Its finally here! Lola had her 2nd birthday party last weekend! We had a great time! :) I started thinking about the theme of her party in August... I like to have a lot of time to plan for her parties. Thanks to a friend of mine on Facebook, (Sarah...thank you!) I was pointed in the direction for our party that her sister had just done for her daughter... a Sweet Shoppe! I know Lola is pretty young, and she has never really had much candy, but I couldn't resist planning this party that looked like so much fun! I started immediately scouring the web for pictures of candy buffets, invites, and decorations... apparently this is a pretty popular party idea right now-probably because its so tasty. :) I decided quite quickly that I preferred the buffets that stuck to a color scheme, I just think they look more cohesive. I took Lola outside on a beautiful sunny day all dressed up to get the picture for her invitation. The only thing I didn't account for is her not enjoying the taste of the lollipop- I really thought she'd love it! Most of the pictures after her first taste or two were hilarious, she just thought it was gross! Here is us just having some picture taking fun!
Now that we picked our theme, I wanted to get started on the invitations right away. Lola and I searched high and low to find the lollipop (or Lolapop as Lola calls it!) I wanted to use in the picture on her invite, they are not as easy to find as you might think.... unless you want it rainbow colored! After several days and 10 candy stores, we found one that would work. For the invitations we have used the same company for two years and they are just the best! They will customize any card and they are so prompt with their service! Super impressed! Go to Lilduckduck to check it out yourself! Here is how the invitations turned out! (Sorry I had to block out some of our personal information.)
I had a hard time picking the color scheme for this party because I think so many different colors could be a lot of fun...but finally I decided to go with pink and orange. I have loved this color combo for a while now, so I went for it! I started by picking up the ribbon at several different stores that matched with our colors. I love ribbon! I think it adds a lot to a party and its relatively cheap. Here is what we came up with!
I saw these giant lollipops and knew I wanted to make them! Thanks to my hubby who helped me put them together...he drilled holes first so we could insert the dowels straight, it worked perfect!
To make the lollipops you just wrap the styrofoam with any colored tissue paper and then cover it with celephane. I wrapped the dowels with pink duck tape and then just tied on a big pretty bow! Here is the final product!
Now for one of the most important aspects of a candy buffet, the candy! I looked online at bulk candy companies for a while and just couldnt justify the amount of money it was going to cost to have all the candy shipped. I finally came across Oh Nuts! They have resonably priced candy as well as shipping. They were super prompt and the candy arrived perfect! Lola was so excited when all the candy landed on our doorstep! I couldnt believe how well she understood and accepted that we couldn't open any of the bags of candy until her party.
Here are the photos from the big day!
My Mom and I made this "Lola's Sweet Shoppe" banner using her Cricut paper cutting machine.
Here is Lola and I! :) She was so happy to finally eat some of the yummy candy! The food and drinks were set up in the kitchen, but I forgot to take a picture once we had all the food set out. :(
The candy buffet!
I found these adorable bags at Display & Costume. The kids were given a different bag to load with candy and then put them into these cute tote bags along with their cookies, pixie sticks, and such.
Yep, we really gave out toothbrushes as favors! :) Below are some pictures of all the jars I found to hold the candy. I found several at Walmart, a few at Target, and my Mom found some at Tuesday Morning.
Here are the kiddos treat bags all filled up! My Mom also found these adorable candy soaps for me to put in the bathroom. I definitely inherited my love for decorating and going on the hunt for all items that work within my theme from her!
And last but certainly not least, Lola the party girl! I really tried to not go overboard on her party (Even though Tori Spelling is my party planning inspiration...have you seen her kiddos parties?!) I think its safe to say that if I had a dollar for every time someone mentioned to me while I was planning this party that Lola is only two and she will not even remember it, I probably could have paid for the entire party! :) I know she will most likely not remember it, but I will! I had such a great time making this my hobby for the last few months! Going shopping for all the supplies with Lola and seeing her and her friends enjoyment at the party was great! She is still talking about her party and that is what makes me happy! :) Hope you enjoyed seeing our very sweet party! Stay tuned for a post with pictures from the party!
*Thanks to everyone who helped me make this party happen! I wanted to mention that while I found many of my ideas from several different blogs, the one I referred to the most was Grace's Candy Party, Check out her blog for some really fun ideas! :)
Last year on Lola's birthday we met Papa & Mimi at Red Robin for dinner! We had a great time so we decided to do it again this year! My little brother and his girlfriend also came and we had a fun evening full of laughs! Here is Lola at dinner, she was very happy!
Halloween turned out to be an interesting day for us! In the morning it seemed like Lola was feeling okay, but as the day went by she got more and more sick. :( William and I have been talking to Lola about Halloween and trick or treating for a few weeks now. We got a late start on costume shopping but William finally found an adorable monster- I know, how can a monster be adorable right? Lola tried it on everyday for a week and was very excited to wear it. After nap time we decided we would go to three places to let her trick or treat on the way to the walk-in clinic to get her checked out. Turned out she has an ear infection, and congestion galore to go with it. She is finally starting to be on the mend now after a week! 
October has been a pretty rough month for Lola, she has been sick for most of it. She has certainly had her fair share of all the fall bugs going around! But last week we had one really fun and healthy day! Let me just start by saying Lola loves pumpkins! Every time I take her out to go shopping she wants me to buy her another pumpkin! So by the time we actually went to carve them, we had five. :) Lola thought carving them was just so fun, she saw me drawing a face on mine and wanted my pen...from then on she worked very hard just drawing on hers. It is always fun to see her so happy!
