In case you didn’t hear the big news, last weekend we hosted a Thing 1 and Thing 2 party to tell our friends and family about my pregnancy. It turned out so damn cute. Well, I thought it was gorgeous until everything was rained on 10 minutes before the scheduled party time. TEN MINUTES! It rained for maybe 5 minutes total? Still, rain is rain when you are talking about paper decorations.
Wah. Boo. Hiss. Meh.
My Cat in the Hat tower is the apple of my eye. The party decoration I am the most proud of. The project I sat back thinking ‘damn, I didn’t think it would turn out that awesome’. Total ego moment.
All you have to do is wrap a foam cone with wrapping paper, spear your Cat in the Hat treats, and stick them in the tower. Stupid simple and yet high impact.
Note- The Cat in the Hat treats are vanilla creme cookies covered with white candy melts and a marshmallow dipped twice in red candy melts. Tedious but easy.
Wrapping the large box in red stripe wrapping paper and the smaller one in blue polka dot wrapping paper is pretty cost effective if you… you know, need wrapping paper for future presents or parties. Who doesn’t need wrapping paper at some point in the year? Bring on the Christmas clearance!
Next, I ordered these cupcake wrappers to contrast the ‘blue hair’ frosting. I thought about using cotton candy until I realized frosting accomplished the same look.
I modified the drink station from my pink rehearsal dinner party slightly with: cucumber mint water instead of cucumber water, the newest cocktail for my Sweet’N Low series (so good and coming soon), party favors, and the tissue paper colors (bright blue and red). Sue me for not reinventing the wheel.
I knew there was no need for party favors at a BBQ. I swear I did. I know I only made them because I am incapable of hosting any sort of party without beer, a cocktail, a theme, and party favors. My brain would explode if I tried.
- I found the bags on clearance at Party City for .99/10 bags.
- I used blue and red Froot Loops for a filler so the fish would be above the striped area.
- I played off the red fish, blue fish idea and tossed in red and blue gummy fish.
- Finally, I used the same design as my party invitation (see below) and added ‘Today was great, today was fun. Thank you, thank you, everyone!’.
- Boom! Party favors.
I love my Thing 1 and Thing 2 centerpieces almost as much as the tower. Almost. I painted the vases from the pink rehearsal dinner red and made a tissue paper pom out of 3 pieces of tissue paper. I ended up using 6 pieces total (4 centerpieces) because I cut the sets of 3 in half. That was all I needed for awesome.
I used plastic white tablecloths again because… you know, they are cheap.
There was so much freaking sugar at this party. I spent most of my time dipping things in chocolate because I wanted there to be boatloads of color. Mission accomplished.
Note: I bought the red and blue containers from Dollar Tree!
Keep in mind I am no graphic designer, mmmkay?
I downloaded the Doctor Soos font for my invites and made them in Picmonkey. I found this free red stripe image, added a label in the blue color (2dc3de) and attempted to add something Labor Day-ish to the traditional Dr Seuss (XX is the month. XX is the day…) verse. It worked for me.
Now, you could absolutely add Thing 1 and Thing 2 to the invite if your pregnancy isn’t a surprise. Baby showers, etc., would benefit from the extra cutesy touch.
And one last thing!
We greeted the guests in normal, hide my extra baggage clothing and changed into our surprise announcement outfits (Thing 1 shirt, Thing 2 shirt, and Cat in the Hat accessories) for the big reveal. I will update this post when I get the picture because it was perfect. Just perfect.
Speaking of perfect, everything outside of the tiny rain storm ruining my decorations was perfect. I am so happy we were able to herd the majority of our family together for the announcement. I know online trolls get all cranky when it comes to ‘unnecessary’ celebrations like this but I LOVE celebrating anything positive. It’s much nicer to get together for weddings and babies than funerals. Amirite, or amirite?
DO A GIRL A FAVOR AND PIN THIS THING 1 AND THING 2 PARTY COLLAGE!
