{Get the Goods Giveaway} : Hey Yo Yo

As I said in my post yesterday, one of my favorite things from Tate's party was the vintage striped paper straws I've had my eyes on forever, just waiting for the right time to use them. Anyone else like them? Well, today you're in luck!

Enter Amanda of Hey Yo Yo...

"I spent 4 years working for Martha Stewart Television as a recipe developer (pastry) before starting to sell on Etsy. I lived out East for a number of years while going to culinary school and got the Martha gig right out of school, worked for her for 4 years and then moved back home to Wisconsin to figure out what to do next with my life. That's when I started making cupcake pincushions for my first Etsy site, Smarmy Pants, and then eventually started selling cupcake supplies on Hey Yo Yo. Now that's going so well that I don't have much time to sew anymore!"

Now Amanda has 25 of her blue striped straws as seen at Tate's birthday party up for grabs for one lucky PDP reader! Whether you're planning a party or just sipping on a Saturday afternoon...these are so fun!

There are several ways to enter...leave a comment for each to get multiple entries! Please leave all extra entries in the comments here on the blog, not on Facebook or Twitter so I can keep track of them!

1) Simply leave a comment telling your favorite item in Amanda's shop.

2) Become a fan of Polkadots & Pirates on Facebook. Already a fan? Leave a comment!

3) Follow pdotsandpirates on Twitter.

4) Blog, tweet, or facebook (or all three!) this giveaway!

Deadline to enter is Monday, March 1st at 5 o'clock. Winner will be randomly chosen and posted on Tuesday morning. I'll be back with a winner then. Have a great weekend!

A FIN-tastic birthday!

I am combining two parties into one post since the decor for both parties was much the same. This may be a huge mistake because there are LOTS of pics...look at them in a few installments if you must! I am warning you...LOOOONG.

We will start with "the family party"...

As I showed you last week, the left pic is of the invitations...I made invitations for both parties exactly the same except for the date and times. I could kick myself for forgetting to take a picture of the labels for the envelopes before I sent them. I like to try to make an envelope really fun to get since the mail is mostly bills or junk these days. The right picture is of course the door sign...used at both parties.

And by now I am sure you know the basic setup of my house and decorating space! Of course I have to have a banner in the middle and lots of balloons. I am not sure you can see it, but a few of the banner circles have "shark bites" taken out of them. Tate loved that part!

Then to dress up the serving trays, buckets, and paper goods...

We made a small candy bar for some early party snacking, I think I still have a sugar high from all the Swedish fish I consumed the past two weekends! (YUM!)

As I said in my "peek" post...I had to make 14 hats this year! So fun to have so many kids hanging around. We also had to continue in the tradition of taking a pic of my sisters and I in the party hats. I am not sure who had the idea of making it a little crazier this year...maybe it was that we did have so many hats sitting there...but what I do know is that it was a little later, we were a little sillier, and Avery had to get in on the double hat craziness!

I will spare you the gift opening and meal pictures since this post is incredibly long, but maybe I will post those on the Newman family blog (which hasn't been updated since October...eek.) We'll skip to that ever delicious cake, made by my high school BFF, Tracie.

She actually made identical cakes for both weekends. I used the same shark fin and cake topper that I made for both parties and added some extra long candles in between.

We sent all the kids at this party home with a squirting shark. I loved these because they would be fun for every kid at the party from babies to 6 year olds! Tate also brought them to school as his "birthday treat" because they can't bring food as treats to his school.

Then on to the "friend party" held this last Saturday, which was T and I's actual birthday. This is the first party for little people only that we've ever had and I think it lived up to both of our expectations. The trend is definitely to go somewhere for a big party these days, but Tate and I both decided it would be fun to stay at our house and play shark-y games here!

I got to decorate our dining room...we always use this room for parties, but I don't usually decorate it since people are kind of sitting all over the house and we do more of a buffet style with that many people. But with 8 kids it was perfect to set the table, personalized for each guest...

My favorite new thing that I've been dying to use for a party is these vintage paper straws. After an idea I talked about with another one of my friends named Tracy, I made each straw personalized with the kids names that were great for the little soda bottles the kids drank out of. (Here you go, Runchey! "Tracy straws" they are!)

You can also see in the back of the picture on the right I covered the pictures that are normally on my wall with cardstock. I knew the images that are normally there would bug me in pictures, so I decided that for a very minimal cost I could cover them with paper and make them part of the design!

After the kids arrived we played several games and made a craft...

(The sharks for the game are SO easy to make!)

The theme song from Jaws is great for musical chairs! The only game we didn't get to at the party because we ran out of time was to play a "Sharky, may I?"... a version of this game I used to play as a kid. We even had this shark hat to wear! We have had a chance to play it as a family since then, though, and it is great for kids of all ages. Even Beckett loves it!

Again, I will skip the pics of gift opening and eating...onto the cake!

The boys were on their way home by noon...

We had a great time and then I spent the rest of the day with my family (I even got a much needed nap in!).

Happy birthday, Tater Tot. Love you!

A few "peeks"...

Well, sort of. All these "peeks" are in one pic, though...just a bunch of eyes that say it all! I just spent 2 hours going through all the pics from Tate's party but now I need to organize them into a post which I have no energy to do still tonight. I did find this gem in the bunch and it makes me giggle...

What is even more amazing to me is the fact that this year there were 14 hats to make for the kids at the party. They didn't even all fit in one pic! When T was born, he was an only lonely child. I think of this every year on his birthday...how blessed we are to have such a wonderful and growing group of little people who our kids now call friends.

Tate and I both had a wonderful birthday weekend and we both decided we are happy to be one year older...we are both in such a different place in life than we were on our birthday last year. Makes me wonder where we'll be next year at this time. Thanks to everyone who sent us a birthday message or left a comment over the weekend. We love you!

The rest of the birthday post tomorrow night. Cross my heart.

One down, one to go...

As you know, my son is in Kindergarten this year. This has been his long awaited year that he gets to have a "friend party" in addition to our regular family and friends party. The family party was last Saturday...normally I would be posting pics, but since much of the decor will be used for both parties, I think I'll save it all for next week.

Need a sneak peek? Let's just say it is pretty shark-y over here...

I am almost ready for 8 boys to invade and plan to have lots to show you when its done. Give me a few extra days, though...if you remember it's not only T's birthday is this Saturday, but also mine! A relaxing Sunday may be in order after all this six year old partying!

Little Sweet Pea

When my friend Molly contacted me to help design her friend's daughter's first birthday I couldn't say no...they wanted to do a "sweet pea" theme which I've always wanted to do AND she loved a lot of the colors and papers from Avery's party which I love.

And because I adore this picture of little Sophia I have to show the invitation a little closer up...isn't she adorable??

Happy birthday, Sophia!

As the football season comes to a close...

...I thought I'd share these football party invitations and boxes with you! We weren't all that interested in the game on Sunday here at the Newman household this year...we were still bummin' that our purple team lost in over time the week before. =(

I made these invitations last month for a friend's son who is turning 6. He, too, loves the Vikings but his mom wanted to keep it more football themed than purple and gold (woohoo Amy...you're my kind of lady!)

So first the invitations...

Amy had seen the boxes I had done for Beckett's birthday and thought they'd be perfect to send all the goods home from Noah's party in as well. I really do LOVE these boxes...so functional and are big so they pack some design punch!

Now, bring on baseball season! We're huge Twins fans over here, too. Remember my nephew's 2nd birthday party from a few years ago?

I have the first of my son Tate's birthday parties this weekend...lots to do and show you in the coming few days!