Loops and "I Love Lucy"

Little Loops just celebrated her first birthday, so I chose an "I Love Lucy" theme. For this I chose red, black and white as the colors, and included polka dots wherever I could. Naturally, the show "I Love Lucy" was in black and white, but I felt the polka dots, red, black and white really brought about the feeling of a 1940's housewife.

"But wait, who are you?"

Before we delve into what I did for the party, I'd like to say that there a probably thousands, dare I say millions, of mommy blogs out there. All kinds of mommies with stories to tell, advice (....and opinions) to share and all that good stuff. So you might ask yourself: why am I reading this one?

To that I say:
I have no idea, but thanks for stopping by!

First let me start off by saying, I'm not that great of a mom. I mean, my kids are happy, healthy, adorable and well-fed but.... they probably watch way more television then I would like to admit (can we get a "Yo Gabba Gabba" up in here?) and also each probably consume two cheese sticks a day. I'm far from crafty, I'm not organized, and most importantly, I am tired. I am tired. I've mastered the clothing choices and (lack of) basic hygiene that introduce me as a tired person. I've put hand soap on my toothbrush, worn clothes two days in a row and washed my hair with baby powder more times than I'd like to admit. I'm. Just. That. Tired.

"Yeah, and who isn't?"
Touche. But I'm not here for advice, or craft ideas, or style ideas or anything really. Mostly I'm here for commiseration. But if by chance some words of wisdom do pop out, promptly ignore them.

I have a little boy, Hoops, and a little girl, Loops. Pay close attention and you might even catch their real names. I used to be a kindergarten teacher until little maternity leave, childcare costs (I'm not climbing onto my soapbox quite yet; maybe we'll save that for another post) and stress prompted me to become a stay-at-home mom.

So, back to Loops and her first birthday. 

We got people to attend this shindig by sending them this wonderful invite, custom designed by Little Laws Prints:

I put a little note on the bottom indicating for no gifts. Really, enough is enough at this point. I think I'll even post about that one day: the devolution of play through an overwhelming amount of toys. (But serious thanks and gratitude to those who do think of our kids and want to get them gifts! We feel the love!)

So, like I said, we chose polka dots, red, black and white. I also think the colors and the polka dots would work great for a Mickey Mouse party or a ladybug party too.

Here is some of the decor I used:

Can't you just see how crafty I am? I mean, that is pure talent right there. Anyway, I bought red streamers and found black streamers with white polka dots. It was nice and breezy so this little guy signaled to our guest to come on in. Or something. It was a lot of taping.
But again, I think this would work great for several themes.

Here's a little sign my father made on the front door. I really debated whether it should be just "Celebrating" or "S'elebrating" to be reminiscent of Ricky Ricardo's famous line. In the end I went with the S and apostrophe. I'm still unsure of this. The heart was supposed to be red, and the "To Do" didn't print on it... Crafty. My dad and I are very crafty.

More tape and streamers for the stairs! As you come in, these streamers are just an indicator of party time.

During the party, we had episodes of "I Love Lucy" playing on the TV. We kept the volume low, but it was a fun touch. I don't think anyone noticed.

I went even farther with my taping skills. I used the black streamers with the polka dots and taped it around red cups to place the black utensils in. I also used red paper plates and added some black plastic cups just for extra interest. I even found red napkins with white polka dots on them. Thanks Party City!

I also found some red balloons, black balloons with white dots and a foil red heart balloon. The balloons were even held down by a heavy pair of hearts. I placed these on the counter along with some pictures of Loops and her brother. I covered the granite with a red table cloth. It was mega slippery, so I used some tape donuts and taped it to the counter. If you haven't noticed, I'm a pro at taping.

I decked out the highchair with more tape and streamers and a second bundle of balloons. We took it outside for the singing of birthday songs and smashing of cake.

My terribly talented sister made this cake for our little Loops. Her talents obviously extend past tape and streamers.

More importantly, what did we wear?

Here's a picture of me and Loops. She is wearing that cute little dress from this shop on Etsy, and our matching headbands are from this shop. She was almost painfully adorable. I had a dress that somewhat matched her dress, but that morning was feeling a wee bit unhappy with my current body dimensions (again, fodder for another post) so I went with this striped shirt and a black pencil skirt. I believe the other outfit would have been better with the theme, but this still felt 1940's housewife to me.

I even attempted makeup and hair.

 

Here's Hoops wearing a bowling shirt that was supposed to conjure up images of Ricky Ricardo and Little Ricky. He lasted in his clothes all of one hour of the party before wandering around in undies or a swim diaper. Toddlerhood. Eventually Loops joined the pants-off-party.

So there you have it! Loops and her "I Love Lucy" party!

 

What do you think? Have you ever had a similar theme or could use any of these ideas?