This weekend my beautiful sweet twin girls turned one, and we celebrated with a picnic by the river at a local zoo!
I sent out handwritten invitations made from kraft coloured cardstock.
We brought our barbecue along and served up hotdogs, hamburgers, watermelon and typical picnic fare.
We bought 10 litre jugs of water and mixed up the iced tea and fresh squeezed lemonade directly in them to make for a simple bug free way to serve drinks.
For dessert we served a make-your-own strawberry shortcake buffet.
And instead of goodie bags we sent each family home with a basket of fresh local strawberries!
I'm pretty sure it's customary to end a post like this with an adorable, well staged photo of the twins wearing pristine birthday dresses and smashing their birthday cakes. Instead I ended up with a picture of one strawberry covered princess...
And one really really grumpy birthday girl!
Thanks so much for visiting The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking!
{p.s. I am guest posting today over at Red and Honey about How to Clean your Whole House without Nasty Chemicals. Swing on over there and check it out!}
VERY cute picnic! Love the fresh fruit idea. Beautiful, beautiful girls :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful party and I love the drink mix idea!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to the girls :)
Adding the mixes to the jugs of water is pure genius!!! Also I love the idea of sending guests home with fruit rather than little plastic novelties. Thanks for sharing and happy birthday to your little ones!
ReplyDeleteSo creative, and I'm in awe over the mixing in the containers idea. Can you explain a bit better on how you did that? I have a zillion bags of lemons in my fridge waiting to be turned into lemonade for a party on Sunday, and I'd love to use this idea!
ReplyDeletehi Lindsay! We don't really have a recipe for lemonade because it's different every time. Some lemons are sweeter/more sour/more flavourful than others. For this batch we removed about 1 litre of water from the 10 litre jug and then added 1 litre of fresh squeezed lemon juice. Then we just added sugar bit by bit until it tasted right. To stir we put the lid back on and shook the jug!
DeleteOkay, so the jugs have lids, lol? That was what I meant, logistically, I couldn't quite envision how you add to that type of water container. Perhaps I need to look at different brands?
DeleteThe spigots on the water jugs shown pull right off and snap right back on.
DeleteSorry, I wrote that quickly and didn't mean it to come across as implying you did a "poor" job explaining. I just meant to ask for a few more details:)
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely party! Just wondering where you got the straws and juice jugs?
ReplyDeleteThe straws are from this shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/iheartcupcakestoo
DeleteThanks!
DeleteI love the fresh strawberries as party favor idea!! What a great party all around!! And What beautiful birthday girls! :)
ReplyDeleteSo cute the girls even when they are crying in the pictures!!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a good time. Your invitations are so very cute. And I love the realistic birthday kid photos! That's how my kids always seem to end their birthday parties... :)
ReplyDeleteWhere did you get all the jars from?
ReplyDeleteYou must have been so tired afterwards, it all looked so lovely, fresh and a real celebration.
I actually already had most of the canning jars because I haven't made any jam yet this year...but I did have to buy an extra box of them to have enough.
DeleteThe picnic area is inside a local zoo, so after the party our family toured the zoo AND the splash park....We were all VERY tired when we got home, but it was a great day :)
I have been reading your blog for quite a while and am now going back to previous posts. I had no idea you guys were from Peterborough! I grew up there just down the street from the zoo. Lots of great memories there! Great party ideas - we dont have kids yet, but I'll store these ideas for later. :)
DeleteNice party! I love that you showed pictures of less-than-pristine looking birthday girls. Gotta keep it real! =)
ReplyDeleteHow beautiful-so many great ideas. Precious girls! Even the teary one. :-)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLooks like it was a lot of fun. Can you tell me where I can buy straws like that?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
I bought mine here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/iheartcupcakestoo
DeleteThank you!
DeleteThat is a great idea for the drinks! I will have to try that next time I have a party.
ReplyDeleteLooks like great fun, my god daughter's birthday's coming up..and I'm definitely stealing tips from you!
ReplyDeleteStrawberries as party bags is also a great idea!
Where did you get the 10 gal jugs from?
ReplyDelete