A Yo Gabba Gabba Birthday!

One of Callie's favorite things to do is watch Yo Gabba Gabba on TV. She loves the songs, the characters, and gets so excited every time its on. I decided that YGG would be the theme for her 2nd birthday party.

Honestly, this was probably the easiest party to plan. There are so many resources out there to make it so easy! I would love to be able to say that all of these ideas were mine, but the truth is, I think all of them were someone else's. Between Etsy, NickJr, and a few blogs of other moms who have thrown YGG parties for their children, I was able to plan a pretty cute party. Callie had a blast and I think it turned out better than I expected!

You can see all of the pictures here if you are my Facebook friend, but these are some (ok...a LOT) of my favorites :)

"The Invitation"

I ordered these fully personalized from Celebrate Express

The Birthday Girl posing while waiting for guests to arrive...

She LOVES balloons :)

She had fun greeting her guests...

...a kiss for baby Ryan...

...a hug for Tristan...

...more hugs for her favorite friend Maddie....

...saying hello to mommy's good friend "Auntie Mariella" and Callie's buddy Santi...

...hugs for Michael :)

"Craft time"

Coloring pages printed from the internet...

Yo Gabba Gabba Character Masks printed from Nick Jr.

Callie wearing her Toodee mask

Maddie in her Toodee Mask

Cory in his Muno mask

YGG puppets printed from Nick Jr.

Cory and Maddie with Plex and Foofa

Cody with Plex

Callie with Foofa

For the older kids, I printed "fortune tellers" for them to make from Nick Jr.

Dolly and Cody making their fortune tellers

Cody with his finished product...

Big brother Cam with his fortune teller

"The Spread"

"The Decorations"

I saw a similar banner on Etsy. It was around $30 plus shipping (which I believe was around $7). I couldn't pay that much for something I knew I could make...so I borrowed a Cricut machine, picked up some card stock and ribbon, and this is what came out...

The YGG backgrounds were printed from Nick Jr. I cut them and taped them together. The figures are actually cupcake toppers that I purchased from Celebrate Express.

All of the balloons were ordered from Kroger except for the red "2" balloons which came from Celebrate Express

This is my favorite one :)

YGG plates and napkins were purchased from Celebrate Express. I just picked up plain supplies in different YGG colors for the plates, cups, and spoons.

"The Treats"

Goody bag printables from Nick Jr. I found a package of plain bags with all of the colors I needed at Party City, cut and glued the characters, and voila! I only made these goody bags for the younger kids. They had a few extra things (toys, stickers, rings, etc.) that I ordered from Celebrate express or purchased at Party City.

All of the guests got a candy bar. I purchased a printable .pdf file from a vendor on Etsy who personalized and emailed the file to me within 24 hours. I believe it was $5 and well worth the time I saved making it myself.

Candy bags were in the goody bags, but I gave one to all of the older kids as well. I just made these in Microsoft Word and printed them on card stock. I put candy in zippered bags and used glue dots to attach the card stock.

"The Food"

Purchased from the same Etsy vendor as the candy wrappers. These were in a .pdf file and printed 5 per sheet. I just cut them apart with a paper cutter and glued them on the bottles. My kids really enjoyed removing the original labels :)

I thought it would be cute to have a treat for each character. After a lot of surfing around I found a few really good ideas. Only a couple of them were my own...the least creative ones :)

"Plex's Electric Yellow Lemonade"

I actually came up with this idea because I happened to have a container of lemonade mix and we needed drinks :)

The labels for the food were made with Microsoft Word and printed on card stock then layered on colored card stock.

"Muno's Pretzel Pals"

This idea came from another blogger who had a YGG party for her child. I'm not sure how she made hers, but I bought red candy melts, dipped the pretzel rods, and attached candy eyes that I found at Michaels on clearance. This was SO easy and they were a HIT! They were gone in no time!!!

"Foofa's Strawberry Garden"

I saw a picture on line of someone who had made these, but I actually had the idea to turn them upside down...after all, the strawberry is the same shape as Foofa's head...I dipped the strawberries in pink candy melts and the flowers were cut out of card stock on a Cricut machine and I used glue dots to attach them to toothpicks.

"Brobee's 'Party in Your Tummy' Veggies"

This idea came to me because I couldn't find anything online for Brobee. I decided that we needed something without sugar. It just so happens that Callie's two favorite veggies are tomatoes and cucumbers, so I peeled the cucumbers to look like Brobee's stripes and there you have it...

"Toodee's Marshmallow Pops"

This idea also came from a blogger, but I did them a bit differently and not as neat. I dipped the marshmallows in blue candy melts, sprinkled on some blue sugar, bought lollipop sticks at the craft store, and stuck them in a block of Styrofoam wrapped in foil. I would serve these differently if I had it to do over, but the kids enjoyed eating them, so that's all that matters :)

"THE CAKE"

The first thing I searched for when I chose the theme was the cake...I mean, what's a party without a cake? I had an idea in mind but couldn't find any pictures that were similar. I saw this cake on a few blogs but decided that it would be WAY out of my budget and put it in the back of my mind. I found some ideas and had ultimately decided to just do cupcakes with the character's faces. I had a hard time finding anyone who was available the weekend of her party, so I was getting nervous and trying to decide if I could pull off making the cupcakes. Then my dad said that he had a friend who could do it, so just for fun I emailed her a picture of this cake to see if she was willing to do it and if it would fit in my budget...and I was THRILLED to find out that it was going to work! I was so happy with how it turned out and Callie loved it! She couldn't wait to dig in :)

blowing out her candles...

having a taste :)

She loved it!

"The Presents"

Callie got a lot of very nice gifts from her guests. One of her favorites was a set of metal pots and pans from Mamma (my grandma). She LOVES to pretend cooking and these have been loved a lot since the party!

She also really liked the balloon from Mariella...

Birthday party Princess Aurora...

Smiles with Mamma :)

What a happy Birthday Girl!!!