Khloe Turns Two: A Peppa Pig Party

My youngest daughter (Khloe) continues to prove to me daily that she is the total opposite of my oldest daughter (Alasia). Now as parents you know that your children are different, but raising them together day in and day out only proves this notion further. As a toddler Alasia loved cartoons that sung and danced (The Backyardigans) or ones that talked to you....you know crowd participation (Dora the Exlporer)? Well.......Khloe's favorite cartoon is about a family of pigs that live in the UK lol. This is how I came to plan her second birthday party with a "Peppa Pig" theme. It is extremely hard to find anything Peppa Pig related in the US, then you have Peppa Pig World in the UK. Yes, it is a real amusement park solely based on the show lol. If only I could fly my family to England so that Khloe could experience this ha! Anyway, below are pictures from the party. I hope they are helpful to any parent that may eventually be faced with planning a Peppa Pig party.......NOT in England! I tried to link items I bought throughout the post.

Invitations

Etsy was a huge help with this party. I found a listing for the below digital image and I received the image within like 48 hour. I then sent the image to CVS and ordered 4x6 photos for like $0.08 each. Lastly, I used mailing labels to adhere to the front of yellow envelopes. 

Clipart

Props

I wanted to make some props for the party so I turned to cardboard. My husband and I used a cardboard box to make Peppa Pig's house. We used it to frame the toddler bounce house that we used at the party. My husband made a PVC pipe frame that we used to adhere the house frame. This was like a $30 investment that I will be able to rearrange and use for future party backdrops.  to I also used a recycled box to make another mini house to decorate one of the party tables. 

PVC Pipe Frame

Khloe and her little friend enjoyed paying in the Peppa Pig bounce house. I found this toddler bounce house at Walmart for under $50 and it actually fits in my living room.

 Menu

So my personality (sometimes I think I am Type A, OCD, and histrionic all mixed in one lol) wouldn't allow me to serve food that didn't somehow connect with the show. With my husband's help (he pays more attention to Peppa Pig when it's on than I do) I created menu items that each related to some character on the show. Although, it seemed like a weird combination of food, it ended up being a rather tasty spread. I used clipart and Microsoft Publisher to create these menu tents.

Party Setup

So I made like 5 sketches of the party setup in the weeks leading up to the party.  It allowed me to color coordinate everything and perfect my table setup. Funny thing is I actually forgot it at home the day of the party lol, however; I had studied it so much I believe it was etched into my memory!! I would recommend anyone planning a party to make yourself a little sketch so you will know what goes where etc.

Table Sketch 

So here is the actual setup. I ordered the background poster from Esty. It is apparently super expensive to print postersthat large......luckily I had a Groupon for a poster print from Printerpix that I used for this. I also ordered the paper garland from Esty which I used to line the front of the table.

Khloe's grandpa photo bombed this picture lol.

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I ordered the cake from Sam's Club for a pretty low price of $32. When I went to pick it up I realized that the top layer was white instead of yellow. The cake decorator had already left for the day and it was no way it could be "fixed". The manager compensated me by giving me the cake for $15. I then went to Joann's and bought some sugar sheets and used them to make the yellow, blue, and red, dots that you see on the top tier of the cake. I also added Peppa Pig figurines (found at Toysrus) to the cake to make it a "Peppa Pig" cake. Laslty,found this beautiful cake stand at Home Goods and I just realized yesterday that I able able to change out the ribbon.......great investment!

Large Red Trays: Target

Blue Egg Trays: Walmart

Green Bowls: Dollar Tree

Veggie Platter: Walmart

Yellow Cardboard Platters: Micheal's

I ordered these Peppa Pig cookies from Custom Style, LLC. She is extremely talanted and can make ANY cookie vision come true and will ship the cookies to you. I googled Peppa Pig cookies and none of these came up in my search.......talk about unique. If you would like custom cookies made for any of your events please contact her.

Peppa has on a party hat on some of the cookies and is jumping in muddy puddles in the others.

Here I displayed the house I made (which clearly got beat up since I made it in January lol) with "muddy puddle" cupcakes. I found the grass cupcake shelves at Micheal's. Peppa Pig and her family LOVE to put on their rain boots and jump in muddle puddles lol. I didn't think it would be a true Peppa Pig party without including this detail, so I displayed Peppa Pig's yellow rain boots on this table. Apparently it is super hard to find yellow kid rain boots on the internet. I ended up ordering them from Zulily.

                                    

I ordered the Peppa Pig party hats and plates from Amazon. I also decorated table with green tins of Goldie Fish Crackers (gold fish) and Teddy Bear's Cookies (teddy grams). I ordered plastic drinking cups with lids and straws from Amazon for the kids to use. I decorated them by adhering labels I created in Microsoft Publisher. Lastly, I used a stuffed Peppa Pig Khloe got for Christmas to hold balloons as the center piece. I ordered the Peppa Pig balloons from Etsy as well. I found a party rental store that rented out kid sized tables and chairs........they were the perfect size for Khloe and her 1 guest. Yes......after sending out 12 invitations to friend only one kid came to the party lol (but that is a totally different post for another day). We were very thankful that he came as she had a great time playing with him.

Here I used flower windmills (Dollar Tree $1) and metal buckets (Target $ bin)  to create table center pieces. I also printed a few images and framed them with frames from Target ($1)

Peppa Pig Shirts

So of course I had to order family shirts for the party lol. I ordered them from Esty as well. The shop owner makes tons of other character shirts and shipped them super fast.

Overall, I think Khloe had a great time celebrating with friends and family. She received lots of fun toys and TONS of clothes (which makes mommy happy). No more parties until she turns 5 lol

6 Tides for $13

I must admit I haven't clipped coupons in over a month and I haven't gone "couponing" in a few months. Last spring I scored 6 jugs of Tide for about $17 bucks. Can you believe I am just about finished with my last jug? I can't believe it lasted me as long as it did. Anyway, my husband (who usually keeps the laundry in rotation at our house) reminded me last week that we were going to need Tide soon. It was just my luck that CVS had Tide on sale, CVS had an extra bucks offer for Tide,  coupons.com had a Tide coupon and I had 2 different CVS coupons available to use. Below is the breakdown:

Purchased: (6) 40oz Tide Laundry Detergents @ $5.94 ( on sale, originally $7.99)
Used::6 coupons.com $.75 off Tide coupons (use zip code 77477 for TX)
Used: $6 off of $30 CVS Coupon
Used: $3.50 Extra Bucks Coupon (this popped up on my CVS app today)

OOP: $23.21
Received: $10.00 Extra Bucks (can be used toward any CVS purchase)

Total: $13.21

Savings: $34.73

*Tide will be on sale at CVS until 1/3/15

If you you want details on Coupon Policies and other general coupon info check out my blog post Couponing 101. 

Alasia's Spa Party

So my daughter's birthday is on December 30th which can sometimes be a pain as it is so close to a Christmas.  With that being said her last birthday party was when she turned 8 and consisted of a sleepover, trip to the nail school for manicures and pedicures, and then a tea party at a fancy hotel (looking back that was TOO much). As she creeps towards being a preteen I wanted her to have a very special birthday party for her 11th birthday.....which is how the "Spa Party" idea came into play. Alasia invited 6 of her close friends over for an evening of facials, manicures, pedicures, and refreshments. Below are pictures from the party.

Invitations

These are the nail polish invitations I created. I used glitter scrapbook paper for the bottle and added a jewel letter embellishment on the front. The bottle cap is black scrapbook paper. I typed up the party details in Microsoft Word, cut them out, and glued them on the the back of the invite. If I could do them over I would have made the base of the bottle smaller and the top of it wider. Some pins on Pinterest also show you how to make the bottle top 3-D by using a q-tip o that inserts into the bottle portion of the invite!

The Spa Bar Menu

Turkey pinwheels, fresh fruit, veggies and dip, cheese mask/chips, nail polish cupcakes, and sparkling strawberry punch (Hawaian punch, Sprite & frozen strawberries). I was a little worried if the menu would be a hit as it was not your traditional party food, BUT the girls loved it and spent a good portion of the party chowing down!

Spa Decorations

I originally was going to make an elaborate backdrop for the Spa Bar, but I simply ran out of time and had spent too much money already. I ended up having my husband tape a strip of packing tape (sticky side up) onto the wall and adhere strips of streamers to it. He then taped balloons on top and we had a simple backdrop! The photo cuts off the tulle table skirt I on the front of the table; however, I there is a picture of it on my blog entitled "Khloe Turns One". Yes, I reused it :) Below you will see that I made circular stickers that I adhered to the party cups, party favors, and the nail kits. I used clip art I found online and the Avery label software that was listed on the back of the labels I purchased! I found the pink lip straws from Walmart for like $2. If I had not run across them I had planned to make the lips myself with card stock and a hole puncher.

Guacamole Cheese Mask

So if you can't tell this dish is suppose to resemble a woman with her head wrapped in a towel with a facial mask on. The actual face is a cheese mixture and guacamole is spread on top to represent the facial mask. The wrapped towel is american cheese, cucumbers over the eyes, and a red pepper for the lips. The Pinterest link is embedded above!  I didn't get a chance to actually task the mask, but my husband informed me that he did not like it (but he can be picky). If I made this again I think I would treat the base of the mask more like a dip (salsa, cheese, and meat) rather than a cheese ball. I think the mask would still hold and form the shape of the lady's face.

Nail Polish Cupcake Toppers

Again I saw this idea on Pinterest (link embedded above). The bottle portion is a marshmallow coated in sugar sprinkles and the top is a tootsie roll. The cupcakes were store bought and I just added the toppers before the party. If I could do this over again I would have also liked to make this nail polish cake I found on Pinterest in addition to the cupcakes!

Facial Table

Each girl had their own place setting at the table. I used scrap book paper from Micheal's for the place setting ($1.19). I purchased up a nail kit from Dollar Tree (toe separators, nail clippers, buffers, cuticle tool, nail file) for each girl.  I  also purchased bowls from Wal-Mart for $.78 and rolled white hand towels (secured with a bow) which were $.48. I also found super cute pink mirrors from Dollar Tree that the girls could use as we did facials. I had a very hard time finding terry cloth headbands at the last minute. If I had more time I would have ordered them in bulk from Amazon. As a last resort I purchased plain black headbands from Dollar Tree so the girls could keep their hair out of their face during the facial. I use to sell Mary Kay a few years back, so I was able to utilize some of the materials from my starter kit for the facial portion of the party. The time-wise cleanser is suitable for sensitive skin so I knew it would be okay for the girl's skin.  I gave each girl a plastic MK facial tray that held all the products they would use for the facial. I used the following products: MK time-wise cleanser, a natural mud mask I found at Target, MK time-wise moisturizer, MK satin lips treatment, and two cucumber slices to soothe their eyes!

Center Pieces

I decorated large mason jars with ribbon to use a a vase for my floral arrangement. My flower of choice was the pink rose accompanied by pink Christmas decorations I found at Micheal's on clearance. 

The Birthday Girl!

 

Manicure Station 

My friend ran the manicure station which first consisted of the girls soaking their nails to soften their cuticles. One at a time they moved to the manicurist table where they received a MK satin hand treatment and then a manicure.

Pedicure Station

I manned the pedicure station. Each girl had their own personal tub that was filled with rose petals, bath salts, and a Shea butter foot soak. I also made my own Strawberry Sugar scrub (sugar, grape seed oil, essential oil, dap red food coloring) to use during the pedicures. I found the pedicure flip flops from Five Below for $1.

 Party Favors

I took advantage of Bath and Body Works semi-annual sale to score lotions ($2), hand sanitizer ($1), and body loofah ($1.50) to create favor bags for each girl. I also made several signs for the party which consisted of wooden frames from Micheal's ($1), pink spray paint, ribbon, and pink jewels. In additon to the favors each girl took home all the materials they used during the party: pink facial bowls, hand towels, pedicure basins etc).

My daughter and her friends had a great time and I was very happy I could do something that would give her lasting memories :)