Splash Party for his 6th

B's sixth birthday party was celebrated today with a splash party, and it was a HUGE hit.  We made it a joint party with one of B's best friends I.  I and his family will be moving to Chicago in a few weeks, and I knew that between traveling to look at houses and trying to keep their own house clean and ready to be showed by a real estate agent at any minute, they didn't have time to throw a party.  I was going to be planning a party anyway, so why not include I and just let them help with the cost.  I mentioned it to his mom and dad a few weeks ago, and they thought it was a great idea.  So I started moving forward with a joint party, and it was lots of fun.

I started with the invitations which I found on etsy along with the cupcake toppers and favor labels.  I waited a bit too long to order them, so I barely got them out in the mail before the party.  But they were super cute.

inv pic

The precious couple that teaches the kids' Sunday school class at church has a side business renting those fun inflatable slides and bouncy houses.  When I spoke with them about renting their water slide, they gave it to the boys for their party as a birthday gift.  It was so unbelievably kind of them, and I have a treat up my sleeve for them. 

 

Yes, that's JuJu standing in the pool at the bottom of the slide.  That is the only way C would get in.  She is not a fan of the big water slides.  So with the entertainment taken care of, I moved on to the food.  I kept in extremely simple--even more so than in years past.  We picked up Hot n Ready pizzas from our local Little Caesar's and I ordered cupcakes from the Wal-Mart bakery.  I added some chips, grapes, and carrots with ranch as side items.  And of course I served ice cream with the cupcakes.

I kept it simple with the decorations as well.  Just plastic tablecloths and balloons.  Our church was generous enough to let us have the party on their property, so we pulled a few tables and chairs out and set up a small eating area for kids and parents.

The only real effort I put into the party was for the favors.  I made sugar cookies and decorated them with royal icing to look like beach balls.  This was my first time dealing with royal icing, and it was a royal pain.  haha  I don't plan on doing it again any time soon.  But they came out cute.

I set the favors up with my chalkboard sign, and left room on the table for the "gifts" that everyone was bringing.  Since I's family is getting ready to move halfway across the country, and we need another toy in the house like I need a hole in the head, we asked that all friends bring a book that we could donate to our local library in honor of B and I's sixth birthday.  So people piled up their books on the table with the favors.  I plan to put a little label in each book and drop them off at the library in a week or so.  We got well over 20 books to donate!

After playing on the slide for about an hour, we called everyone over to pray and eat.  I's dad said the blessing and I snapped the sweetest pic of the kids praying.  Then everyone ate, and it was time for cake, ice cream, candles and the singing of "Happy Birthday."  All the kids headed back to the slide as soon as the last candle was extinguished.  Water slide trumps cake apparently.  Who knew?

Aside from the fact that both of my kids got their first sunburns of their lives (parenting fail), this party could not have gone better!  Happy Birthday to my sweet boy, B, and his precious friend, I.  We sure will miss that whole family when they move!!

Frozen Third Birthday Party

C is completely and utterly obsessed with all things Frozen, Elsa, Anna, Olaf, etc. She would watch the movie on repeat all day everyday, and we have the soundtrack playing in the car pretty much all the time.  So it was no surprise when she wanted a Frozen-themed birthday party.  And honestly, I was all for it.  It was ridiculously easy, and the theme was super easy to shop for.

I found the invitations of Etsy and fell in love with them instantly!  They are what I based the whole color scheme on.

pic

The menu was inspired by the movie as well.  I served Snowballs (mini white donuts), Icicles (rock candy suckers), Kristoff's Ice Cubes (blue jello), and Olaf Noses (baby carrots) with ranch and chips.  And cake and ice cream of course.

I ordered the figurines for the cake from Ebay, and they were not great quality.  I am pretty sure they were knockoffs, but they got the job done.

The birthday girl wore the Queen Elsa dress that Uncle J and Aunt A gave her for her birthday, and she looked adorable in it if I do say so myself.

Now, you may remember from birthday party posts of yore, that I am not a fan of party games, but this party was different.  We did two cute activities that I think the kids liked.  The first was "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?"  They used marshmallows, mini chocolate chips, pretzels, orange Tic Tacs and toothpicks to build their own snowman.  Then we played a fun round of Pin the Nose on Olaf.  I free-handed the Olaf onto poster board and cut the noses out of orange construction paper.

After games we sang "Happy Birthday," blew out candles, and ate.  Then the girl of honor opened her gifts and everyone just hung around and played and talked and enjoyed each others company.  When the guests left, they picked up a sheet of Frozen stickers and a package of 'warm hugs' and kisses.

It was a fun, laid back party, and I think everyone had a blast!  Happy Birthday, baby girl!

Valentine Party

As I mentioned yesterday, B and I decided to throw a little Valentine soiree for him and some of his friends from church for lunch this morning.  The kids had a blast, and honestly it was one of the easiest parties I have ever done.

The menu consisted of hot dogs (staying warm under the foil in the top picture), Cheetos, strawberries, grapes, and sugar cookies that the kids decorated themselves.  I served homemade strawberry lemonade to drink and had a bowl of chicken salad with crackers for the mommies (since most of us are pretty tired of hot dogs and other kid food.)  My little Valentine centerpiece fit perfectly under my drink dispenser and added a sweet touch to touch to the counter buffer area.

When B and I were discussing this party, I suggested serving hot dogs.  He loved that idea and said, "Yeah, heart-shaped hot dogs!"  Uh, so here is my best attempt at 'heart-shaped hot dogs.'  They turned out alright, and he was pleased.  And the kids had a blast stabbing strawberries and grapes onto their skewers once they pulled them out of the hot dog!

Once they were done eating their lunch, I passed out bowls of white and pink frosting and little individual cups of three different kinds of sprinkles for them to deck out their cookies.  I used the left over dough from the Olympic Rings cookies, and it made just enough.  They had a blast decorating the cookies and enjoyed eating them when they were done--although most of them wound up taking their cookies home with them!

 It was such a fun time.  The best part was having B come up to me after eating lunch and saying, "Mommy, thank you for my Valentine party."  I love that kid so much!!!  And I think all the kids that came thanked us for having them.  What a sweet group of friends my kids have!

They played with toys, exchanged Valentine's and headed home just in time for me to get the kids down for a nap.  It was a great party!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Birthday Party Rewind: Veggie Tales Party

I got to thinking about celebrating and decided to do another party rewind post:  B's Veggie Tales second birthday party.  He first laid eyes on Veggie Tales as an infant and instantly loved it.  He was a hard and fast VT fan until he was about four and half, and sadly he has kinda moved on and will only watch it every now and then.  But I digress . . .

Printed Veggie Tales invitations are not easy to find, and I am not a fan of the fill-in-the-blank invitations.  So I made my own.  They were simple but sweet, and I was pretty proud of the cheesy little ditty that I wrote to mimic the show's theme song.

 

Since the party was between meals, I kept the menu light and full of veggies--obviously.  I served Cheetos, spinach dip with Fritos, celery and baby carrots, and cake and ice cream of course.  I did the cake myself and was really happy with how it turned out.

 

There were no bells and whistles with this party.  I made little green sugar cookies and decorated them as the French peas as the party favors--then I completely forgot to give them out to the kids.  I didn't even get a picture of them.  I didn't really get many pictures of this party at all.  But it was super fun and he loved it.

Birthday Party Rewind: Sugar and Spice Party

When C was having her first birthday, the sweet shop parties were all the rage.  However, I wanted to take that same theme and change it just a bit.  So I based the theme on the rhyme about little girls being made of sugar and spice and everything nice.  Hence, a birthday party was born.  I will start with a couple of shots of the birthday girl waiting for her party to start.

I did the food myself and it was kinda hit and miss.  Of course to stick with the theme it was mostly sweet stuff like Oreo balls and marshmallow pops (both of which came out mildly disastrous looking), but I also had Red Hot candies out for the 'spice' part of the soiree.  I did Country Time pink lemonade in my beverage dispenser.

Fortunately, the cake turned out beautifully, and I could not have been happier with it.  It was so girly and adorable and everyone loved it.  Including the birthday girl as you can see.

 She wasn't sure what to think about everyone singing "Happy Birthday."

As far as decorations go, I kept it pretty simple.  I made the bunting with paper and ribbon from Hobby Lobby.  I also made the tissue paper pom poms which were a total pain and did not want to stay hung on the ceiling.

 

 After a quick bath (because she was covered in frosting!!), it was time to open presents with some help from big brother B of course. 

 

Each guest left with a pink Rice Crispy treat with a sweet note attached from C.

  

We are beyond blessed to have this sweet baby girl, and it was just a joy to celebrate her first birthday with family and friends.  I love her so much!