Preparations are underway

In our house, we make a big deal about birthdays for the kids. Not necessarily in presents - but through decorations. This means that we start decorating a week before the party. We hung polka dots the other day and made a Happy Birthday banner. I made the banner with Happy Birthday separate so that I could reuse it for other birthdays. And after the party, I'll probably hang the "Alyssa" part in her room. I love how it came out and it was really simple. You can click on the picture to see it larger.

I made the dots from various solid colored scrapbooking paper - and made a larger dot behind it for sturdiness (I used a thick paper that I had left over from our wedding invitations - yep, that was 8 years ago... I can hold onto things forever!). I used letters that came in a huge pack with different fonts and colors and they just punched right out! We had picked the letters up some time ago off a clearance at Walmart. You never know when you might need letters - and they came in really handy. I made this entire banner in the span of about two hours while my oldest was at school. I glued the dots to some grosgrain ribbon and I am very pleased with the final look. It really makes a nice impact in the room and I used things that I already had. Yay!

Tonight I'll be blowing up balloons so that tomorrow I can concentrate on the food. I like to be able to enjoy the kids parties rather than spend the time worrying about things getting done. I do still need to find plain party hats for the kids to decorate. I might end up making them myself since I can't seem to find any - suggestions are welcome.