Birthday Party Breakdown: Decorations & Food

Did we ever party like rockstars!  Our daughter's rockstar themed 7th birthday was a big hit this weekend and since several of you have asked for a little behind the scenes, here it is!

Remember my DIY birthday garland that I made last week?  Well, truth be told, I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with it when I made it. Since the forecast said it was going to be about 90 on Saturday we had my mom bring over her huge canopy and we put it up to provide a little shade. I decided hanging the garland under there would look cute and make the canopy not so plain. What'd ya' think:

Here is a view from the other side:

Before the party on Saturday I had to run to the wal-marts to pick up a few things, I also picked up some $1 treat boxes.  Treat boxes+streamers and cutout shapes + fishing line =

I added some birthday garland to one and it became our pseudo chandelier:

To spruce up the plates and cutlery I folded each napkin, glued a little piece of cardstock around it, put the fork and spoon with it and put it in a cute basket:

Bonus: Having these as a set prevents a kid from grabbing 10 napkins and helps everyone hold onto everything.


Other than some table clothes and a few balloons that about wraps up the decor part of our segment. So we'll move onto food!

What else would a rock star eat other than pizza.  Since our local pizza place has a $5.99 large special we decided to go that route for food.  I also grabbed a cantaloupe, some apples, carrots, cucumbers and bell peppers for  fruit and veggie trays, most of the veggies came from the abundant gardens of our friends and families.  We had a few 2 liters of pop, some water and capri sun juice packs for the drinks.

Oh, and cake.  What party is complete without cake.  I attempted to make a cover the cake in fondant.  It was a huge failure.  A failure of catastrophic proportions. There were tears and angry fists pumps.  Then, with less than and hour until the kiddos got home from school and 2 my hubby's parents arrived I decided to whip up a batch of pink butter cream and call it a day.  I did add a little fondant accent. Here is the cake:

And the top:

Later this week I'll delve into the favors, entertainment and fun. For all of you who scoffed at my $100 or less birthday party here is the budget breakdown for decor and food:
Birthday Garland - $1
Treat Bag Lanterns -$1.50
Table Clothes - $3
Balloons - $3
5 Pizzas - $ 35
Fruit and Veggies - $2.19 since most of them came from gardens of friends and families
Pop, water and juice -  $9
=$54.69