On Saturday afternoon we celebrated Lillian Annabel's second birthday with a little party at my sister, Jamie and her husband Josh's house, up in New Hampshire. Dana, Lillie and I flew in on Friday and got to Moose Mountain (what we lovingly call my parent's property) just in time for a quick dinner and then my Mom, Dana, Jamie and I got right to work in the kitchen. We made cake, cupcakes, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate peanut butter balls and finished putting the banner and cupcake toppers together. Actually they might say THEY did all of that while I ran around bossing everyone around - haha!
We stuck to a simple theme of Chocolate (her favorite thing to eat) and the Twelve Dancing Princesses (her favorite movie) and made most everything ourselves and were able to do the party for a little over $50. Here are some pictures:
We used jars left over from my sister's wedding and filled them with both homemade goodies as well as some of Lillie's favorite snacks from the Candy Shoppe in Colonial Williamsburg.
We stuck some bare branches with white lights on them into a mix of fresh white flowers to coordinate with the two urns we filled with branches over on the other side of the room.
One of my favorite snacks - Chocolate and Toffee covered pretzels!
Marshmellows
We got the ruffled cupcake holders at Michael's and just printed some silhouettes I drew onto white cardstock and taped them onto little skewers to make cupcake toppers (the glitter is thanks to Lillie - I am not much of a glitter fan but she currently likes to add it to any project we are working on so it got added to these).
Some of the little ballet slippers I made did not fare so well on the trip north =).
Here is a close-up of the banner. This project was so easy and CHEAP! I spent $1.99 on the caramel colored ribbon and then just used white and chocolate colored cardstock, a glue stick and a hole puncher! I think I am going to make a similar banner in gray and pink for Lillie's bedroom.
I wish I had of gotten a better pictures of the trees because they looked whimsical in real life and made a nice statement for practically no money, but they look pretty boring in these pictures - sorry! Oh how I love CHEAP projects! My dad cut the branches down for me and then we just put them in some potting soil in two urns that my parents had and then I made the ballet shoes with scraps of fabric I already owned. I just ran out of ribbon so I had to buy another spool for $1.99 to finish the slippers off and then we got some white lights with brown wire from my parent's basement to blend in with the branches.
Here Lillie is getting ready to blow out her candles!
And her favorite part - eating her "Bird-day Cupcakes"!
And here are some photos from the actual party. One of my favorite ones is the second row down on the left where she is sitting in my mom's lap with her eyes closed. She had just opened her first present which contained some ADORABLE clothes and she was so disappointed that it was clothing and not books or a toy that she closed her eyes and pretended to sleep! On the bottom row in the middle you can see her and two of my cousin Cathy's kids, Luke and Abby running up the hallway. I think that was hands-down her favorite part of the party. After we ate with just the girls, Cathy's husband brought their three boys over and Lillie, Abby and the boys ran up and down Jamie and Josh's hallway (you can't really tell in the photo but it is a really LONG hallway) back and forth and back and forth laughing hysterically and chasing each other for the rest of the night! The things that entertain kids - haha! In the last photo Lillie and Lulu are wearing adorable matching nightgowns that Jennifer at Forty Toes sent her! How incredibly sweet and thoughtful was that? I was so touched! As soon as we got back to my parent's house after her party we immediately put her and Lulu in them and she was soooo excited to be matching her doll! 
I want to say a big thank you to my mom and sisters for all of their help in making Lillie's second birthday so special!
Lillie also wants to say a big "I love you and I miss you" to her Daddy who is out on the recruiting trail! We can't wait to see you on Sunday and miss you so much!
I hope you all are having a great week so far and enjoying the Christmas season!
PS - We are getting close to the 1000 follower mark! As soon as we hit it we will host another giveaway!