Hot Air Balloon Party
Let the Party Begin!
Read before beginning: No party is perfect, so do what you can. In real life parents are pretty impressed that you were even able to organize a party in the first place. They are also generally sleep deprived, over whelmed, and happy to have an excuse to get out of the house and have other people entertain their children for at least an hour. So go ahead and give yourself that pat on your back! Or pour that extra glass of wine...
Here is my promise to you: It won't be anything you can't handle. It may take a little bit of creativity when things go wrong (like when my paper mache balloon cracked like an earthquake down the middle 10 minutes before the party started), or some planning for the future (unless you want to stay up until 1 am like I did the night before), but I promise you, it won't be anything you can't handle. I love finding ideas on Pinterest, Facebook, internet searches, and then recreating them... frugally. Which is the word my sister loved to use to describe me instead of just saying "cheap". Kids are expensive and I don't feel the need to spend $500 on a birthday party he isn't going to remember having! That being said, I'm a sucker for cute themes and seeing kids have fun, so I went online and started searching.
I chose a hot air balloon theme because I found a lot of great ideas for it and knew I would be able to find or create the items I needed on a tight budget. Ever try and write a thesis paper without having enough sources to back it up? Birthday parties are generally the same way: pick a theme that you know will have a ton of ideas and suggestions behind it so that you don't have to spend your time trying to think up a million ideas yourself. I give so much credit to parents who seem to have time to do this... So this is what our patio looked like over all after I managed to fling everything together before the guests started to arrive:
Here are the different elements broken down and explained so that YOU can put it together for your next birthday party, plus some additional ideas that I wasn't able to do because I procrastinated...
The map:
I found the map on Ebay for less than five dollars (you can find it here.). Afterwards, I had excellent luck finding a frame that fit it in a thrift store for a dollar, but really any frame that is large enough to fit it will be fine (already have a frame that fits it at home? No shame in using it for the day!). I quickly spray painted the frame with my favorite Espresso Brown spray paint, taped the map to a large piece of card board since my frame had no glass and support, popped it into the frame, and then called it a day.
For the banner I found some old blue scrapbook paper I had laying around (check out Hobby Lobby and Micheal's for good deals on paper), and then used my handy dandy magnetic letters stuck to the fridge as my stencils. If you don't have magnetic letters you should really consider investing the three bucks, I use them for pretty much all my lettering. Advice: if you are doing this late at night like I did, make sure to spell your child's name correctly. Because I did not. Thank you, Husband, for pointing out that the "H" does indeed come before the "E"!
The Presents:
I found the map wrapping paper here. It was a little more than I would have liked to spend (about $7), but I didn't use it all so I have some for future gifts. Side Note: That magical looking globe next to the presents was a thrift store find (also $7), so don't hesitate to go searching for fun little items that fit the theme and will be fun for kids to play with or admire later on. I'm a big fan of flea markets, thrift stores, and garage sales for fun (and "frugal") items like these that add to the theme!
The Refreshments and presents Tables:
Refreshments: I used a table and table cloth I already had to put cups and refreshments out. I did lemon and ice water and also had an ice chest with other refreshments (not pictured). It is great to keep food and drink in one area, slightly away from where people are sitting, so that it is easily accessible but out of the way.
Presents: It's always nice to have a designated place for guests to put presents so that they are out of the way and you don't have a hundred people asking you where to put the gift they brought. I used a table cloth and small table I already had for this as well.
The Signs:
Get a wooden rod that is sturdy enough to withstand the signs. See an example from Hobby Lobby here. Cut out the size cardboard you would like for the arrows and then cover them with scrap booking paper. Honestly, for all these projects I generally just use whatever paper I have laying around left over from other projects. Cut out a card board stencil of the arrow you would like to use using a ruler and then use it to cut the tips on the rest of the arrows. Fun Part: Choose the names of the cities you want to use, get creative! I chose cities that were personal to my family and friends, with London thrown in because of the paper I used (of course!). I just quickly wrote the names in block letters and colored them in with marker, but if you have more time use those magnetic letters again or even cut them out of different paper for a more "professional" look. After the lettering was finished, I taped the signs to the pole, found an old box in the garage, filled it with bricks, put some Styrofoam at the top, and pushed the pole through the top.
The Balloon Banner:
This was by far my favorite thing to make! And also the easiest... which is probably why it was my favorite. Go to the Dollar Tree and purchase 3 bags of the Punching Balloons and one bag of the white favor boxes. Have a spool of hemp thread ready and make sure to loop the thread through your finger while you tie the balloon off. Not only does this mean you can adjust the distances between the balloons, but then all you need to do is snip the rubber string part of the punching balloon in half and tie it around the tops of the favor box!
The "Happy Birthday" Banner:
I found pre-cut banner triangles at Hobby Lobby in the clearance section and laminated them myself with clear laminate I found at the Dollar Tree so that I can reuse them in the future. I have also made these from scratch with my friend for her son's birthday. Just buy the paper you love and use a ruler to make an even sided triangle and cut them out. My friend decided to make hers double sided before she laminated them and they turned out awesome! I bought the "Happy Birthday" banner at the Dollar Tree and cut the letters apart to tape them to the banner. I never seem to have the time to cut out my own letters for this, so it's pretty much what I do every year. Shh, it can be our little secret! I used my hemp thread to hang it up, but feel free to use different colored string to give it a festive feel.
The Guest "Book":
I decided to make something that people could sign in order to remember who came, but also something cute that I could include in Matthew's scrapbook. I found a picture similar to the little boy I drew here. If you can't draw, you can always take a picture of you child holding their fist up in the air, print it out, cut around them and their outreached arm, and then draw the lines coming off as the balloon strings. The day before, find your ink pad... or don't and then frantically run around like I did before my friend suggested having people color their finger with a marker (which ended up never washing off, so all our guests had colorful fingers) and use baby wipes to clean off the ink. Either way will work, but your guests will thank you for your forward thinking if you use a washable ink pad!
the paper mache balloon prop:
Just after Paper Mache-ing the balloon The massive split 10 minutes before the party
This hot air balloon prop was the BIGGEST hit of the whole party! All of our friends had a blast plopping their child down in it as I took their picture. It was a great way to remember the party and so much fun printing out the pictures to include in our Thank You notes! And yes, that is definitely masking tape you see all around the balloon. The thing about living in Florida is that the weather is pretty much unpredictable and the paper mache was not fully dry (seeing as I had made it the night before). I took it outside 10 minutes before the party and then frantically repaired it with masking tape 5 minutes later. And you know what? Nobody even seemed to notice it. I will give a full tutorial on how to make the entire hot air balloon and basket next week, but for the paper mache part of this: get a Giant Latex Balloon and paper mache it with two layers (if you do more it may prove to be too heavy for the wooden rods, proceed at your own risk!). Cover it with two or more layers of any color tissue paper and attach it to the hot air balloon (more about how exactly to do that last part next week!). If you need a tutorial on how to paper mache a balloon, click here. Their recipe calls for just glue, but I use a mixture of flour and glue in my projects.
Time Line:
3 weeks- 1 month before the party:
-Buy all items that you will need to order online
-Go to different stores to get necessary craft and birthday items to make decorations
2 weeks before party:
-Find frame for map
-Find any additional "fun" themed items
-Create Guest "Book" picture
-Create the arrows for the signs
1 week before party:
-Wrap boxes with map paper
-Make Name Banner for the map frame
-Frame map and hang that banner
-Paper mache balloon
-See items that I didn't have time to finish in section below
Day before party:
-Make Balloon Banner
-Buy or make cup cakes
Day of party:
-Set up tables
-Hang and set up decorations
-Make sure to dress your child(ren) BEFORE the guests show up...
Additional Ideas and Links:
Since I ran out of time, I didn't get to do all the projects I wanted to. Here are some more ideas to try out if you have the time. Let me know how they turn out! Hot air balloons on top of the cupcakes Cute hot air balloon birthday shirt Hot air balloon cookies Hot air balloon fans (I wanted to leave them white for the kids to color) -Printable hot air balloon outline Chalk Board with information about baby's first year Inspiration: 19 party ideas Vintage Hot Air Balloon Party
True Confessions:
Congratulations, you made it through the whole thing! So here are my true confessions about this party and putting it together: I love to bake and find a sense of pride in it; for the first time I went out and bought cupcakes for a party. It killed me a little bit on the inside.
My husband accidentally cut through the string in the middle of the balloon banner while he was trying to hang it. Tears quickly ensued. On his part, not mine (ha, just kidding of course!).
That part in the Time Line about making sure your children are dressed before people arrive is actually suggested from personal experience...
And there you have it, the whole Birthday Party Experience. Good luck with your own, feel free to add suggestions or share your own disastrous birthday party experiences in the comments below!
