Liliana's 2nd Birthday Party! (Part II)

I posted some of the decor for Liliana's party on Monday.  Since then, life has been pretty hectic, but I'll blog more about that tomorrow.  For now, I want to finish documenting Liliana's big birthday bash! : )

Planning the party from states away was difficult, mainly for the food aspect!  I would have made signs for every single dish (even though I'm aware people have eyes and could have deciphered it themselves), but I simply didn't know what I would have time to do once we arrived in San Antonio.  Turns out the few signs that I did make came out beautifully and added the perfect "touch" to the decor.

Here's the birthday girls outfit!  I ordered the dress and matching clip on etsy for a really reasonable price and then we got the shoes at Walmart for $3.87!  A bargain, adorable outfit for sure!  She really did look ADORABLE.

As for food, I wanted to have some adult food yes, but ultimately, this is a KIDS birthday party and having KIDS food was my priority (hence the brownies and macaroni and cheese!).

For the adults, I bought red and pink plates and then for the kids, we had Dora and Elmo plates. 

I designed these little utensil holders and it was so fun adding a cute touch to the decor.  I made each about 1 inch long and then printed it on a 5 by 7.  Then, the night before, my aunt went through, cut each one and put a piece of tape on the back.  Cheap, pretty quick, and definitely a sweet touch.

These estrella brownies were probably the biggest "I HATE YOU!" moments of the party.  Cutting these out in to stars ended up being much more difficult than I had anticipated.  In order to achieve this look, make sure to do the mix THIN on a jelly roll pan.  This will enable you to be able to cut them with the cookie cutter afterward.  If you do it in a 9 by 13, they end up too thick and are impossible to work with (learned that the hard way). 

Since we had the party outside, I wanted to keep the guests well hydrated!  Elmo's Mint Lemonade was SOOOO delicious.  Just make lemonade concentrate (follow directions on back of can) and add mint leaves the day before.  The day of the party, take this out and add the stems to keep it looking pretty.  The day of the party, take lemons that have been soaked in sugar and add those too.  Makes for a delicious, yummy, simple alternative to your typical lemonade.

This macaroni and cheese was a HUGE hit!  I baked TWO of these big pans and we went through 1 1/2 of them.  We thought we had made WAY too much, but turns out that wasn't really the case.

For favors, each kiddos got one Elmo book and either an Elmo cup or Dora cup (depending if it was a boy or girl). 

All in all, a very successful party!  Or at least, the birthday girl thought so! : )