Showing posts with label birthday party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birthday party. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

{Personal} Levi's Robin Hood 3rd Birthday Party

On December 2nd 2011 at 11:01am, our little Levi was born and changed our lives forever. He just turned 3 recently and I'm wondering where the heck the time went!! It seems like yesterday he was just learning to crawl like a little caterpillar in a big world, hitting peas out of our hand as we tried to feed him, exploring his tiny fingers and toes as he gnawed on them and filling diapers like it was his favorite past time.

Now, our little man is so grown up with an innocent curiosity of world, testing boundaries, limits and heights as he leaps from the highest of them. He is so brave, so smart and so intuitive. I am so thankful for this tiny, yet bursting soul of his.

To celebrate Levi's birthday, we threw a Robin Hood themed party for him. (Well, two parties actually because last year, there were SO many people in our home that it was a little difficult to even walk through. We decided to split it up this year). It was all pretty last minute due to many things going on these past few weeks and since we really didn't have the funds to get super fancy, we made do with what we had. I whipped everything up just a couple days prior to the party. The only thing I bought were red streamers from the dollar store which gave me a grand total of $1 spent on decor ($1.08 if you include tax)! Below are tips and tricks I used to come up with decor pieces.

Here are just some highlights of the themed party decor. All of the photos captured during the party where on phones but the majority was on the video camera. There is A LOT of footage so I have yet to finish the video to share but will once it's complete.

{enjoy}

...and the morning of his birthday.
I actually debated cropping this one but realized that this is Levi. He doesn't care if his bed head is totally crazy, his pants are missing (which is weird because he went to bed with pants on) or if he's only wearing one sock. He's happy and that's all that matters this morning!
Happy Birthday my little love!! You are the light of our lives. <3


Decor Tips
Arrows: I used sticks I collected from outside and felt I had on hand. Cut the shapes and glued them to the ends of the sticks. The kids loved them and they are gentle to touch if they are thrown!
Feather garland: Just some twine and a bit of glue added to the ends of extra feathers I had. Anything can be turned into garland right?
Triangle garland: Got a bunch of paint chips from home depot, cut them into triangles and glued them to twine. Love the paint chip idea because you can choose from SO many different colors so you are bound to find what you are looking for. We are going to use this garland in his room too.
Wood target and "let them be little" sign: We have a bunch of extra wood that we use for the fire pit in the backyard. My husband cut a few pieces for me, I used what paint I had on hand, grabbed my brush and painted away. I actually created the "little" sign for the kid's bedroom a while back so I was able to use that in the decor as well.
Feather/arrow cupcake toppers: I cut the ends of some feathers off so the feather sorta made a "V", glued them to some tooth picks and wrapped them with a bit of twine. They are supposed to look like little arrows going into the cupcake.
Robin Hood Prints: Googled images and also made my own from the movie.
Cupcakes: Target! Ok, I LOVE the vanilla cupcakes from Target but I love them even more when they are half off-$3.49 for a dozen! Go into Target the day or night before a party and look in the bakery (I found mine in the bakery markdowns). The markdown dates are still good until the following day or 2 so everything still tastes great (the cupcakes still tasted amazing even days after that-especially if you keep them in the fridge)!

What do you do to keep events within a small budget? Favorite decor tips? Food tips? etc.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Levi Turns 2-A Balloon & Adventure Themed Birthday

It's been about 2 weeks now and I am finally getting around to blogging my baby love's birthday party. Whew!

My little man turned 2 at the beginning of the month (read his "birthday letter"). Where did the time go?! This year, we hosted his birthday party in our very own home. Last year, we hosted it at our dear friend's house because at the time, our little home wouldn't fit all of the guests. Since we've moved into our new place, (which is double the size), we were so excited to have all of our family and friend's over to celebrate this occasion. Mind you though, there were about 40 guests and we quickly learned...our home was still lacking the space we needed but it was so good to see everyone we loved under one roof. :)

It was a very cold day with a storm coming in and snow flurries hitting the ground. Hello December weather! With everyone mingling in the kitchen and living room, the kids ran a muck with paper yo-yos in hand and small balloons static clinging to their heads. It was so funny!

For decor, I wanted to keep it simple this year since we had just moved in only a few weeks ago. Levi is OBSESSED with balloons so I decided on a balloon theme with a bit of "adventure" thrown in. Within just a couple of days, I put everything together with the help of my wonderful husband. We blew up balloons to create little floating hot air balloons and made a cake topper and a few garland strands with several mini balloons. I also cut out cloud shapes to hang on 2 of the walls (hard to see in the photos) and used several decor pieces that I already had from previous parties or around the house.

For food, we went with a "picnic theme" and had croissant sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, mac n' cheese, watermelon, grapes, potato salad, cole slaw and flavored sodas along with lemonade. I felt like a kid and that was just fine with me. :)

As we all sang Happy Birthday to Levi, he had the BIGGEST smile as he looked around and admired the attention. He loved every minute of it and as soon as we finished, he clapped. That was my favorite moment of the day.

Here is a little peek into Levi's 2nd birthday party.


My sweet baby bug.

My adorable niece,

That SMILE!
Photo taken by GPMcCash ("G Pa")
Photo taken by GPMcCash ("G Pa")

So thankful for my family-my heart.

I love you little man and I am so proud to be your mommy. Forever my baby you'll be.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

A Minnie Mouse FIRST Birthday Party!

This past Saturday, I attended one of the sweetest little girl's FIRST birthday party! Little Julia is the daughter of some of my very good friends, Megan and Ian. Their little loves are like my little loves.
I can't believe Julia is already a whole year old! I still remember throwing her baby shower, seeing that cute newborn face and squeezing those adorable arm rolls that went on for days.
Megan decided on a classic Minnie Mouse party with polka dots, handmade tissue pom poms and yummy cupcakes (no pink). It was a lot of fun for the kids with a craft table and a surprise guest appearance by Minnie Mouse herself!
Here's a peek of a sweet afternoon.
{enjoy
Playing "hot potato" awaiting the surprise guest.

Hi Minnie!!
Happy Birthday to yooouuu...
This is what happens when you try to take photos of a bunch of kids...This is reality.
Happy Birthday Julia! I love you so so much! I can't wait to spend lots more birthdays with you and watch you and your big brother grow up together with little Levi. Please don't grow up too quickly. Be still my heart. <3