Yes we still exist...finally updates

I know i know i have been a craptastic blogger, but we were away in costa rica and with the boy's party, well lets just say i was lucky i was bale to wash my hair as often as i did.
so without blabbing too much, i wanted to share some pics from Gabriel's 1st Bday and Darren's 10th! (holy crap that makes me feel old)
I had been brainstorming for the longest time about how to "them" the party and since they are both HUGE milestones it seemed unfair to have to throw 2 different parties or our friends and family to have to travel to, so for this year we decided to combine them. i think its the only time this will ever work due to the huge age difference. elmo and transformers don't quite go together. so along with Darren we came up with Seuss and his thing 1 and thing 2.
it worked out perfectly for us.
so i scoured the interwebz for inspiration and quickly found lots of ideas for baby showers not so much birthdays of such an age gap so i got creative with the ideas.
i'll post the link to the inspirations down below, make sure you check them out these ladies have mad skills and i couldn't have come up with many things without their creativeness.

THE DETAILS
I made both of these banners

Then i used the same template to make them each a personalized poem, and below are the 12 months of pics of my little monkey

 The gift table, its hard to see but i bough the birthday book from seuss and put a note telling guests to please leave a message in the book. it will make for a nice keepsake

 I couldn't decide on centerpieces and on a christmas shopping trip to khols i found these guys for $5 each. add balloons and voila perfect centerpiece

 Found the ice bucket at the $ section in target and it was the perfect place to hold our personalized silverware, or plasticware as Darren would say

 The menu, there is one for the dessert table as well.

These evntually became crayon rolls that were part of the goodie bags, which i totally forgot to take pics of but do have extra so i have to find it to show you guys.
They had a crayon roll, a bottle of bubbles (personalized of course) a mini coloring book and a baggie of goldfish..
I got the squares from ebay and this was not its intended initial use but they worked perfectly.

THE FOOD

red velvet and cream cheese thing cupcakes...yes the cotton candy "hair" would have looked better but i had no time to find it let alone put it one.

 chocolate dipped marshmellows, again i wanted to do cake pops but time was an issue

 chocolate dipped/drizzled pretzels and oreo truffles (yum and super easy to make, look here for the recipie)

 sugar cookies with royal icing with a D or G

 vanilla cupcake with orange tinted buttercream frosting and a wocket on top

green deviled eggs, we also had hams and swiss sliders but somehow do not have a pic of them.

 

 salads

spinach dip (thanks jules)

The amazing cakes our beloved baker made for us, it was beyond perfect and delicious

THE GUESTS OF HONOR

my big boy

and my little monkey

let them eat cake

 in case you are wondering i got his customized shirt from SewMuch2Sew over at etsy. she was super helpful and even though it was a last minute thing she was able to get it to us on time for the big day. Its hard to see but its got his name under the 1.

PINATA TIME

PARTY PEOPLE

inspirations
google image search was very helpful for "seeing" ideas but these sites were great

http://dayswithbabykam.blogspot.com/2010/09/party-planning.html  -  totally stole her directions card

http://annies-eats.com/2010/06/28/andrews-second-birthday-party/  - lots of food ideas for combining the blue/red colors


http://www.amberhousley.com/2010/06/index.html    - lots of visual ideas


http://www.sowonderfulsomarvelous.com/2010/01/dr-seuss-birthday-party.html - inspiration

http://karaspartyideas.blogspot.com/2009/07/dr-seuss-baby-shower.html  - more inspiration (color)