Avery's 2nd Birthday...a Lorax Party!

Well, the day has come for my little girl to turn TWO! When it came time to come up with a theme for this year's party it was a close tie between Despicable Me and The Lorax, since those two movies, despite being a year or two old, are her favorites! She will watch them (or scenes from them), over and over and over again. So when it finally came time to decide, we went with The Lorax theme mainly because of the adorable, bright, and oh-so lovely Truffula trees.

Being the tissue paper pom pom addict that I am, I looked forward to making our own Truffula trees and decorated the whole house with them.   Add a few other projects and we had one fun second birthday party!

The inspiration: The movie The Lorax, the book by Dr. Seuss was obviously our inspiration as well, but when it came to creating the trees I looked to making them like the Truffula trees in the movie.

Here's some details:
The invitations: Big thanks to "Larissa Kay Designs" over at Etsy for these fun Lorax birthday invitations! Loved them.

The outfit: Another Etsy find that I just couldn't pass up..."Personalized Dr. Seuss Lorax Inspired Botique Fabric Tutu Skirt" by AddieKat Boutique. Do you have a young daughter with an upcoming birthday well this Etsy shop is for you! I would have bought Avery five birthday outfits if I could, they are just so dang cute! And to find a Lorax-style one was just perfect.

The best non-moving snap shot I got
of the outfit all day! ( :

The trees: As I said before, the movie was my inspiration for the trees, and with that said I chose 3 colors: dark pink, orange, and yellow.

To make the actual tree I made tissue paper pom poms, like I described in this post for her 1st Birthday Party. The only difference is that instead of rounding the tips off, I made them pointy like a skinny triangle.

We stuck them to the wall with just a few pieces of masking tape!

For the tree trunks, I went with skinny, grey trunks with simple hand-drawn lines. The Lorax book shows yellow, trunks but I liked the grey ones from the movie. To make these all we did was use light grey construction paper, trace out the shapes of the trunks we wanted and then taped them to the wall with masking tape.

We used a grey marker to make the lines
on the trunks as well.

Here's a few of the other trees we put up around my house.

My mom painted a Lorax character onto poster board...a must have decor item at a Lorax party! Avery loved talking to him and making sure to tell him that she "DID NOT" chop down any trees.

Aside from larger Truffula trees on the walls, we also made some smaller trees in little pots to decorate on our mantle and the main food table.  To make these trees we just used the same pom pom styles, but about half the size. 

The birthday mantle.  I made a similar monthly banner
like I did last year in this post.

The main food table where we had veggies with dip and hummus,
fruit salad, and chips and salsa...and one of Avery's favorite:
gummy bears! Not exactly the most Lorax-inspired foods,
but Avery loves them so we went with it!

We used styrofoam balls, bamboo craft sticks, and decorative
paper "grass" and attached the pom poms to the top of the
sticks to make mini-Truffula trees.

Now that you know how we planned it all let's get to the fun part...the actual party!
First up were presents!

Pretend barn...her new favorite toy!

Other favorite...a new baby doll who's diaper can be changed!

Well, we better get right to changing that diaper!

Her "big present" this year was a
Little Tikes Princess Cozy Truck Ride-On!
Since she's decided she's too big to ride in her stroller,
this truck couldn't come soon enough!

Except all she wanted to do was "hang" off the back like
this...not quite the intended use.

Feeling like such a big girl already!

Cupcake Time!  I went with the same gluten-free, vegan, sugar-free cupcake and icing recipe that I used at her birthday party last year and it was just as delicious as before. Check it out here. By the way, I dyed the icing pink with beet juice!

This is going to be fun!

Oh yeah, I like icing.

Happy Birthday to me!

It didn't take long until she was off and ready to play
some more...tutu and all!

A big thanks to all our family that came out to support Avery and take part in the fun! We love you guys.

Our little Birthday family!

Then we ended the party by watching a recap of the last year...I can't belive how much she's changed since just last year.

Thanks to all of you who have followed her for the past two years, and for some even since I was pregnant with her! I hope you continue to follow our little family as we grow into this next year.  ( :