ain't no party like a crazy bus party

Another birthday, another theme party. My son turned two - too young to pick out his theme, also at that wonderful age where the thrill of a party lies mostly in having other kids come over to play.

We kept it pretty simple and went with his current obsession: busses.

These little busses are actually Hershey's nugget chocolate bars. We printed this template, cut them and wrapped them up. Easier than I thought, but I was happy to have my mother-in-law to help. We made a whole bag and served them on the buffet.

We put a bus stop sign on the front door, bought yellow, black and white balloons and used masking tape to put traffic lines down our hallway floor. Stop signs were posted and available on sticks, since running out in front of people and yelling "stop" is maybe his second favorite thing to do. (Finding busses is by far his first)

One day, I will get better about making sure pictures get taken during the actual party. :)

I was about to go to bed the night before and was putting away this large (36x36) blank canvas (which is for another project - more on that later) and realized I could do something quick to add to the decor. Pulled out my paints and did a quick bus with the caption "this is how we roll".

And then there was the cake. Frosting is not my medium of choice, but I was pretty happy with how this turned out. I baked one cake on a large round, then another in a loaf pan and inverted it on top of the first. Decorated it to sort of look like a bus. I love making cakes, but I have to admit that my priority is definitely deliciousness over decoration. Maybe one day I'll take a class. The kids loved it though. (Easy audience! Swayed by chocolate cake!)

My gift doubled as the entertainment - I built him a bus. I made the frame from PVC pipe and corner joints, then sewed a cover using black and yellow/orange cotton to make it look like a bus. I thought for sure there would be a tutorial somewhere for something like this, but I couldn't find one anywhere. I'm excited about this creation - looking forward to making other covers for the frame to be different things - some kind of house/building, a firetruck, maybe a puppet theatre for my daughter's birthday in the spring.