Pirate Birthday Party

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Over the weekend we celebrated Dylan's 5th birthday with a pirate themed party. We had debated a couple of different themes throughout the year, but after my cousin's wife shipped us a box of leftover pirate birthday goodies - we made our decision and started planning.

I ordered Pirate Ship invitations from Tiny Prints and then created my own return address labels & "no gifts" cards in Photoshop. [Our playgroup alone now has 12 kids with birthdays covering 10 months of the year and we all agreed that our kids have enough 'stuff.' We'd rather get together to celebrate and spend time - no need for more gifts.]

After the invites went out, we began prepping for pirate fun! Part of the simplicity of this theme - I dug out some of our Halloween decorations a bit early and mixed in a few other items like Dylan's Pirate Mickey Ears from Walt Disney World and a new pirate flag I made.

Our guests were greeted by a 'warning' sign at the mailbox: Beware of Pirates. It was an easy DIY project I created using items we already had.

We had planned a few outdoor activities and we were thrilled the morning was overcast and cool (70 degrees in NC in mid-July?? We'll take it!). We set up a simple walk the plank using a 2x4 and 'water' made from a dollar store tablecloth. The inflatable crocodile was a purchase from 5 Below and the kids loved it. Poor croc was drug into the top of the playset on the opposite side of the yard and tossed overboard! They also played a hook toss game (idea and free printable from Fleece Fun) as well as made cork pirate ships to float in a small pond.

We had purchased some plastic gold doubloons to hide in the sandbox for a treasure hunt, but a major rain storm on Tuesday left the sandbox a wet mess so I decided to toss that idea. Really, with the couple of activities plus the playset, toys inside and each other, the kids ages 5 and under were well entertained for the 2 hour party.

Of course, we had snacks - pirate themed snacks. Our menu: Shipwreck Sandwiches (Chick-fil-a chicken minis), 'Berried' Treasure (Chick-fil-a fruit tray), Pirate's Booty, Salty Bones (pretzel sticks), Krispy Buccaneers (Rice Krispie Treats), Jolly Roger cupcakes, Pirate's Punch (lemonade), and Shark's Blood (cherry Kool-Aid). I made the food labels in Photoshop the night before. Literally a last minute, quick project.

The cupcakes I made this year. I love doing mini cupcakes for the kids. Perfect size. Dylan's current favorite colors are blue and orange. When I spotted blue velvet cake mix in the grocery store, I knew it would be a winner with him. I finished them off with white vanilla icing, red sprinkles and a few pirate cupcake flags.

As the kids left, they each picked up a goodie bag with their name on it. I used simple sandwich bags again (love this inexpensive idea - see how I used them for his Cars and Blast Off parties) and created a map design based on this pin on Pinterest. I created mine in Photoshop and ran the bags through our inkjet printer. After filling with goodies, I folded over the top and sealed with washi tape.

Our pirate birthday party was a lot of fun! After everyone left and we tidied up a bit, all 3 of us took it easy the rest of the day. Oh, and Dylan informed me that next year he wants a superheroes party. Already has a plan for year 6. Pause please - let's enjoy age 5!

Source: '5' Shirt - shirt from Michaels, striped fabric from JoAnn Fabrics, black fabric from the Scrap Exchange; Invitations - Tiny Prints; No Gifts Cards - boy pirate image from free Pirate Playdough Mat printable; Pirate Flag - made; Skulls - from our Halloween decorations; Walk the Plank - wood from stash, blue tablecloth from Dollar Tree, inflatable crocodile from 5 Below; Message in a Bottle - small bottle & cork purchased from the Scrap Exchange; Hook Toss Game - Pirate Hooks from Amazon, Printable from Fleece Fun, Rope from Lowes; Plates, paper cups & striped straws - Target; Goodie Bags - pirate ship clip art from ClipArtBest.com.

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Pink & Peach Shower

Our playgroup is growing by one more little girl and, naturally, we had a nice moms afternoon out for tea. Our theme this time took a little creative thinking … pink for a girl, peach for Georgia peaches (a tribute to her name, Savannah), and lollipops in honor of her older sister's nickname for her "Lolly." Knowing that tea service fills the table, we kept our decorations to a minimum - pretty peach roses added to the existing floral arrangement, rose petals spread across the table, and homemade Oreo lollipops in little buckets for favors.

Alicia made another one of her gorgeous diaper cakes. This one accented with lollipops and onesies in lollipop shapes.

I made the keepsake invite for the mom.

I wish I had taken a better photo, but this gives the idea. Using a free template, Stacey cut the bracket shape for me on her Silhouette. I then printed the outline and text; and finished it off with a peach flower sticker that matched the Oreo lollipop favors.

We also had small bags of flavored popcorn with labels "ready to pop" and jars of candies provided by the mom's sister.

It was a wonderful afternoon for us to celebrate. We're all looking forward to meeting the newest member of our playgroup!

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Four-esta Celebration

Skippyjon Jones has been a fixture in our house for the last few years. We have almost every book including an autographed copy of Cirque de Ole and a loved plush Skippyjon. So when I came across an idea on Pinterest for a Skippyjon themed birthday party last year, the Four-esta Celebration planning began. I based the party on 2 books from the series - the original Skippyjon Jones and Skippyjon Jones & the Big Bones.

I created the invite in Photoshop using a scan of Skippyjon from Cirque de Ole and, of course, a mix of Spanish words. Skippyjon frequently mixes a bit of real and made up Spanish in conversation during his adventures.

Balloons to welcome our guests, updated Subway art and mini cupcakes.

We decorated around the house with the Skippyjon books, hanging sewn birthday banner in the kitchen, a couple of sombreros, Dylan's dino garden on the kitchen table and a new succulent garden & burlap table runner (I made using an old coffee bag purchased at The Scrap Exchange) in the dining room.

New succulent garden and easy DIY burlap table runner.

In the backyard, the playset and several soccer balls were ready for play as we lucked out with gorgeous July weather. It was a little humid, but no where near as hot as it had been (or rainy - it's been a very wet summer!). I had a little surprise waiting for the kids in the sandbox - a "fossil dig." They each got to take one dinosaur fossil home as part of their goodie bags.

Dinosaur "fossils" uncovered in the sandbox.

While the idea of a nacho and/or taco bar sounded fun, I decided it wasn't quite fitting with our 10am party time. Instead we stuck with the successful party food combo we used for the Cars party (minus the cute "Cars"-esque names) - Chicken Minis & fresh fruit from Chickfila, cheese cubes and, the one new idea, popcorn (inspired from Allison's son's party in June). A mix of confetti corn from a local popcorn shop and home hot air popped corn.

Confetti & hot air popped popcorn, colorful juice boxes, and mixed fruit.

And, of course we had cupcakes. Mini cupcakes - my "go to" party size for the small crowd. Dylan picked out the '4' candle when we were shopping for supplies. I made all of the cupcake toppers in Photoshop, printed, punched & added toothpicks. I had planned to make the mini cupcakes too, but as the party neared I realized I was short on time and needed to let go of a few responsibilities. A few packs of mini cupcakes from the local grocery bakery the day before and we were set.

Mini cupcakes with DIY cupcake toppers.

After the cupcakes settled. We gathered the kids for the piñata. It was hanging high in our two story foyer and gathering lots of attention all morning. From the start of the Four-esta planning, I knew I wanted a bumblebee piñata. In the original book, Skippyjon battles the Great Bumblebeeto as part of his imaginary adventure. He "pops" the Bumblebee and jelly beans come spilling out. It turns out, he accidentally damages his own bumblebee piñata his mother had for his birthday. I did initially looked for one to buy, but struggled to find a look and price I liked. So, instead I got my DIY hat on and made one the old fashioned way - balloon, newspaper, water, flour, tissue paper and pipe cleaners.

The Great Bumblebeeto DIY piñata. 

I decided I wasn't too fond of the idea of the four and under crowd swinging a bat in my house so I made it a pull string style. The kids managed to pull all the losing strings before finding the winning one and - oops! - the bit of tape I used to keep the trap door secured while I decorated it stayed shut. They pulled so hard the piñata fell! It was hilarious. Thankfully, the kids were happy to let me pull it open and start shaking out the small bags of jelly beans for them to grab.

Jelly Belly beans in little bags from the Container Store.

I chose small, handled goodie bags this year so each child could pick one and add their bag of jelly beans & dinosaur fossil. Finding a pack of bags at Michaels with a rainbow of colors that matched our party was pure luck. Inside I had prepped each with a small wooden maraca and a bookmark Dylan & I made.

Goodie bags with wooden maracas and DIY bookmarks.

The bookmarks started from Dylan making a watercolor painting. I then trimmed the paper to 8.5x11 and printed the bookmark layout I had created in Photoshop onto the back of the painting. I finished them off with laminating. Each one is completely unique from the next. A simple "book related" gift to tie in with our book themed party.

The final touch, was Dylan's birthday shirt. I failed to get a good photo of it the day of the party (or since!) so thanks to my mom for the following photo taken just before the piñata fun started. Wanting to stick with our theme, but do something a little bit different - I created a cactus '4' for his shirt using Eric Carle fabric I had in my stash.

All in all, it was a lot of fun! Thanks to all our wonderful friends who joined us in our celebration! Until next July ...  :)

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Pink & Pearls Tea Shower

Expecting the second girl to join our playgroup of 10 little ones soon, we were all pink happy and quickly settled on a shower theme of "pink & pearls."

Afternoon tea at the Washington Duke Inn has become a bit of a tradition. My talented friends decorated the table with a diaper cake and sweet little teapot favors.

I made the invite and failed to get a direct photo (oops!). To finish off our theme, we all wore pink and pearls, of course. It was a wonderful Sunday afternoon and went by entirely too fast! Looking forward to having 'Little Miss' join us on a future tea date.

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Chalkboard Wine Labels

What happens when a friend is planning a party and also follows you on Pinterest? You get random emails asking you to recreate something you just pinned. ;) Which is how another pin that might have been a "someday" became a quick reality!

The party was for her husband's 40th birthday and she wanted to give out small wine bottles for favors. Where I came in - creating custom chalkboard labels to add to the bottles. The tutorial I had pinned was for creating chalkboard images in Photoshop and included free chalkboard backgrounds to download. Easy enough. The catch - the tutorial used hand lettering scanned in. I've never been the best at lettering. Possibly could do it if I'd just sketch more. Something I haven't made a priority in a long time. So, I quickly went in search of some fun, free fonts to try to create something similar.

I used a mix of two fonts one for the numbers and one for the letters (Chalk Hand Lettering Shaded). Played around with text sizes. Added a border. And set up a sheet for her to print onto labels.

With the addition of kraft tags she made, the bottles looked great and certainly were a fun favor.

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[almost] Wordless Wednesday: Valentines

Glad I thought to grab these on clearance last year after the holiday so Dylan is ready for his class party tomorrow!

Linking up to Wordless Wednesday and Sarah Halstead

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Blast Off Birthday Party

This year, we had a space themed party to celebrate Dylan's 3rd birthday. The idea originated from a printables set I won from Deena Rutter last fall. I used invites from the set, but changed the text portion:

Not trusting that the weather would be as cooperative as last year, we decided to book his party at a local indoor playspot - PlayNation. The kids had a great time burning energy indoors on the swing sets, in the bounce house and playhouses, and climbing up the inflatable slide. A few of the adults joined in the fun too!

Afterwards we gathered together to celebrate in one of the party rooms. I kept the decor simple and to a minimum. The food table was topped with a black plastic table cloth and scattered with glow in the dark stars & planets. On the front hung the birthday banner I made last year.

At one end we had a "planet" created from a paper lantern with a cardboard/foil ring, a space themed mailbox and subway art. The subway art was reused from last year. I updated the colors & age number and inserted it into a thrift store frame I spray painted blue to match the decor. Sticking out of the mailbox was a photo of Dylan mounted on foam board with the comment "You helped make my birthday celebration at "blast"! Thanks! Please take a favor home to enjoy."

Each of the snacks was labeled using placecards in the printables set. I added the names before printing. We had Fruit Rockets (fruit kabobs with strawberries, blueberries & grapes); Space Mix: Asteroids, Moon Rocks & Saturn's Rings (cheese puffs, Cheerios & Cookie Crisps cereal); and Rocket Fuel (juice boxes and water).

And, best of all, Alien Cupcakes!

They ended up looking a bit like a mix of Toy Story aliens and Mike Wazowski. :)  [Huge shout out to my friend, Lauren, for all of her help with tips & loaning me extra cake baking accessories.] For Dylan's we added a single, neon green candle at the forehead like an antenna.

As the party ended, each child picked up a goody bag with his/her name on it. I used paper sandwich bags as I did last year, folded over the top and sealed with a staple and name label (favor tags from printables kit edited).

The older kids received bags with Astronaut Ice Cream, a glow in the dark bracelet and homemade "moon dough". To make the dough, we used the recipe I shared here, added lots of blue food coloring and some blue glitter. I packed small balls of the dough into plastic containers purchased at the Dollar Tree and topped them with labels I created in Photoshop using Deena Rutter's Rocketman digital scrapbooking kit.

The two littlest boys in the group (both under 1), received a Viking Toys chubby helicopter toy.

As we headed home after the party, I asked Dylan if he enjoyed it and immediately got an excited, "oh yeah!" in return. That right there made my day. :)

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Blast Off Party prep

Where does the time go? Tomorrow we're having a party to celebrate Dylan's upcoming 3rd birthday! Here's a little peek at the preparation going on ...

Favor label credits: Deena Rutter Designs

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Snowflake Baby Shower

Another baby joined our playgroup last week, so naturally we had another baby shower. This time it was just us 6 mamas so we spent a few hours together on Saturday afternoon at a local spa. We started with treatments (massages, facials, etc) and then got back together for the celebration.

Since the party was in early January, we went with a snowflake theme. Rather ironic considering the weather that day was mid-60s and sunny! Our centerpiece was a diaper cake topped with flowers & a large chipboard snowflake.

Knowing our friend was naming her son Mason, we incorporated Mason jars into our design as vases for white carnations (lesson learned: carnations are not in season in early January!) and for drinking glasses. After spotting an idea on Pinterest, Stacey cleverly made "redneck" wine glasses by gluing glass candlestick holders to the bottom of the jars. They made fun party glasses and favors.

To mark whose glass was whose, we attached tags with blue sheer ribbon. The tags were simple white cardstock with a snowflake punched, name handwritten in silver ink and the bottom torn.

We had lots of yummy things to eat ... fresh fruit, peanut butter celery, a cheese platter and some sweets. Allison made these incredible oreo cupcakes topped with snowflakes, of course!

And, as with the last shower, I made a single invite for the mama to add to the baby book.

Supplies - Invite: Recollections white cardstock; Miss Mint's Winter Sparkle kit (snowflake paper); Juice ITC font; Making Memories edge scraper; Autumn Leaves chipboard snowflake; Studio G silver ink; Bazzill cardstock. Other: ribbons, Michaels; Paper Reflections tags; Marvy snowflake punch; Mason jars & candlesticks, Dollar Tree; snowflake placemat, thrift store; snowflake cupcake toppers, Party City; letter blocks, Pottery Barn Kids.

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Pumpkin Tea Shower

On Saturday my playgroup moms had a shower for our friend Allison who is expecting her second son in mid-December. We really enjoy tea time (Tea & Trucks Baby Shower and Afternoon Tea) and with a small party of 7, decided that an afternoon tea at the Washington Duke Inn in Durham was the perfect setting. Afternoon tea there is elegant on its own, but this was a party so we added a few little fall details with a pumpkin theme.

The place settings were little pumpkins painted in glittery blue spray paint topped with ribbons (credit to Stacey for this incredible idea and making them reality!). Each also had a small tag attached with a ribbon. The tags initially marked each seat but then were used to mark our tea pots so we could easily tell which tea was which.

The seat of honor was designated with balloons.

Alicia worked her magic again and made a spectacular diaper cake that functioned as the table centerpiece as well as a wonderful gift.

The favors were cookies with little pumpkins on them of course! (Lauren is a whiz in the kitchen!)

Finally, the invite. Ok, confession, I only made one and it was strictly made as a keepsake for the little guy's baby album. We're all very much looking forward to meeting him in just a few short weeks! :)

Supplies- Invite : Recollections white cardstock; Script MT Bold font; Micron pens; watercolors; Die Cuts with a View patterned paper.

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