Glow in the New Year Party

Sorry I'm so late to posting this (two whole months late!), but after all- I have been a little pre-occupied with being pregnant and preparing the house for this baby, followed by actually having the little man.
Our kiddo, "Baby A" in which I'll refer to him by on here, by-passed his Jan. 30th due date, and only decided to join the world once we set a being induced date (but that's another blog post in itself). He was born Feb. 4th at 7:14pm, at a healthy 8 lbs, 3 oz, 21 inches. My water broke in my final hour of work of my last day (was going to be induced the next morning)- and he was born less than 6 hrs later (again, another blog post later for various labor-related stuff). So with him being late, followed by the first few weeks of being a new parent with a newborn, I'm late to getting back in the blogo bandwagon.

Now, I know we're way beyond past New Years thinking, but I thought I'd throw this out there, in case you're a pre-planner like me, who starts dreaming up themes a whole year in advance (yes, we already have our theme for this coming New Year's Eve party already figured out- and yes, we still plan on having them, even though we have a baby in the mix).
Anyways, This past New Years Eve we had our annual big NYE bash, as we always do. This year our theme was "Glow in the New Years."

It was a fun theme to decorate honestly. I had fun turning the blacklights on and off to test out what glowed and what didn't glow well. A lot of trial and error. Forewarning though- I SUCK at taking photos in the blacklight!

My sweets table- in all its glowing glory. (I know- I suck at blacklight photography).

I cut out these neon letters from posterboard and they glowed AWESOMELY in the blacklight.

Much of my friends thought I was crazy to host a big bash at 8 months pregnant (my due date was Jan. 30th, but as stated above, Baby A didn't join the world till Feb. 4), but other than having to take things slower, it wasn't as bad as I thought.
We picked the theme really early on in the year- so much so that I could pick up items throughout the year (especially during the key months of "glow in the dark" items- the summer) and not down a boat-load of money on the setup all at once.

We had glow sticks, highlighters, glow-in-the-dark beach balls, glow stick jewelry and glowing light-sabers.

The dollar store was my biggest helper in this party- they had neon baskets, neon containers/buckets, candy, neon labels, highlighters, and of course- glow stick everything!

Before all the food was put out- but thank you, Dollar Store- your neon-ness rocked this party!

2 funny stories with the dollar store glow shopping spree: I knew I needed some candy for our sweets table and came across neon sour gummy worms (or "Glow Worms" as I like to call them). I started loading up my basket with 2 big bags of gummy worms, a bag of flavored tootsie rolls and 2 bags of pixie sticks. An older man takes one look at my giganto 8-month prego belly and then the pile of candy in my basket and says to me "That all for the baby?" I laugh half-hearted, "Uh. No."

All the neon containers, labels and candy- thanks to the awesome Dollar Store!

Then when I was checking out at the conveyor belt, a young girl behind me sees me unload a boat-load of neon items (post-it notes, labels, highlighters, baskets, etc.) and she says to me "That's a LOT of school supplies!" My reply, "I'm having a neon glow New Year's party." Her eyes get wide and she turns to her mom, "That's so cool!"
So, yeah- party planning while super pregnant at the dollar store proved to be an interesting time. lol.

The full sweets table

The sweets table banner in the non-blacklight

Sweets table in the black-light

Note though: Dollar store post-it notes do NOT stick to chalkboard painted walls. However traditional Post-it brand does! Luckily I tried out the post-it wall decor a few days before the party, just to see if they'd work, and sure enough- Dollar Store brand post-its just fell right off, but the actual Post-it brand worked wonderfully. That 2016 in post-its would still be on my wall if I hadn't decided to de-NYE-ify my dining room for impending baby.

Post-it note wall decor- in normal light

Post-it note wall decor-in black light

It was so much fun to see what items glowed great, and what items didn't glow as well. Friends busted out the neon and glow sticks in their getups.

My hubs had the best neon outfit...

I glowed, but not as much as the hubs.

Friends in the dining room- we put up paper star curtain between dining and living room.

Overall we had a LOT of food- we provided the main drinks & sweets, while we asked friends to bring a dish or alcoholic beverage- since our budget was tight due to impending baby. Everyone was super awesome and brought plenty of grub. The hardest part was seeing what everything was- since in the blacklight, not every dish was easy to see what it was!

The shots/drinks table

Another view of the sweets table- where you can see the neon dishware in the corner.

Overall I thought it was super fun. I was so glad I pre-planned and picked items up throughout the year- made it so much easier.

Big hits of the night:
- Neon pink strawberry cupcakes (the blue velvet ones didn't turn out nearly as good- tried to make them glow in the dark, but they just looked like goo on the outside)

- Using Highlighters to draw on yourself under the blacklight (who knew highlighters would be the easiest glow-in-the-dark body decorations?!)
- Glow blue punch (it didn't really glow as much as we had hoped, but the flavor itself was a hit) you can get the recipe we used here: Blackout Punch.

- Tye-dye cookies (boxed cookie mix by Duff Goldman)

- Glowifying our giant wall clock (This helped people know how close we were to the countdown- the night went surprisingly fast!). I just cut out numbers from neon yellow cardstock and put white paper on the hands of the clock- and tada!

- Bathroom glow sign (I put a glowing note on the toilet "Please turn on the light if you cannot aim") People thought that was hilarious. Sadly I forgot to photograph that. lol.

Overall it was super-fun night and I was so glad we got to host it. I still have lots of plates, sliverware, cups leftover- which has been a huge help now that baby decided to join the world (who wants to do dishes with a newborn anyways?!).

And yeah- I had a pedicure done complete with pink neon toenails... which surprisingly enough, I still have, since I've been home with a newborn all this time. lol.

So now that you saw how we spent our last new years without a kiddo, be forewarned- pregnancy/new parent posts are on their way.
Also, stay tuned for a lot more updates on the blog- from a possible redesign (once I get more free time- aka. when Baby A sleeps longer than 1 hr stretches during the day- he only sleeps 2-3 hr stretches at night- aka. when we finally get sleep), to somethings I learned while being pregnant (that no one ever talks about), as well as what I brought to the hospital- and what I actually used at the hospital, and a post about the best postpartum items to help you get through the first ROUGH weeks. I also have lots of other NEW and fun things planned for the blog that this past year I slacked in. (Looking back, boy was I a blog slacker! Pregnancy really made me be lazy!)
My New Years resolution is to get back my blogging mojo- since obviously with directing Shrek and planning for a baby/being pregnant- I was a SLACKER! *fingers crossed* this year with the start of the new baby we start things off with a new blogging outlook!

So I'll leave you with a single pic of our adorable "Baby A" all dressed up for Valentine's Day in a onsie his Grandma sent us and a hat yours truly made from an old sweater (however- Baby A's head already was starting to be too big for it. I guess it will go in the bin for "dolls" to wear. lol.)
Have a great day all and keep your fingers crossed that our little bundle of joy, or "Baby A" or "Peanut" which we like to nickname him, will start to nap longer so I can get more crafting done/blogging done/getting back to reality. lol.

-M

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