elsie's school bus second birthday party

Eventually I'll get Elsie's 24 month post up, but I edited these photos first so here you go...

Originally when I started 'planning' Elsie's second birthday, I settled on a carousel horse themed party.  She sits on anything she can and says 'giddy up! I ridin' a horsey!', and loves carousels.  So great plan right?  Until Sarah asked her what kind of birthday she was going to have and she responded with 'school bus party'.  And her answered stayed the same for over a week, so I changed my plans.

I wasn't thrilled with the idea of using just black, white and yellow, so we took some liberty with the school bus theme and tossed in some pink, blue and purple too.  It's my (Elsie's) party and I'll do what I want.  Right?  I started searching pinterest for black and white parties and came across this one.  I LOVED the dessert table backdrop so I pretty much copied it.  It was seriously the easiest decoration I've ever made.  Circle punch + card stock + hot glue + twin sized sheet.  You can do it, I promise.  I just spray painted a large E, blasted it with some Krylon Glitter spray, and used push pins to hang everything up.  I made the tassels for the balloons myself, and ordered the giant yellow ones off amazon (FYI, those suckers cost at least $8 per to fill up at Party City.  Ouch!).

We had the party at 11am, and once all the guests had arrived we hopped on a real live school bus and went for a ride.  I swear the people thought I was crazy when I first called to see if I could rent a bus for a two-year-olds birthday party, and that I didn't have a plan of where to go, I just wanted to go.  But the driver who was assigned the party was awesome, and ended up driving us to the bus barn, where roughly 300 school buses of all sizes were parked.  Elsie was pretty dang impressed.  I think all the other kids had a good time on the bus as well.

By the time we got back from our ride it was time to eat.  I had looked for recipes for crock pot mac n' cheese, since that is Elsie's absolute favorite food, but then I got smart and we ordered Panera mac 'n cheese (Elsie's absolute absolute for sure favorite food EVER) and stuck that in our crock pot.  #winning  We also had these honey garlic lil' smokies, pizza roll ups, fresh fruit and veggies.  For dessert my mom made chocolate chip M&M cookies, and we got cake balls and a lemon cake from my friend Jenny.  Jenny is awesome and the cake was so cute.  Plus her cake balls/pops are AMAZING.  They taste so good.  She also is an amazing cookie decorator so if you're in the KC area and need some cookies, I think you should bug her.  :o)

The goal for this party was to make it look cute, have a lot of fun, and not stress too much.  I think we did a pretty darn good job.  I forgot to take pictures of a few of the details, naturally, but hey.  You get the idea.  Elsie's adorable little top was from Swallow's Return, and her crown is from Little Blue Olive.  Oh and the kids picnic tables I found on Wayfair, they're call a Kidnic table.  Such a good investment.  They wipe down so easily, fold up so easily, and are pretty darn sturdy when they are set up.  I don't think kids much over the age of 5 would be comfortable at them, but they definitely work WONDERFULLY for the 2-4 range.

Thanks to everyone who came over to celebrate with us!  It was so fun to celebrate our Elsie girl, and we appreciate you showing her so much love.