I like doing fun creative personal projects just to mix it up, and these days those projects usually have something to do with my little kidlets:-)  Our oldest, Maddie, just turned 2 and like all mom's I of course, got on Pinterest to find a theme and ideas.  If you know me, you know I absolutely hate doing anything crafty, like really hate it!  So, my goal is always to find an idea and literally make it as simple as possible for a non crafty person like me.  I landed on the hot air balloon (up up and away) theme with a pink, coral and aqua color palette.  There's all kinds of complicated ways to make or buy hot air balloon looking decorations so I made it super simple.  The lanterns, bunting flags and chalk board signs I ordered from Paper Lantern Store, they literally have every size and color you could possibly want for a great price.  I needed them to be really light so we could tape them to the ceiling.  For the basket, I cut off the top of brown paper lunch bags and then stapled string to each size and then tied it to the metal part of the lantern and voila!  My 12 year old niece, Emma, helped me put them all together and my wonderful hubby who always knows he's getting roped into helping out someway hung them all from the ceiling over the sweets table, foyer, and out front.  For the sweets table, I melted and color chocolate and dipped vanilla and chocolate oreos and put sprinkles on top.  When I was a kid, my mom would make cupcakes in ice cream cones for our birthday treats for school, so I made those and frosted sugar cookies (yes the ones you break apart and bake:-).  The finishing touch was a little hot air balloon cake topper from Pleasantview Parties.  We had such a fun time with family and friends! Thanks to my friend Andi for taking some of us blowing out the candles! I did Maddie's 2 year old photos on a different day, and made a hot air balloon with the biggest balloon I could find at Party City and a white laundry basket.  She was much more into having the balloon tied to her arm than my idea lol!  Now on to ideas for Evie's 2nd birthday in June.......