As mentioned in the first post, this special young lady turns two in April!

Well, April is just around the corner! The party is 12 weeks away from tomorrow, which sounds like a lot of time. However, if you’re like me (wanting to create a lot of personal touches), 12 weeks is just enough time to create the Minnie Mouse party I see in my mind.

When I sat down to plan her party, I came up with the following categories:

• Party theme
• Party date and time
• Guest list
• Invitations
• Decorations
• Favors
• Activities/schedule
• Menu
• Cake
• Photography

Once I had the categories, I researched to see how much each should cost, as well as when we need it by. I split the total cost up over January-April budgets, and will slowly purchase everything needed between now and then. My motto for this is: “Slow and steady wins the race”.

Last year, we had her first birthday party at our house. While it went well, there was a LOT to be learned from the experience. I spent a lot of time of Pinterest (and I do mean a lot), and came up with ideas for each category listed above. I have started enlisting the help of those who are needed to pull this off, and I have made my list to DIY projects for the party.

The posts over the next several weeks will show the process behind completing those projects. They include:

• Pin the bow on the Minnie like this:

• Centerpieces like this:

• Minnie/Mickey ears like these:

• Favor bags like these:

• Birthday outfit like this (I think….I may do a cloth tutu):

• And, info board like this:

I plan to tackle the Minnie/Mickey ears first, so expect to see how those turned out on the next post (1st Friday of February). So that’s it, y’all! A (very) brief synopsis of how I get the ball rolling when planning a small event. I’m sooo looking forward to digging in to all of the DIY awesomeness!