E likes to pick out her themes early. She picked Yo Gabba Gabba roughly 3 months after her 3rd birthday party and even though I kept telling her that we should wait and see till it got closer to her birthday, I have to give her credit, she stuck to her guns. I think by the time her 4th birthday rolled around, E wasn't even really watching YGG anymore, but she was still very insistent on this being the theme of her party.
In an effort to avoid my usual last minute scramble, I started making stuff for this party two months in advance. I had a brainstorm early on and decided I wanted to make a bunting out of felt with the Gabba faces on it. Believe it or not, I actually got about 20 feet of bunting made before January was out! I also ended up using the leftover felt (there was a TON) to make party hats too. [At some point, I may try and put together a tutorial for the bunting, but it might be a while.] Sadly, this momentum did not carry on for all of February.
I was also going to make favor bags with faces on them, but in the end, I couldn't resist these favor boxes from Birthday Express, which is apparently the only company that sells YGG party supplies. I also ended up buying a pack of cardboard DJ Lance glasses that they had, with the idea that the kids or adults could wear them during the party, if they felt so inclined. This led me to my second brilliant idea, which was to have Troy and I dress up as DJ Lance. Ok, maybe not the whole outfit, but at least the shirts, which I ended up making with t-shirts from Hobby Lobby, felt, and fabric glue. I tried like crazy to find DJ Lance hats that didn't come with a full costume, or even orange fun fur, but no dice.
I toyed with the idea of also ordering the official licensed character cupcake toppers, but eventually opted to order custom digital files from Etsy instead. I had them printed out on cardstock at one of the big-box office supply stores and then used a scallopped 2-inch punch to cut them out.
I had originally planned on making a bunch of other things as well, including a bean bag toss game with Brobee and various food-shaped bean bags (Party in My Tummy!) but my plans were derailed when, about 2 weeks before the party, my sick grandmother took a turn for the worse, and I had to abruptly leave town to see her before she passed away.
By the time I got home, just days before the party, I was emotionally drained but managed to throw together E's Foofa outfit, which was pretty straightforward; felt eyes, nose & mouth fabric glued to a pink shirt. I lucked into a flower-shaped button to sew to the top, and the tutu was of the quickie tulle-strips-tied-around-elastic variety. I may or may not have conscripted the hubby into making the tutu.
Overall, the party was a big hit! We played the two YGG soundtracks on repeat during most of the party, and the kids worked off their post-cupcake sugar rush with a dancey-dance party. Fun was had by all!
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