There is a magical thing that happens as your kids get older -- you can turn them into active participants in their own birthday party preparations. That's how it came to be that I had very little to do with the conversion of our dining room into The Great Hall.
I wasn't kidding. We Great Halled it up like nobody's business.
So, let's start with the candles, shall we? I found quite a few tutorials for how to recreate the floating candles around the internet, and they all had one thing in common -- WHY YOU LIKE TO DO SO MUCH WORK, INTERNET? I mean, there's a tutorial involving paper towel rolls, hot glue, and paint and noooooooooope. No, thank you. I much prefer projects where I can walk away.
So I did.
Here's Alexis showing how she did most of the work.
That's right, all of those candles were nothing more than little LED tealights and a piece of card stock. Alexis rolled and taped 48 of those buggers then I hung them from the ceiling with clear thread.
Here's how they looked at night.
Not bad for a cheap little project, eh? If you're looking to make your own floating candles, I suggest these LED tealights or go to Michael's (but use a fancy coupon because they're a lot more expensive there).
Oh, and the walls? I suppose maaaaaaybe the fact that I turned the walls into stone is worth noting? I bought a very giant roll of fake stone wall stuff on Amazon. It's four feet tall so I had to do two rows all around the dining room.
If you need some, I have plenty. That's what happens when I decide to skip measuring the room and just round up.
ANYWAY.
I didn't take pictures of the other decorations, but it probably doesn't matter since all of the internet has stuck a Moaning Myrtle in the toilet. Here's the printable I used. I also used this printable in my quest to create a Platform 9 3/4. The key to that trickery was this little fun thing from Amazon. I hung it in a doorway, did a little taping and cutting, and ended up with a lovely little "fake wall."
That Mila loved IMMENSELY.
She happily Kool-Aid Manned her way through that thing over and over and over. You'd think there would be video of her doing it since she was so very proud of herself, but apparently a room full of phones isn't enough when it comes to capturing these things.
No matter.
It's still hanging up.
I will (eventually) get video.
And that's it! That's all I did! Aren't you proud of me for reigning in my birthday theme insanity?