French Garden Party

I am excited to share this cute party with you.  I am also proud because the creator of this party is my cute and talented second cousin Meadow! She is one cultured young lady and has a love of all things french.  She's even a high school french teacher.  Enjoy these lovely photos and great ideas...

Check out that seriously cute party hat!  She made all sorts of them, all a bit different.

I love the simple balloons and the inside chairs outside!

Mirrors on the fence.  Love it!

The birthday girl making sure everything is just so:)

Rose flavored homemade macarons.  I'm telling you, this girl is GOOD!

A very pretty birthday cake.  Love the white chocolate pieces!

Pretty cookie favors.  I love the newspaper look for the paper tag!

And all these cute labels...so fitting for this theme!  Meadow describes how she made these on her blog HERE.

MMMMM!

Look closely, there are not all real flowers!

A gorgeous french themed garden party Meadow!  I am so impressed with your talent!!

A Dirt Bike Boy Party

Caleb turned 4 the same weekend that Cait turned 1.  Lucky for me and my crazy party planning brain, he wanted to have his party at the park and asked only for a "dirt bike cake".  Now, just be to clear, I have "done it up" for my little boy a few times in the past, like this and like this and like this.  I do not have an aversion to boy parties AT ALL.  My son, however, does not care much for the big fuss.  I asked all the kids to bring their bikes and I bought each family a kite.  Who knew kites could be so fun?  Everyone had a great time even though the party was very simple and I did a much smaller amount of preparation in comparison to Cait's party.  This begs the question of course, as to why I spent 3 months fussing over the details of Cait's party when a scaled down party can be just as special and fun?  Hmmm... there's one for the psychologists..

Here's the promised dirt bike cake.  Notice the number on the guy...

 Cake and favors ready to travel to the park.

Bike shaped pasta.  How fun is that?!

 All the kidlers.

 Have you flown a kite this year? Have you ever?  It is seriously so fun!  You need to!

For more details about the dirt bike cake, go HERE!

Cait's First Birthday

My little Caitlyn turned one last week and we had such a great time celebrating her!

I am finally getting around to posting some of the details.  Here we go...

 Originally the theme of Cait's party was going to be "pink and brown giraffe".  I mean, we are talking since I sewed her a blanket with giraffe print BEFORE she was born I have been planning this theme!  Two weeks before the party I decided I was bored with that idea and I switched it up but I did keep a few cute giraffe details.  One of my favorites is this cute "floppy friend" crocheted giraffe I got off etsy.  Cait loves it and it's so adorable when she totes it around!

 I had so much fun putting together the sweets table at my sister's party, I knew this was a must for this one as well.  I am no Amy Atlas but I did my best!  I didn't iron the tablecloths or anything but I did stand on a chair on the table to pin those lanterns up there...and I think that was at around 1 in the morning. 

 I found these cute favor boxes at Party City in California.  My daughters tied the ribbons on the boxes the morning of the party.  I am kind of a control freak so it is always a pleasant surprise when I hand a task over and it turns out "how I want it" without me barking orders!!

Like those tags?  I ordered them from Bridgett of Perideau Designs through Etsy.  She was awesome to work with and I really love her simple, charming designs!

Wondering what that cute tag is tied to?

 Giraffe Stuffies!  The favors I made for Cait's two baby friends.

 And one year old party girls always need bibs to keep themselves clean:)

 Look at Cait and her fun friends Emilie and Azraia playing with their new giraffes!

 Every month of Cait's life, on her "day", I have taken a photo of her in a diaper sitting next to this hippo.  I strung those 12 photos up along a ribbon.

And because I believe there can never be too many photos, I also stapled some of my favorite pictures of Cait to a few ribbons.  These are still hanging in my house today.

I'll get around to taking them down eventually...

The mantel.  I used my fun fabric to hide the TV.  Those letters are foam, They came in those colors and I got them at the dollar store!  I heart my teeny flag bunting.  So sweet!  It's going in Cait's room when i get around to it.

I bought a box of canning jars and used them as glasses for the party.  My daughters filled them with lemons, oranges and ice.  I never got around to the cute name-tag-straws I had envisioned in my head....

I just have to add...that fab paper under the glasses was made with my fun fabric.  I just walked into the copy store, "copied" my fabric, paid for a few color copies and that was IT!  So easy!  So clever.  Has this been done before?  If it has, I have never gotten the memo but none the less, I have figured it out for myself now!

Here's a close up of Cait's cute party hat.  I was glue-gunning this baby together as the guests were arriving!  Whew, so glad I got it done, I have made a hat for each of my children for their first birthday.  I kinda consider it a little tradition.  Would have been a shame to miss that on the last kid!

 There's the little dolly wearing her special hat!

 I have more details to come and there are also a few pics of the cakes over on the sweets blog.

I have decided that I am going to start scaling back on the birthday parties.  Keep it simple yet fabulous.  What elements do you feel are most essential?

Shopping Party Details

Mailee's shopping party was a blast! This is a great alternative to having the party at home while still avoiding the chuck-e-cheese route!! My best advice is to keep this type of party to a smaller number of kids. Here are a few of the fun details!

Spending Money "Goody Bag"- as opposed to filling a goody bag with "stuff", I gave each girl an empty goody bag and some spending money for the mall. I gave my daughter the choice, 8 kids with $7.50 each, 6 kids with $10 each or 4 kids with $15 each. This particular daughter is a quality over quantity kind of girl so she went with inviting her 3 favorite people and having a little more spending money. For what it's worth, I think the party would be equally as enjoyable for the kids even if they had a smaller amount of money.


Scavenger Hunt- I made two lists, one was labeled "take a photo of these..." the other was labeled "complete these tasks...". Each item listed had a box next to it and they all enjoyed checking off the boxes as they completed the tasks. This kept the party moving around the mall as the girls were shopping with their spending money. The even bigger bonus to the scavenger hunt? GREAT PICTURES!!! The kids were happy to strike a pose as long as there was a little box to check off!

completing a task- "play hopscotch".

Clearly this takes a bit of planning. I went to the mall a few days prior to the party armed with my camera and a pen and paper. I scoured the mall for fun little free activities. interesting items to look for, and counted up the number of bank machines and exits. Don't go too far in advance, the mall is constantly rotating stock.

completing a task-find a card at the Hallmark store and "give" it to Mailee.

The girls loved this activity. They took their time and picked out great cards! I don't know about you but with 3 kids in school and at least one friend party a weekend, I do not allow my kids the extravagance of purchasing cards from the store. It's all about the make-at-home cards! They all enjoyed pretending to pick a "real card"!

This is the card my older daughter picked out for her sister! I thought it was a perfect choice coming from a first born!

Stick with the theme- make the gifts match!!!

After 3 hours at the mall, we moved the festivities to the house for cake and gifts. I invite the whole family, aunties and grandparents for this hour of the party. I enjoy doing all celebrating on one day!

Lazy Lanterns- Sometimes hanging lanterns is just a lot of work! I tied beautiful bows on the top of each lantern and plopped them on top of varying sized vases and candle holders. They looked fantastic and they were quick and easy!

Purse Cake- A shopping party must have a purse cake, yes?

This is my version.

Here are my favorite photos from the scavenger hunt...

"take a photo in front of a blue tiled wall"





"take a photo at the front desk of (fill in name of store in your mall with swanky front desk) and strike a pose!"

"Put on a ring, a hat and some glasses and get them all in the photo"


The family photo!

Thanks for looking, I hope you feel inspired to go out and plan a shopping party of your own! I did this theme with my own friends when I was a teenager and again as a bachlorette party in college. It's a winner every time and with any age!

Ladybug Shower

This weekend we celebrated the arrival of our friend Kim's daughter Miah whom they adopted from China. Ladybugs are a sign of good luck in China so a ladybug theme was a natural choice for this party!  This is not my first ladybug party,the last ladybug party I did for a little girl's birthday.  It was a blast to create so I couldn't wait to do it again with a little bit different twist.?

Here are some of the highlights:

The whole table.

This was my first attempt at a paper banner. It was really fun to make! I have been adoring Jess' amazing banners over at Polkadots & Pirates for a few months now. Her blog is so enjoyable you've got to check it out, It's simply adorable!

Here are the cupcakes and homemade scones. I love this cupcake stand. I have used it lots of times but this time it is lined with cute coordinating papers. This is a little trick I learned over at The Tomkat Studio. Kim has gobs of great ideas and all her parties turn out adorable and classic. Her blog is another awesome spot for inspiration and one of my personal favorites!!!



Muffins in a cute tray.

I saw these rubber boots and had to get them for little Miah.

Adding the flowers just made them that much cuter!!

Little tip: each boot has a plastic cup inside to hold the water:)

A fun sign

The cute favors that Cheryl made.


Too cute! Inside the tulle was a lindt chocolate with a daisy wrapper.

Look at these pretzel buns! Aren't they cute?

Gabriele made these and they were as delicious as they were cute!

The pretzel spread.

Just one more shot of a pretzel bun!

Check out this adorable diaper cake. Isn't it sooo cute?? You can order these from Bitsybird online or go see Leigh and her creations in person at the Farmer's Market on Saturdays. This "cake" was a huge hit and I have a feeling that it will be a while before Miah's Mommy dismantles it. What a cute decoration this will make in her ladybug room!



And last but not least, the ladybug cake! It is very similar to the one I did for Teghan because the mommy of honor had once hinted that she loved that cake and I say hey- don't fix what ain't broken!.  I love the polka dot ribbon in the cake stand!

Thanks for looking:)
Have you done a ladybug party?
Can I see??

Please feel free to ask me any questions. I want this blog to be a resource for all you party planning crafty ladies out there!