Frugal Kids Birthday Party....

httpYesterday was my son's 5th birthday.  I think everyone had a great time.  My son really loved it!  I always make homemade cakes for my kids as it saves a lot of money and I think they taste better (if I do say so myself!).  He really wanted a banana flavored guitar cake.  Lucky for me I actually have a guitar shaped pan I bought a few years ago for my husbands 30th birthday cake.  I also used this Martha banana cake recipe.  It was really tasty, and not that hard to make. 

Just try to ignore the squiggly lines on the strings!  Lol!  Oh well, the boss liked it so that is all that mattered.  I also made some chocolate cupcakes because I was unsure if people would like it, but it went over really well.  We had the party at 2 so I just did some light snacks.  A veggie plate, no bake cookies, chips, pretzels, pigs in a blanket, and s'mores pops.

I wanted to do s'mores inside over a sterno, but thought this would be safer!  I just dipped the mallows in chocolate and rolled them in graham crackers.  The kids loved them!

I also made a birthday banner for him.

I made this banner out of some scrapbook paper I had lying around.  That is an exclamation point on that last triangle.  It was really simple to make and I plan on putting a little tutorial about it on my crafty blog.
I also made the treat bags.

I made these bags out of an old shirt.  I used pinking shears and just foled the fabric in half and sewed up each side.  I saw this idea on a blog but can't find it so if anyone knows where this idea came from just leave a comment so I can link to it.  I also got those wooden stars at Hobby Lobby and me and my son painted them with some watercolors.  I used a hot glue gun to to attach a pin back to them.  I filled the bags with some "Cowboy Trailmix".  The recipe I came up with was,

2 1/2 cups peanuts
2 cups raisins
11/2 cups chocolate chips

This makes 6, 1 cup servings.

Overall it was a really fun party!