I made it through...

Kid's Birthdays. Who knew they could take so much out of you...and your wallet?
My daughter turned 2 this week and she celebrated every single minute of it and then some. It started out with a small celebration at her school with cupcakes for her friends. I was pleasantly surprised she knew just what to do after everyone sang happy birthday to her and she blew out her candles.

Next was the party...
I am a big planner. I like details down to the last naptkin to be perfectly planned and executed.
We decided to have her party at Wonderworks Children's Museum in Oak Park.
Cute place. It got alot of mixed reviews online but I really thought it wasn't so bad. There are no actual exibits but lots of themed areas, with hands on toys and activities for children to enjoy. There is a campout/tree house area, a stage area complete with dress up clothes and a camera "studio" for kids who want to be behind the scenes, an art room with basic art supplies, and many more traditional toys that young children show interest in and keep them pretty busy.  Here are some pics:
   
Overall I was pleased with the space and it was not overly crowded with people or toys so that it was too overstimulating for the kids.

On to the details.

The outfit came from Old Navy...probably my favorite kid shopping spot. Cute but casual and I dont know price of each individual item but I got shirt, skirt, shoes, tights, socks, and barrette set for less than $30!!! HOLLA!

Gift bags are so boring.

At Deals, I found bags of favors, candy, card cames (go fish, old maid), pencils, kazoos, AND Sesame Street birthday themed coloring books for under $5 each...I put them in drawstring backpacks purchased from Oriental Trading.

We had Pizza and instead of a cake we decided it would be easier (and less time consuming) to just pass out cupcakes.

My idea was to have the sesame street characters faces on the cupcakes...to make a long story short I almost turned into a "Momzilla" because after numerous phone calls going unanswered and having to call from random people's phones... the cupcakes arrived at the Last second! I was so upset, and I chose to take the high road and not blast this lady's company all over my blog but....yeah...never again will she get my business.

This is how the cupcakes came out...I was missing grouch, grover, bert and ernie, but I was just greatful to have them there.

They were a hit among the kids and guests so ;)

We spread out all her gifts at home and it was like Christmas in September, she had recieved so many gifts! There are outfits for weeks in that pile, we are so greatful!

Thank you to everybody who came!

But the celebration continued...turns out my husband had nabbed a Groupon for YO GABBA GABBA LIVE!

If you havent checked out my post on Yo Gabba Gabba's awesomeness, please do!

The outfit she wore was one of her gifts from the party, How adorable!?!

Between DJ Lance, Foofa, and Biz Markie, Taryn didn't know whether to be scared or starstruck!

LOVE them!