Beckett and Jack's Monster Bash

Today is my son Beckett's 3rd birthday. We actually celebrated over a month ago with his cousin Jackson. Jack's birthday is at the beginning of August and Beckett's at the end of September, but since all our family comes to town we thought we'd save them an extra trip and celebrate together somewhere in the middle. It worked great that I could get the celebration done before school started, too.

But then school started and I never got it on the blog! So in honor of his real birthday today, I figured I better get it done!

My sister Rach and I decided on a theme around Christmas last year when Beckett and Jack really started playing well together...and together they can be little monsters. I also love Ugly Dolls, which Beckett calls "his little monster", and one of our favorite books also features monsters, so monsters it was!

I found the perfect paper and drew some similar images on my computer to match and created the invitations from there.

Of course I enlisted the help of my friend Rachel at *golden* to make the boys some shirts, which NEVER once disappoint. Ever.

We had the party at my sister and B-I-L's house. Of course guests were greeted with a door sign, but this year thanks to my sister Kara, we kicked it up a notch...now I don't know if we'll be able to go without sidewalk chalk greetings as well!

We found the perfect place to set up the party goods at R & B's house as well. We just cleared off their buffet, covered the large picture that hung above it with coordinating fabric, and set our goods out on display!

Two of those inspirations I mentioned were on out on diplay...the Ugly Dolls, and copies of the book Tickle Monster, which also doubled as guests books.

While we were waiting for people to get there, I snapped this pic of my brother in law Brad trying to keep the kids calm while Rach and I finished up the details...love it!

To keep the kiddos occupied during the party, I also had two activity buckets ready to go. One was "Doodle Monsters" where kids could use monster stickers, markers, etc to draw a monster picture. The other was "Monster on a Stick" where kids made monster puppets with various art supplies. Their favorites were of course googly eyes. Who doesn't love a nice pair of those babies {or three?!}?

For afternoon snacking we had some candy and these PERFECTO cookies with fondant toppers from Two Sugar Babies, who are all the rage in the party world these days. Beckett carried a set of 4 of these fondant toppers around in wax paper for days ahead of time, showing everyone who came to our house. I was glad they didn't come earlier or they would have all been a little more "looked at" than I would have liked!

Everyone had a good time both eating AND playing with the monster cookies!

After a crazy round of gift opening {having two kids opening at the same time is WACKO! Good thing we had our two sisters taking notes for us as the paper was flying in every direction!} it was time to eat.

My favorite thing we did as far as dinner was concerned is that we made a "kids table" by keeping the real table legs locked on our folding table and instead using some sturdy totes as legs. It made it the perfect height for the kids to be able to sit right on the floor...I just put down some round placemats as "chairs" and voila! I will definitely do this again...saves on the amount of folding chairs you have to find!

Then it was time for cake. I usually have my BFF make my cakes, but she had a two month old {remember that "tweet" baby Aubrey?} and had foot surgery 10 days prior, so I thought I better give her a break. I asked a friend who has taken cake classes with Tracie to make me a cake...I almost died when I saw it! Beckett could NOT get over it!

We couldn't eat those monsters. They looked too real. Rach kept them on her counter for a week and half just admiring them. Nina, you're the best!

Instead of regular hats I made monster hats just for fun. They were also a hit. A sister pic with hats on has become tradition as well...

I love this one...

All in all, a great day. The kids were worn out by the end, so the birthday boys decided to put their new pajamas on that they received as a gift that day...

Don't my older kids do a great job of picking out gifts that fit the theme of the party?! Ha. My favorite part is Beckett's dirty feet!

Happy 3rd birthday, Beckett James! Your family loves you!

Monkeying around again...

No, I really haven't been. Its parent-teacher conference time around here, which means lots of extra nights spent getting papers and reports ready and some late nights at school talking with parents. Spring break in 4 days...whoop whoop!

Here's just a peek at a party I did a couple months ago...the same monkey theme as you've seen me do plenty of times before, but with a new color spin.

Brooks' mom Missie is a teacher, too...she's promised me some pictures after she gets done with her parent-teacher conferences. Can't wait to see them!

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!

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!

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!

Little Red Rocket

I loved working with this mom after doing her son Carter's 1st birthday last year...remember those luggage tags? Some of my favorite things I've done. This year she wanted to do a "Little Red Rocket" theme.

I have actually seen the pics of the party and can't wait to share them someday soon...just need to get some photographer permission first...but I can tell you that it looked like "a blast"! =)

Whoooo's turning two?!

Just a sneak peek of a party I am working on for my little friend Ellen (check out her first birthday party here!)...

Parent/teacher conferences got done today. Looking forward to having a few extra nights to get my work done so I can post some more! More of this party and others coming next week!

Pirates x 2!

I was so excited when Shelley, a client from last year got on my schedule early this year! This time she was having a second birthday party for Harper with her little friend Jacob, also turning two. She loved Tate's pirate party, so we had to find a way to make it suitable for both boys and girls.

First I designed an invite and ordered some pink pirate paper that complimented the red paper I already had from Tate's party. Here is how it all turned out...

Invitations and sign to hang on the grounds where the party is being held

Favor tags, banner, beverage signs, and cupcake toppers

Thanks, Shelley! Glad you love it all. I can't wait to see pics from the party!

Monkey Business

It was exactly year ago that I sent out invitations almost identical to these for my own baby's first birthday. I can't believe how time flies...now I am about 10 days away from birthday #2 for my baby! Sniff...=) I had a custom request from one of the clients on my schedule to make a party pretty identical to Beckett's monkey party. She had little JJ's pics taken with his own monkey to use for the invitations. I LOVE his pic...don't you want to squeeze those cheeks?

Lots more of this one coming next month!

Noah's Cars

Earlier this summer I did made this banner for our cousin's son Noah who was turning three. Noah LOVES cars, so Abby wanted to do something with lots of bright colors and some images of cars that she had seen on my blog before. We started with one bright paper that I use for my circus collection that she loved and went from there.

Abby also wanted to get Noah a matching tshirt and she knew I had just the lady to do it! She told me to take care of the details, so I got to work with my fav girl Rach at *golden* to make Noah's tshirt as well...isn't it cute?? She took the exact image I was using on the banner and made it into a shirt, and per my request even sewed Noah's name in the window...just as Rachel's logo says...sew cute!

Have a good weekend...lots to show you next week before I am back to school!

Forty and Fabulous!

One of my previous clients enlisted me to help make some cupcake toppers for a 40th birthday party she is throwing in a few weeks. She was planning the party decor around the paper goods that she purchased, shown here:

Fun, right? Very fun to have to match to! So here is what I came up with...

Hope you love them, Jodee!