celebrating with dr. seuss and the abc's

My little boy turned one on Saturday, and I wanted to celebrate in style!  So I decided on a theme based on this book...

It was kind of a joint Dr. Seuss & ABC's theme. When I found a seller on Etsy who could create a custom t-shirt for my little man to wear, that's when I knew I could take this theme and run with it. So I did. (I'll show you the t-shirt a little further down in this post.)

The special cupcake reserved for my little guy.

Each cupcake topper either said "A is for Angel" or "B is for Boy" or "C is for Caleb". This time I tried making Red Velvet cupcakes and boy...they were good (if I do say so myself). I used this recipe and the cupcakes and frosting were just about the best I've ever made.

Balloons are always cheap but add so much color. Love 'em.

It was impossible to find Dr. Seuss-themed decor so I realized I'd have to make it myself. I think this guy is one of the things I'm most proud of. I found foamboard at the Dollar Tree. Who knew? Usually that stuff is fairly expensive at the craft store. So, on one of them I re-created this guy from the front of my inspiration book (Dr. Suess' ABC). I honestly didn't know if I could do it...but I guess I could. My girls obviously thought I did an okay job because they were petting him and "feeding" him once I got it completed!

 

Trays from Target's spring-themed dollar section. These were the $2.50 variety, but still...perfect! And the napkins were all from Target too.

These napkins kinda reminded me of the Cat in the Hat's hat, so I had to get them.

All the little buckets with flowers, utensils, and candy in them...Targets $1 section again. This little tree is from Dollar Tree.

I used foam stickers from the kids' section of Michaels for the cupcake toppers.

Scrapbook paper on foamboard is the background for this display of the invitation. Oh how I love thee, Scrapbook Paper.

Bunting made of scrapbook paper again. Have I mentioned that I love scrapbook paper? So cheap, so easy.

Normally I would be morally opposed to blue flowers. But if you can't have blue flowers at a Dr. Seuss party, when can you?

 

I cut the ABC's out of foamboard as well. Hard to tell in this photo, but they're a good 18 inches tall.

And here's my little man, in his custom t-shirt by dzns4ubyme  Didn't she do an AMAZING job? (And great to work with, too!) The shirt's folds hide this in the photo, but it says "Angel Boy Caleb". One of his nicknames is Angel Boy ('cause he really is!) and so that's how we personalized the ABC's for this party.

And a great time was had by all, including the guest of honor. He very much enjoyed his first frosting ever, thankyouverymuch.

another party on the way

My baby boy is turning one on Saturday. I can't believe it.

I'm throwing another party. I can't believe that either. Didn't I just get done with my kids' birthday parties?

Apparently not. I need to get used to having a March baby now, to follow my December and January babies.

Anyway...the photo above is a little hint as to the theme of the party. If I can pull off everything on my list, it will be sooo cute. If I can just pull off half the things on my list, it will just be cute. I'll check in soon to let you know if it turns out SOOO cute, or just cute.

I think I'm in love...

...with these cupcake kits I just discovered (via Oh Happy Day). Check out Meri Meri for a beautiful selection of sweetly designed kits, containing cupcake liners + toppers. Oh my word. I might be getting one of these for my son's first birthday coming up in a couple of weeks. But even if I don't...you should.

details of a fairy party

When the girls arrived at the party, they got to choose their own fairy skirt (thank you, Dollar Tree!) and wings to wear. I couldn't find pre-made fairy wings for each girl that fit my budget, so...I used some white posterboard (that I already had) and cut out wings. Then, I free-handed a swirly design (loosely based on Tinkerbell's wings) and sprayed the wings with gold glitter spray so they shimmered.

The girls got to choose the color of ribbon to attach to the wings. Their moms helped them tie the strings onto the wings and then around their shoulders to strap them on.

I honestly expected the girls to only wear their wings for about the first fifteen minutes of the party. But those girls wore their wings and fairy skirts proudly the entire time! And no one got poked in the eye by anyone's wings! It was a birthday miracle.

The food was sort of a kids' version of brunch. It was a breakfast bar with their favorite sugar cereals, colorful yogurts, fruit, and juices. I found these round label templates on Martha Stewart's website and went a little crazy, labeling everything that didn't move. Oh, and one of the things I like to do at these kids parties is provide food for the grown-ups too - because I don't know about you, but I don't really want Lucky Charms for lunch anymore. (Mom, your little girl is all grown up!) So the day before, I made these Bacon Quiche Cups and then reheated them in the oven right before serving. Combined with fruit and juice it was a nice little lunch for the mommas.

My daughter helped out by coloring this large picture of Tinkerbell, and then the girls played "pin the butterfly on Tinkerbell". It was really cute.

Here's the birthday girl attempting to place the butterfly in just the right spot while blindfolded. You can see a little of her fairy skirt peeking out too. Their other activity was coloring and cutting out a large butterfly which they then attached to a stick and it was sort of a wand or whatever their imagination wanted it to be. (I'll admit, it was a last-minute craft when my other plan fell through. Thank goodness for clipart where you can easily go find a butterfly and make it huge when you need to!)

There's the birthday girl on the mantel again!

I don't sew, but I like bunting...so here's my version of bunting, made with scrapbook paper instead! It probably only took about 45 minutes total to put it together. (Or is that a long time? You tell me!)

And the cost of this bunting wasn't more than $3.00. You gotta love that.

In fact, I love it so much it's become Spring decor. I just can't bear to take it down!

Here's my younger daughter at her sister's party. She was the one child who DID take her wings off within ten minutes...the age difference between her at three and the other girls at five was apparent. But isn't she a doll?

I found these cute butterfly garlands at Michael's, and I was going to do a fabulous crafty decorative thingy with them...but ran out of time. So I put them on this shelf instead and I thought it was cute.

And last, but not least, I provided a "candy bar" where the girls got to fill their little bags with candy as take-home favors. That was a big hit but I bought WAY too much candy. We now have next Halloween's candy already lined up! ;-)

Check out my other post on fairy parties here.  One other detail I just realized that I forgot to photograph was the custom invitations. Note to self: must take pics of the invites and post them here. I'll try to do that soon. I know I'm not the only one planning a fairy party this year, so maybe this helps inspire you? The fun part is that it can be whatever you make it...I didn't want mine to be blatant Tinkerbell, but there was definitely some Tinkerbell elements. What's most important - my daughters and their little friends had a great time.

fairies are afoot - a fairy-themed birthday party

a fantastical fairy-inspired arrangement

Maybe some of you have little girls who - like mine - are really into Tinkerbell. But I didn't want to do a blatantly "Tinkbell"-themed party for my daughters' birthdays this month. I think this way is a little more unique and fantasy-like. Plus I got to use lots of sparkly things. You know me and my sparkly things...I love them so.

My favorite thing was the garland...it was supposed to evoke images of woodland fairies...entwrined throughout it was pink fairy lights and tons of coloful and sparkly picks, birds, and butterflies.

I was able to find all kinds of fanciful picks on clearance after Thanksgiving and during the Christmas season. And the garlands themselves...fall decor once it had reached 90% off! You gotta love that.

I couldn't afford to buy new, brightly-colored candles for the event, so instead I pulled some out that I already had and went to work transforming them with scrapbook paper and double-sided tape. (I did not light them for the party - that probably would have induced fireworks of the non-celebratory type.)

 I bought just a couple of inexpensive bouquets from the supermarket, and was able to get my money's worth by spreading them out around the room and tables. Here they are mingled in with brightly-colored votive holders that I've had for years. The paper chain was made by my daughters!

My girls - ages three and five - made the paper chain. They are always anxious to "help" with the decorations...and this was a way that they could. I actually love it so much that it's been hanging in the living room for almost three weeks now.

On the mantel I placed a picture of the birthday girl...which I usually do at every birthday party. It was flanked by a huge arrangement of lighted branches (Christmas yard picks with LED lights - on clearance after Christmas - yay!). The vase was simply a clear vase, filled with Christmas lights, and then "dressed" in two "fairy" skirts from the dollar store that I layered on top of each other for a more ethereal effect.

Here's another shot of the branches arrangement.

I found that when I added gold branches with gold beads on them (more Christmas clearance) to my supermarket bouquets, they became much more "fairy-like". The cupcakes this time were pretty simple, just chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and sprinkles in the colors of the party.

I put butterflies everywhere I could! Man, I should own stock in Michael's butterflies by now. Even more so because my older daughter's birthday party is this coming Saturday, and it ALSO has a fairy theme - so now that Michael's spring decor is out, I keep buying butteflies. Must...stop...accquiring...butterflies.

In a later post I'll share pics of the custom invitations I made for this party and also the upcoming one this weekend. I will also have more pics of party decor to show soon!

a sweet strawberry party

Hello friends! That is, if anyone out there even remembers this blog. How I have missed blogging and interacting with you all! I am a faithful lurker on my favorite blogs, of course, but I'm constantly finding myself with lots of ideas for the blog - and wishing I had the time or energy to make it happen!

homemade strawberry cupcakes (with toppers from thepaperplayground)

Here's one thing I pulled off recently, however. My daugher's fourth birthday party. She loves strawberries, and decided she wanted a "Strawberry Party". Not a Strawberry Shortcake-character party, mind you - just a Strawberry party. And, of course, how can I resist? I do love having a good theme to work with.



For the first time ever, rather than making my own invitations, I had someone else do it. Primarily because as I was searching Etsy for all things strawberry, I found a set by Etsy seller thepaperplayground that were perfect. I asked myself, "Self, when you're seven months preggo and someone's already created exactly what you're looking for, why recreate the wheel?" Kristen (of thepaperplayground) created this whole suite of hand-stamped invitations, thank-you cards, cupcake toppers, and paper favors (with a sweet message and candy inside), all with my strawberry theme. And she was super-nice and helpful to boot. What more can a girl ask for?




I decided on a palette of red, pink, and lime green. I wanted to make sure to include the lime green so that it didn't look too much like a Valentine's party. That being said, it didn't hurt that her birthday was just a few weeks before V-day - there were so many things in the right colors available for decor, and especially for favors - so it worked out perfectly.




A tiny disclaimer: my husband took every single one of these photos for me (thanks babe!)...however, he had two things working against him: 1) a new camera, on which he is still trying to figure out the best settings, etc. 2) the inability to read my mind. (I was busy running around until the very last minute - wait, running is a slight exageration...waddling is more like it - and didn't have time to give specific instructions as to what I would like to have photographed. So, what you see is what I got.)






We decided on a menu that was entirely strawberry. Peanut butter and strawberry-jelly sandwiches, strawberry lemonade, chocolate-covered strawberries, and strawberry cupcakes. I used a cookie cutter to make heart-shaped sandwiches (and ate the crusts as I went along).


The favors were so fun (and inexpensive!) to put together. I got the baskets at the Dollar Tree - two for a dollar - and almost everything else came from the dollar section at Target. Ohmyword I LOVE the dollar section at Target! They really came through for me on this one. Little Strawberry Shortcake pens and pencils, bracelets, and stamps. I would spend a dollar and get a package of six items (I had six little girls, so that was perfect) and split them between the baskets. They even had tiny grow kits - I'm not kidding - a tiny terra cotta pot with soil and - wait for it - strawberry plant seeds. I threw in a handful of strawberry candies from the dollar store, and the cutest little handmade favors - paper strawberries with a message on the outside and strawberry candy on the inside - also by thepaperplayground, and voila! We also had plenty of extra balloons, so we sent one of those home with each girl as well. I figured that each loaded favor basket cost a total of maybe $3 altogether. I was loving life.

I also provided two crafts for the girls to work on. Target (again) had these little picture frame sets in the dollar section that I bought for the girls to personalize with stickers, glitter, and stick-on jewels. Next, they put together some jewelry. I found these bead kits on after-Christmas clearance at Michael's and the girls made bracelets, necklaces, and key-rings. That ended up being fairly labor-intensive for the mommies, but I think the girls really enjoyed it. (And what wouldn't we do for our kids?!)

I wrapped a clear glass vase in pink tulle ribbon, and put in a bouquet of berries that I think are used mostly for filler - but ya know, they resemble tiny strawberries! So no boring old roses for us - we chose the berries (from Costco, butofcourse) for a charming little detail that probably no one else noticed or appreciated but ourselves. But hey - a good party is all in the details - whether they're noticed or not!

I found these adorable little truffles in the right colors - some even had little strawberries on top - that were actually tiny candles. Supposed to be Valentine's decor, but they worked great for a strawberry party, too.

Candy in jars is always a good standby when you'd like to carry a color theme around a room. Here's the shrine to my daughter - a couple of photos of her, plus candy. Of course!

I made a banner for the mantle, although I'm bummed that I can't show you a close-up (I don't have one). I found these paper doilies at the dollar store - a package of 24 for a dollar! I bought some oval ones and some rectangular ones. They were the perfect size for cutting letters and strawberries out of scrapbook paper, pasting them on the doilies, and then stringing it along the front of the mantel. You can't tell, but I even glittered the strawberries. I don't have a lot of patience for small crafty things these days, so I was pretty proud of myself for that one.

Strawberry Dreams tutu by Etsy seller tiarastutus

And lastly, a most important question. What should the Party Girl wear? After much (enjoyable) browsing again on Etsy, I discovered this amazing Strawberry Dreams Tutu by tiarastutus that I had custom-made in my daughter's size and preferred length. It had plenty of pink tulle, with little bits of green tulle like strawberry leaves and black rhinestones on the skirt to simulate strawberry seeds. It even had a matching hairbow with strawberry on it! Oh my. How could I not buy it?

But the cherry (strawberry?) on top of this whole thing was my daughter's reaction. (She just turned four, mind you.) She was so genuinely grateful and excited about each and every element of the decor and the party that it made it all more than worth it. At one point, when she saw my handmade banner, she said, "Oh, it's so beautiful! I might cry because I'm so happy!" And it was totally genuine and not melodramatic (if you can believe it!). She really was so thankful for everything, that I found myself trying to freeze those moments in my memory forever...while simultaneously praying that she'll never change and will always have that grateful spirit. So, it wasn't easy to pull off in my large and grumpy state, but it was MORE than worth it. Man, I love that kid.