even organization. I knew my children would have the motivation to help with such a great reward so I went to work. As they have gotten older, they help more and I do less and less.

Being a homeschool momma, I am all about my kiddos being independent and learning life skills at an early age.  Love this!

And make sure to drop by and check out Crystal’s Birthday Parties on a Tight Budget from  Crystal and Co.

If you’re like a lot of party-lovin’ moms, you practically drool over fabulous pictures of designer birthday celebrations with gorgeous fondant cakes that START at one hundred dollars…and then reality hits: not in the budget this time. But do you know you can host an awesome kid’s birthday party on a really tight budget? It’s possible! Read on for some of my favorite money saving suggestions.

Thanks Crystal for the Awesome Ideas!

I hope you have enjoyed all of the amazing tips to help you stay on budget for your next party.

And make sure you check out each of these amazing blogs!