Feeling FREE -Birthday planning on a budget

Now that Halloween is over, I have a few other important matters to attend to this month.

Thanksgiving is still two weeks ago but I would like to make my little turkey an appliqued turkey shirt. I have the pieces cut, just need to iron the fabric and sew it up.

My anniversary is November 20th so the weekend before we'll probably go out to dinner and a movie. I have a P.F. Changs gift card so I think there are lettuce wraps in our future (free dinner!). We want to see Lincoln and I have two movie gift certificates that I've been hoarding (free entertainment!). Also I won a $40 Macy's gift card on the radio so maybe we can do that too (free shopping!). Sounds like my husband's kind of night...free, free, free!!

And of course, at the end of the month we celebrate Baby D's first birthday!!

Source: oopsydaisy.com via Julie on Pinterest

Need to confirm again the location since I think I asked my mom six months ago if we could have the party at her house. Mom, is that still okay? *hee-hee*

Now, I could really pull out all the stops if it was actually me that was completely in charge. But my husband wants to keep costs at a minimum which I completely understand. And working on a budget also means being more creative in the process, which is totally okay.

However, creative also takes time, of which I'm in short supply of around here. It's hard to see some really fun ideas and not be able to attempt them because I just simply don't have the time. But I am going to still do SOME fun things, just because that's how I roll...It would drive me nuts not to!

Last week, I pulled out old scrapbook paper and the circle cutter and spent an evening catching up on The Middle OnDemand and cutting circles. I zipped them through the sewing machine over the weekend and got a lovely strand of softly colored dots (free decorations!).

Source: juicy-bits.typepad.com via Julie on Pinterest

I have the paper to make these strip paper decorations too, just need to cut them out!

In keeping with the It's a Small World theme for his party, I picked up these wooden doll figures from Etsy with the idea of painting each one to represent a Disney character from around the world. Some will be Disney characters from the movies and some will be representations of the dolls from the ride. I want to decorate the dessert table with the dolls and then give them away to the kids as a party favor.


Box o' Paints

I have an equal number of boy and girl dolls but of course some of the "boy" dolls could just be a girl wearing pants! Of course, I have more boys coming to the party since boys outnumber the girls greatly in our family, so some of the boys will just have a girlie doll, I guess? Hope they don't mind! And $20 total for a combination of party decor and favor and the kids will get to take home a quality, one-of-a-kind gift instead of plastic stuff that will be lost under the bed. $20, not exactly free, but surprisingly cheaper than plastic stuff!

The older kids and I sat around the dining room table one night wracking our brains to come up with ideas for the dolls.

This is the list so far (we have 16 spots to fill):
Lilo (from the movie Lilo & Stitch) - Hawaii
Pinocchio - Italy
Merida (from the movie Brave) - Scotland
Woody & Jessie (from Toy Story...and Jessie wears pants!) - USA
Alice (from Alice & Wonderland) - England
Belle (from Beauty & the Beast, wearing her provincial outfit, not the yellow ball gown) - France
Aladdin & Jasmine, another pants wearer! - India
Mulan - China

And then just thinking of the ride, The Boy mentioned the African drummer boy and his favorite, the Canadian Mountie, so those will be good for boys.

The Girl shouted, "Buzz Lightyear!" but I had remind her that he's from outer space, not the small world. "Oh yeah...", she said.

Then the question came up...where is Snow White from? My guess would be Germany. And what about Cinderella? Would you say she's from England? I'd guess that based on what her prince wears. Deep thoughts...


Got the first one done last night, do you know who it is? The kids recognized her immediately, thank goodness!

After the dolls are done, my next project will be to take photos of Baby D for his invitation. I'm not going to print them out or mail anything this year, I never get an RSVP that way. I'll just use an online invite so people can RSVP immediately but I want to add a picture of him to it and also print them up wallet sized for favors to our party guests.

And I LOVE this idea of a poster board that looks like a chalkboard with all his favorites, what a special memory. Poster board is pretty cheap, wonder if I have anything already laying around? Nothing black I think, but I do have the metallic markers already so I'm half-way there!

Source: moulagecollection.myshopify.com via Julie on Pinterest

First year poster board

I plan on making a photo collage of him, one picture for each month using scrapbook paper and some number stickers that I already have (free!). The numbers look very much like the ones on the clock, perfect!

Source: wifey-in-training.blogspot.com via Julie on Pinterest

Photo collage idea

Source: disneydesignerland.blogspot.com via Julie on Pinterest

That's about it for decorating. Next planning step, food and dessert. My husband absolutely wants to be involved in that one. I'm thinking we'll be having slow-cooker bbq pork sandwiches which is just fine by me!

And I'll be making a cake with a happy clock face for sure!

Source: images.search.yahoo.com via Julie on Pinterest