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!

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!

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"! =)

Oh how she's grown!

Hard to believe my baby girl is 4. I know people say it is amazing and that time just flies, but it really is true. I had so much fun planning Ave's party this year...she has gotten to be my little PDP apprentice and is so into the details. E took the kids out of the house one day so I could start getting decorations in order. Her face was priceless when she walked in. It made every minute I spent worth it!

So as far as inspiration {as I said in an earlier post} came from some paper I found and loved. From there I made these invitations {also posted earlier!}

I decided very early on to use the pettiskirt that I had bought for our family pictures and a scallop shirt and scallop "a" hair clip from Em Tanner paired with my very favorite Babylegs for her outfit. The scallop was very flower reminiscent and I loved the fonts and knew I had them and could use them for the rest of the decor as well.

I made close to all of the decor I made myself...you know the usual stuff...the pics from the actual party are not great...it was so dark and I didn't have my camera set on a good setting for night pics. I took some pics earlier and some after during daylight hours, but the ones from the actual party aren't wonderful...but you'll get the overall idea!

A sign to greet everyone (I had to brave -20 degree temps to get this pic!)...

Some flower cupcake toppers to top the always pretty AND delicious cupcakes from my BF Tracie...

(Stands are from Crate and Barrel...thank you to my Mother-In-Law for borrowing hers so that I could have a matching set!)

Napkin Rings...

(Paper goods from Plates & Napkins of course!)

Hats and a crown for the birthday girl...

Flower Lollipop Favors for each child to take home...

I always try to look for something fun to do as a guest book. I took a shadow box that I had here and lined it with some of the paper I had to match the party, stuck Avery's invite in the middle, and had the guests sign flowers that I made to give Avery birthday wishes. They just attached them with a glue dot. I am going to keep it up in Avery's room...a fun reminder of the party throughout the year...

I did not go at this party completely alone though...I found a fabric line designed with the same prints as the paper I already bought, so my girl *golden* hooked me up with an awesome table runner (no name or age so that it can be used for many years and birthdays to come!) and some napkins that had "4"s and "A"s with flowers on them that we used for serving food and under lamps in the living room...

Then I tried two new Etsy girls I've had my eyes on FOR.EV.ER. They did not disappoint and I was even able to trade products for some of it which is always fun and a money saver!

First PomLove...

These pics don't even really do them justice to how pretty they are and what a design punch they really add to a space. I used them both on the sides of the banner I made and then after seeing this on Party Perfect (via Design Sponge) I made a small cluster of poms and lanterns and made some garland from the matching paper to wind in there as well...

Then maybe one of the cutest things ever came from Lollipop Workshop...

I found through a friend and knew I wanted to do one for Ave if I could...meanwhile they started popping up all over the place. After seeing one on Bakerella here, I got the idea to make her her own little PDP banner...

This is where Avery almost passed out. It was her favorite thing at the party...her own little dolly with her own little banner! She says she's going to use it for her dollies to have birthday parties. =) That's my girl.

So after pics were taken of everything, it was time for cake...

Three screamers out of nine kids...not bad. Kids LOVE my hats, I tell you. Then just a couple other cute pics from the party...

Happy birthday, Aves! I love you!