FOUND: Liliana's 2nd birthday party theme!

I wrote a post a few months ago about desparately needing to find a party theme for Liliana's 2nd birthday.  They were all cute ideas, but even as I hit publish on that post, I knew I hadn't found "the one."  For Liliana's first birthday party, we had a "cupcake" themed party and it was a total hit.   

This year, we will be celebrating her birthday party a week early in San Antonio because we'll be there to see her Padrino graduate from college.  While we'll miss her celebrating with our family here in Little Rock too, I figure the Little Rock family gets to see her a couple times every month while the San Antonio family misses her moments more often due to distance.

I have been seriously FREAKING OUT because I haven't had this birthday party theme resolved. 

The other night, I was complaining about this to Evan for about the 90th time that hour and he said something that for some reason my apparently closed-minded brain hadn't thought about: "why not have a Liliana and friends birthday party?  That way her two favorite people (Elmo and Dora) can attend!"

It was BRILLIANT!  This whole time I couldn't decide what to do theme wise because I couldn't come up with one theme, so instead I was inventing other themes.  When the reality is, you can do whatever the heck you want for them! ; )

THEREFORE, it is official:

The theme for Liliana's 2nd birthday party:  LILIANA AND FRIENDS!

I've already been finding some inspiration.  I think I will try to have a "Dora" station and an "Elmo" station to appease both sides of the crazy sides of Liliana ... she likes some girly things (mainly bracelets), she LOVES food (so that will be involved in every regard), and she's definitely not a girly girl, so we'll have to have things for her to play with and have a good time with. 

So here, in a HUGE nutshell is what I have in mind:

Definitely BRIGHT and FUN colors.  Liliana isn't a girly girl.  Maybe baby #2 will be, but that's not Liliana, so I don't want to conform to that.

I love this idea of having the bracelets, b/c this is the ONE thing that Liliana does that's girly and she LOVES having bracelets on.  She holds her hands straight up in the air so that they won't fall off.

I like the idea of printing off Elmo and Dora printables and having crayons for the kiddos to play with.  Liliana likes coloring, enough that I thought of having an Art themed party for her, so at least this way I get to involve that a little bit.  Maybe we can do the art theme in a later year when I won't have to be so scared of her also eating the crayons ...

LOVE the decor here!  The 2's on the back of the chairs nad the lanterns!  OMG!  My parents have the same kind of trellis above their deck so we could TOTALLY make it work! (Evan might have to do that since I'll be a bajillion weeks pregnant when this party is happening)

At the Dora station, we can easily have some animal crackers since Dora is always teaming up with her cousin Diego to save animals.

Dora's always catching "estrellas" (or as Liliana calls them "strela").  These brownies would be easy to make and add a cute pop of color.

These printables are free off of nickjr.com and the older kiddos (if Liliana doesn't get it) would have fun pinning the tail on Swiper.

Gotta have "we did it" and Dora's greatest hits playing in the background right?  Wouldn't be a party without her tunes!

So those are my thoughts for now!  I will probably buy little things here and there and will do all of it on a budget like I did Liliana's 1st birthday. 

But oh, the possibilities!!! ; )