Hey Friends! It’s been a while! I have been so preoccupied with putting together Amari’s birthday that I haven’t had a chance to write even a sentence! Now that its all over with I can’t wait to tell you guys all about it! I received so many questions about the things we made or the vendors we used that I thought it would be a great idea to put it all in one place. Hopefully, you enjoy it as much as we did and maybe score some easy tips for your little one’s next celebration! So to tell you the truth, this birthday party started out as just a get together with close family and friends to have a little cake and ice cream. I had been told so many times that the child sleeps through the entire party never even experiencing it. Even if he actually did stay up that he’s so young he wouldn’t remember it anyway. So why bother spending the money right? I swear that was my original intention. But when you come from a family as large as mine, nothing is EVER just a “small get together”. Amari is currently obsessed with this new youtube cartoon duo called Dave & Ava. They are a family that sings all the original nursery rhymes and educational songs. Nothing gets him going like that duo. So whatever I did, I knew it would be Dave & Ava themed.
It started off with the cake. My cousin BabyCakes By Bakir makes BOMB cakes y’all! Not only do they look great, but they taste fantastic too. She has been so booked and busy that I contacted her 2 months in advance and she still had to squeeze me in after I begged and begged and promised to get a “simple, one layered” cake. However once we had settled on a design, my close friend Sally convinced me that we needed a party that was equally as cool as the cake. It was over from there because unbeknownst to me, Sally and her kids Jaylen, Skyler, Darryl, and Reece were on a mission to recreate and an entire scene from the Dave & Ava Happy Birthday video *slaps my forehead*.
They reached out to Bombshell Graphics and had 3-foot foam board replicas of all of the Dave and Ava characters made and placed around the yard. The quality was so amazing and towered over Amari who is only standing at 2ft. As a surprise to me, they even placed Amari into Dave’s suit which we used to greet all of Amari’s guests at the door.
Next, we needed a balloon arch to place at the front of the house. Just FYI, balloon art is pretty expensive, which I had no idea about until I actually started 
looking. However, Party With Us NJ makes beautiful designs at great prices. So much that we actually ended up getting a balloon tree to compliment the amazing photo wall that Schuyler created using items purchased on Amazon. Schuyler also had a gorgeous carnival-style table made to
hold the candy and cake displays. We re-purposed a bunch of vases and candle holders for the candy display and bought all the candy at Oriental Trading. I bought a few animal balloons on amazon to throw around the yard and also a few balloon stands for each table. Then we grabbed a bunch of balloons (including the star) from the 99 cent store and viola! All posters were made at Walgreens which I particularly love for their same-day photo services and the convenience of being able to upload pictures from your phone. They also always have some sort of promotional sale on photo paraphernalia so if you keep an eye out you can often catch a good deal. The particular poster that we made generally averages about $40 but if you wait around for a 70% off coupon you can score this baby for about 12 bucks.
Then, I found these amazing waterproof labels on Amazon and created Dave & Ava templates using Microsoft Word to use for his Capri Suns and Water bottles. This was key since I knew that the juices and waters would be submerged in ice baths all day and I didn’t want the ink running off into little children’s hands. When I tell you that these were the hit of the party… everyone commented and posted these on their social media feeds.
When it was time to sing happy birthday we brought the cake out accompanied by chocolate covered Oreos and cupcakes graced by Keremo Cakes. These were the most beautiful treats I had ever seen.
All in all, an absolutely amazing time with friends and family that I wouldn’t trade for anything else in the world. Amari made it through the entire birthday party and was so exhausted afterward that he fell asleep standing up! I was also so exhausted afterward that I have decided that Amari won’t have another birthday party until he’s FIVE!
Make sure you follow all of mine and Amari’s adventures on Instagram at JustaANJMom
