Drake and Juliet are 3 years and two weeks apart. Since their birthdays are so close, I anticipate we will be looking at joint birthdays for quite some time until they are older. And because they are a boy and a girl, I decided I needed to find a theme that wasn’t gender specific. When I found this invitation on Etsy, I knew I wanted to do a hot air balloon theme with a rainbow colored theme.

I spent about a month perusing Pinterest dreaming about what I could DIY. After I had everything envisioned, I worked feverishly through the night (til at least midnight, if not later most nights) for a month trying to get everything done.  The night before and the morning of the party Mr. Chocolate and I were so tense trying to get everything done before the guests arrived, but in the end it turned out pretty well!

ADVERTISEMENT

The biggest thing I want to do was to convey the idea of hot air balloons, so I sewed up clouds that I made from felt and bought rainbow paper lanterns and hung them in the foyer. I had them float through the hallway into the kitchen and playroom (family room), and attached plastic take out containers to make them seem like balloons. I used fishing wire to hang them all. I plan on moving some of these decorations to Drake’s room eventually.

I also made a garland of paper hot air balloons in a rainbow hue to hang over the cake

I covered the walls with photos of Drake & Juliet. On one wall I posted their month to month photos, as it truly was amazing to see how similar they looked, especially from birth to 3 months of age

The biggest labor of love though were the favors I made. I had seen this picture on Pinterest and always knew I wanted to do something similar since I crochet little animals all the time. Once I decided to do this though, I only had a few weeks to get them all done in time so I burned my fingers to the nub crocheting for a week and a half. I got little bags from Michaels and placed bubbles inside with the little friend, and the morning of tied a balloon to each one.  Drake’s friends loved to pick their own animal and of course Drake loved all the leftovers.

We hired a children’s performer who comes to Drake’s school to play often to come entertain the kids.

Photos by Three Gems Photography

  The cake was made by a dear friend who did an incredible job taking my vision and turning it into a cake!

Photos by Three Gems Photography

Overall I think the party went well and Drakey and Juliet had a nice time.  I admit I am already trying to plan for next year, as I had a lot of  (stressful) fun planning this out for them!