TWO parties for TWINS turning TWENTY

My baby sisters turned 20 last week! Our family usually makes a big deal out of birthdays, but for the past three years theirs have been kinda lame. And since they're still living at home (while they're not at college) this'll be one of their last chances to have a party. (You know, before you grow up, move away, and no one every throws you a party again.)

Sooooo, Mom and I threw, not one, but two parties; the second of which was a surprise. Saturday we had all of the family over, and Mom made some delicious Thai food. I just pulled a few simple decorations together to make it fun.

I raided their facebook pics for full-length photos of Grace and Faith together. 

Then I printed them in gray scale, cut them out, and mounted them on card stock. 

Super simple.

Magazine bunting! I made many, many feet of this, and I let the girls take a bunch of it to decorate their rooms at school.

Leftover bunting triangles taped down the table as a runner. 

The food was incredible. Mom made Khao Soi, Fried Rice, Barbecued Pork Lettuce Wraps, Guotie (Potstickers), Sticky Rice, and Nam Prik Ong. Pretty much a smorgasbord of all our favorite Asian dishes. 

(Don't ask me how she's able to prepare six dishes plus sauces and fixings all at once. 

I freak out when I have to make both an entree AND a vegetable.) 

Oh, and she also made a Caramel Brownie Cheesecake and a Berry Trifle. As one does.

The best part about this decor was that it was 100% free! Black and white printouts, card stock, tape, skewers, twine, and an extensive magazine stash. Talk about party planning on a budget!

The next night, we had Grace and Faith's boyfriends kidnap them and bring them back to...

A GLOW-IN-THE DARK, BLACKLIGHT EXTRAVAGANZA!

Now, the pictures, of course don't do it justice, (even the high-budget blacklight parties I researched for this didn't have very good pictures) but I'll share them anyway.

 These are in daylight, and before any of the food.

More bunting and face cut-outs! The faces glowed sooo well in the blacklight.

The puffy paint on the bunting was glow in the dark and showed up really well at night.

We set up the Wii outside, projected against the house, and had all of their friends come early wearing neon and white. We surprised them really well, and were just about to start eating when it started raining! We whisked everything inside and set the blacklight stuff up on the family room. Turns out, blacklights work WAY better inside. Outside it just sort of diffused into the air. Plus, we found out that bugs are extremely attracted to them.

We had to throw out a whole batch of punch cause it was full of bugs. 

Once we were settled inside we made the best of it and had a sweet Just Dance party.

So, what do you need to throw a glow-in-the-dark blacklight party? Here's a rundown:

- Get all of your glow sticks from the Dollar Store, don't even look at a party store - total rip off. 

- Those "construction shirts" in the neon yellow-green glow amazingly. Just look at Faith dancing in the picture above. 

- Walmart sells a great fluorescent tube blacklight that's ready to plug in for only $10ish. (Sorry, I can't find it on their site.)

- It's amazing what you can do with a ream of neon paper. 

Happy Birthday, Grace and Faith! Can't believe we're all in our 20s now! And I can't believe Jaina slept the whole time with that party underneath of her!