Photo Dump: A Princess Elena of Avalor Party on a budget

My llittle JAE turned 2 on Monday. HOW??? I still remember going into labor with her. I still remember her quick delivery. I still remember so many things from her first week home with us. The time has FLOWN by!

J, JOE and I threw her a Princess Elena of Avalor themed party and she thoroughly enjoyed being princess for a day. Truth be told though, she bosses everyone around the house every day :-D.
I pinned a lot of items on Pinterest but since life happens, I didn't get a chance to finish it all. So a lot of what I did is what you'd consider "semi-homemade". In other words, I just built on the base. 

A few days before JAE's birthday, her custom birthday cookies arrived. These cookies were once again a big hit. They looked and tasted delicious. I got them from Jackie Chews and they arrived on time. I plan on ordering from her for other celebrations we have. She is professional and very talented!

For the gift bags, I included a noise maker ($2), some M&Ms (bag was $8.65, a Butterfly fan (Elena theme) - $5.37/12, a kids compact mirror (Elena theme) $6.99/12 and a bubble bottle (Elena theme) $7.96./12.
For the M&Ms, I simply printed out a picture of Princess Elena and added a message on the side. 
Then I had JOE color each in red or blue. Those were the theme colors. My baby did a great job!

A few weeks before the party, I cut up Esteban (character from Princess Elena) mustaches and tiaras. I then stapled them to the gift bags. I already had the paper at home so there was no additional cost. 
Also, the bags were left overs from JOE's PJ Masks party last year so it was nice to not purchase new ones.

For JAE, I couldn't find 2T Elena dress for her from the Disney site or any other sites. BUT I did find a 2T costume. Instead of looking for a dressy dress, I just looked for a costume. I did this for JOE's birthday a couple of years ago and decided to try it again this year and it worked. The dress was $23 from Amazon.
For the tiara, I didn't want to spend a ton on her tiara so I purchased a set of tiaras from Amazon. It came as a set of 4 for $7. I then used red nail polish to pain the biggest stone and 2 side stones. It worked PERFECTLY!

I made red and blue vanilla flavored chocolate covered pretzels. I have never used the vanilla flavor before so when I found it at Wal-mart, I was really excited to try it and it tasted REALLY good! I had 3 before I was done making them :-D.
Each bag of the chocolate melts was $1.50. I didn't use the full bag. The container of pretzel rods was $4.50

We decided that instead of having the party somewhere else, we would have it at our home since it allowed for more flexibility.
So we got a deal through Groupon. We used this company for JAE's Sip & See a couple of years ago and they were just as professional to work with. And definitely a great deal. 
We also got a cotton candy machine. The total for the bounce house (12-hours of use) and the cotton candy machine came up to about $165.

I purchased the butterfly from Amazon. It was $12.17

J and I set up everything the morning of and then I got to cooking while J ran some errands with JOE. JAE was supposed to sleep but we had no such luck so I ended up listening to her babble while I cooked.

I wanted a Mexican themed party since Elena is Disney's first hispanic Princess. I looked on Pinterest for ideas and came away with a few. 
I made chicken quesadillas. This was a 4-ingredient item and was wicked easy to make. Basically, you use cut up chicken breast, add taco seasoning, add sliced bell peppers and then cook. Then after it all marinates for a bit, you throw them on the tortilla, add cheese on there, throw another tortilla on top and just let it all melt together. 
Then slice and enjoy! It was ALL GONE!

I made some chicken wings as well. 

And made some sweet BBQ meatballs in the crockpot. The meatballs are EASY! Get frozen meatballs, put them in your crockpot, add grape jelly and a bottle of BBQ sauce. Stir occassionally. I left it on low heat for 3-hours and then kicked it up to high for about half an hour and it was ready to be served.

I picked up some On the border tortilla chips and salsa. 

The cake was SIMPLY DELICIOUS! We used the same place we used for JOE's first birthday. To save some money, instead of them making the tiara, I gave them one of the ones that came in the pack JAE's outfit. Worked GREAT! Plus kids don't like fondant so why spedn $49 (what we were quoted) for a tiara when we could just get one that would be taken off?

The dessert table.

My favorite part of the birthday celebration was JOE singing the Princess Elena birthday song to JAE. JAE smiled the entire time and it was just so cute!

And other pictures from the festivities.

Me and my girls. I was so busy throughout that I didn't get to take a proper picture with them so I had J take a few pics after the celebration.

After everyone had left, I decided to get in the jump house with the girls and we all had a great time. Then it was time to clean up. 

The next day, we were all VERY tired. So much so that everyone slept until almost 8am. So we decided to watch our Church service online and then head to the mall for the girls to take pictures with the Easter bunny.

I'll stop here and continue next week :-). 

Hope you had a fabulous week! Thanks for reading. Have an awesome weekend and remember to be kind to strangers!