Update: Sprout's Dora Goes Green Party!

Back in July, I blogged about Sprout's upcoming birthday party and asked for suggestions on how to make it a bit greener. Since my post, Mom Go Green put up a nice summary of her little guys birthday party and included the ways in which she greened it up and ways she did not. I thought it might be helpful if I did the same. The adults outnumbered the children who ranged in age from one to 10.

The Green:

Sent out electronic evites instead of paper invites

Asked attendees to please bring re-gifted gifts only. This proved to be quite a success and Sprout couldn't of been happier with what she received: books galore, a hand-me-down pair of pink crocs which she wore to bed, a baby doll with full set of clothes and assorted accessories, a visor to keep the suds out of her eyes during bathtime and a LeapPad caterpiller. Sprout also received some cash (very green wouldn't you say?) and a very special figurine from her Grandma and Granddaddy.

Green Husband made the cutest decorations based on Tiffany's comment. We took old maps, traced a circle with an old, scratched CD, used adhesive glue to glue the map onto the side of the CD with the title (leaving the rainbow-y side showing), and then hung them in our front window using ribbon. Map would have been proud and we finally found a use for all those unusable CDs!

All food was homemade. Not in MY home, sillies! I can't cook, remember! In the past I've ordered the cake and food platters from our local grocery store. The food was yummy, but the packaging was absolutely out of the control. This year, I made the cupcakes, my sister-in-law iced them, our neighbors brought a yummy casserole to feed all, and I kept the coffee brewing. We even had mimosas! In addtion, right before the party, I ran out to the farmer's market and bought fresh peaches and chocolate crossiant to add to the mix.

And finally, are you sitting down?, no gift bags for party attendees. Nobody asked me where they were and no one gave me the evil eye for not having them. There. I said it.

The Un-Green

Beside basically having an event where everyone drove to and we emitted carbon just by being, I would say the biggest un-green-ness of it all was still the paper products. I am a sucker for the themed parties, as I've mentioned before, so all the paperware was Diego and Dora-related. I did wash all of the plasticware, however, to use again. I did not go overboard on decorations and only bought three things to hang - if I had been more creative, those probably could have been done at home too.

All in all, it was a very happy birthday. Wouldn't you say, Sprout?