{Real Parties} Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Birthday

Hi everyone!  I'm back - not 100% but a lot better.  I ended up in the ER Saturday night with my high fever and a rash on my face as a result of the fever.  After IV's, blood tests, chest x-rays, and being given a muscle relaxer (why? you ask.  I'm so glad!  Apparently, everyone is in pain at the ER, so they just gave me some pain killers.  No idea - I wasn't in pain and the muscle relaxers made my arms and legs feel like jello.), I was informed I had a a fever and rash.  NO joke!  That was my diagnosis!  On another page, it stated virus.  Needless to say, I felt oh so relieved that I spent 3 1/2 hours of my life there on Saturday.  HAHA!

Okay, okay - enough about me - back to the party!

Tamara at The McDonald World hosted a Miss Spider's Sunny Patch party for her daughter's 2nd birthday.  She did a fantastic job with the decor and activites for the children.  My favorites are the Tree centerpiece and mini paper lantern bug friends.  She utilized free print outs from Nick Jr. for some of the activites and decor (I like free!)  Great job Tamara and thank you for sharing the party with us!  Don't forget to visit her blog, too!

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Miss Spider Sunny Patch Party

For Lauren's 2nd birthday, I decided to go with a Miss Spider theme...little did I know (after I had my heart set on this idea) that it would be near impossible to find anything Miss Spider out there. This is such a cute show and so perfect for this age, that I feel like they are really missing the boat by not marketing it anymore. If it were not for the Nick Jr. printables and some creative work on my part and the bakery's part, this party would not have been very successful. At least decor wise! Lauren had over about 3 of her friends and they all have siblings that are Sarah's age so it made for a nice sized party. Her are the photos and the specifics!

Theme: Miss Spider Sunny Patch
Food: Palio's Pizza & Salad
Drinks for kids: Apple juice, lemonade, milk
Cake: The Cakery (Southlake) The bottom part was white cake with white butter cream and the Miss Spider was chocolate cake with white butter cream! Heavenly!
Colors: Played off of the lime green and yellow colors mostly, but it was a very colorful party
Decor: I made my own buggy friends out of small colored paper lanterns, craft poms poms, pipe cleaners and felt. I found one place online that had one package of Miss Spider "blow-outs" and they had the cute bug antenna "party hats". My husband made the Hollow Tree tree trunk out of construction paper. The rest was really balloons and crepe paper
Flowers: Yellow tulips and multi-colored gerber daisies
Games: Bean bag toss, bowling, parachute, Velcro ball & catch game and lots of printables to color and play with from Nick Jr. I also had a Miss Spider video playing to keep them entertained while at the party table.

The Invite

The "party room"

The place settings

The wonderful cake

Her cute cupcakes left over from what she took to "school"

Drink boxes to match decor

The goodie bags: I could not find 10 of the same Miss Spider book at any bookstore, so I did a mixture of books to accommodate the different ages and genders. Also add some little slinky's and glow in the dark bracelets in lime green. The girls got a sunflower in their bag!

My homemade bugs and colored lanterns

Buggy facts I printed off of Nick Jr.

The printables to color and a "I promise to be good to bugs" certificate

All sitting down for pizza!

Me with my sweets!

It is n

{Real Parties} Pink Polka Dots

 This Polka dot and Posies Birthday Party was originally hosted by Heather at Party in Pink.  You can the entire party and details at  her original post.
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I don't know where to begin - this is just pinkalicious!  Avery's birthday party is certainly pretty in pink.  Pink flowers and tissue poms, M&M's, napkin and cup rings, balloons, party hats, and a matching outfit too!  Heather, you did a beautiful job (and I love Avery's playhouse too!).  Enjoy the party everyone, post a comment, and head over to Heather's blog!
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Saturday was Avery's 3rd Birthday party. I love planning parties. Love it. But I don't have many occasions for it, so when I get the chance to plan one, I tend to go all out. I realize she likely won't remember them, and that she doesn't care about the details the way I do, but I enjoy it. And really, though there are lots of details, it's more of an investment in time than money. Nearly everything is papercrafted, and paper is cheap, especially when you shop sales, as I do.

Avery is very into pink, and decided back in June that she wanted pink polka dots and flowers for her party. Those two things didn't immediately make sense to me as a theme, so I figured out a cute name--polka dots and posies--and I was able to begin visualizing it. That name was nowhere in any party things; it was just for me.

 

And here's a close up of those paper bag flowers I made..

And another showing some of the table set-up. The party was at 1pm, so we had picky food as opposed to a full lunch. There was chips and salsa (round tortilla chips, of course), a veggie tray with round Ritz crackers and cheese that I cut into circles with a small coookie cutter, those yummy Lofthouse cookies with mounds of pink icing, strawberries with chocolate and cream cheese dip, chicken nuggets for the kids, pink M&Ms, cake and ice cream. Oh, and chocoolate dipped strawberry marshmallows on lollipop sticks. Yummy!

I searched everywhere for those clear pillow boxes. i really wanted the M&Ms to show through. They're the polka dots!
I made the tags with my Cricut, of course, and my new Mini Monogram cartridge. And there's more of those flowers!

The kids got goody bags made from Wilton popcorn boxes. Inside was a round lipgloss, a notepad, pink pencil, one of the M&M boxes and some flower tatoos. The boys got a light up toy, and boyish pencil and stickers.

I love the way these hats turned out! Avery's special one is in the front, the others had the single flower. I made 11-onch circles, cut them in half, and then rolled into a hat. I made the ribbon loops, taped them together, and taped them inside. You can't see it in the picture, but I placed a small brad in the hole where the elastic goes in. This helps keep the elastic from coming out or the knot from tearing through the hole.

Rather than buy fancy tableware, I bought clear cups and forks and dressed them up with paper. I think there's some formula you can use to make the angles work on the cup wrappers, but I just used a Starbucks cardboard thing as a pattern. And did you catch the picture of the napkins and the hats? Since when does my camera take such fabulous pictures?

The flowers are gumpaste, quilled ala Collette Peters. I should have let the buttercream set up a bit before placing the flowers, because they caused it to fall some.

 

{Party Planner Thursdays} Futuristic Robots

I'm helping a friend of mine create a robot themed birthday party for her soon-to-be 4 year old.  This is such a fun theme and you can really get creative with decorations, food names, games and activities.  I wish  I had a picture of a 5 foot robot I built back in 6th grade for a class project.  My mom had to drive me to school and since the robot was so tall we had to hang him out the sunroof of the car! 

{Sources: Robot Craft, Boy's Shirt, Robot Decor, Pinata with directions, Invitations, Tablescape, Futuristic Decor}

{Sources Finger Puppet, Tablescape, Food, Robot drawers, Wall Art, Cupcakes, Lollipops,  

Robot Costumes, Funnel & Gas Can}

Decorating for this party is lots of fun!  Use aluminum foil as table runners and scatter nuts, bolts, and washers on the tables (for the younger crowd you can use kids' plastic ones found in their tool boxes - see my invitation picture above; I borrowed Luca's toys for the photo shoot!).  Slinkies and coil tubing found at the hardware store would be great too!  

Go to your local auto body shop and pick up oil funnels and gas cans.  Serve beverages out of the gas cans (cleaned, of course!) and make up fun names like Out of this World Punch and Robotic Fuel.  In lieu of traditional paper hats, give earch child an oil funnel as their hat.  You can create fun robotic costumes for your guests with cardboard boxes, silver spray paint, paper plates and cardstock.  Or, you could create the basic robot structure and allow each guest to decorate their own!

Use a projector, posterboard and paint to create giant robots, cogs, and gears.  Afifix them to walls and  hang from the ceiling or chandeliers.

Place Chex Mix in a bowl or individual baggies and label them nuts & bolts.  Cheez-its or SunChips can be called computer chips.

An empty metal paint, found at hardware stores, can hold favors such as a robot finger puppet or lollipop and other goodies.  

If your party will be outside, consider making large yard props of cogs and gears from styrofoam, wood, or foam board.  Scatter them throughout the yard and call it the 'Junk Yard'

{Party Planning Thursdays} Leprechaun Hunt

I received an email from Cassidy who is looking to host a St. Patrick's Day party for the children in her son's preschool class.  She made it very clear that she did not want paper shamrock cutouts or the glittery party supplies that are everywhere.  In her email she described how much her son enjoyed being in the backyard and discovering trinkets of twigs, rocks, and bugs.

Aha!  The idea was born!  Enjoy this Woodland Leprechaun Hunt Inspiration Board!

 

{Sources  Potato Wreath, Tulip Arrangement Photography by Adrian Briscoe for Elle Decoration UK Edition, Woodland Ornament, Potted Shamrocks, Tablescape, Cauldron, Cupcake with recipe, Terraniums}

A Potato Wreath greets your guests at the door, hinting of the rugged and woodsy feel that lie ahead.  Create a tablescape with burlap table coverings, containers of moss and wheatgrass and miniature leprechaun homes made from bark, twigs, rocks, and assorted natural materials.  Use tree stumps as seats for your guests for a wonderful outdoor feel.  Hang clear ornaments with moss, twigs, and berries to hang from trees, chandeliers, and ceilings.  Guests can create terraniums to take home.  For an alternative to candy or toy favors, send home shamrock plants in terra cotta pots for the children to take of.  

Onto the Leprechaun Hunt!  The hunt can be modifed for indoors or outdoors depending on the space you have available.  Create a path of flat walking stones with woodland leprechaun houses, woodland creatures,  and miniature leprechauns scattered about.  Ultimately, the path will lead to none other than the leprechaun with his pot of gold!

{Real Parties} Movie Night Birthday Bash!

  This party was originally hosted by Sherry at Party Pops. 

I was out in blogland yesterday and had this crazy idea to try to throw together an Oscar's party in just a few weeks.  That's when I came across Carly's Birthday Party.  Super fun and I just love the popcorn cupcakes!  I haven't decided if I am definitely throwing the party yet as I forgot about another party my sister and mom have that day, but if I do, I will be borrowing some of these ideas!  Thank you Sherry for letting me share.

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Carly’s Movie Night Birthday Bash!

My daughter Carly just turned 12. Carly is a Crazy and Fun Loving Girl and we love her to pieces, I just can’t believe how much she has grown! Carly wanted to have a Movie Night with her friends so it was  off to Gran and Papa’s house who have the BIG THEATER room.  It was fun creating all the decorations for this Movie Theme party. Carly and her friends had a blast. Enjoy the Show!

She’s Growing Up!

Putting the Tables together was so much fun. We started off with Pizza but ended up with Loads of sugar!!

 

Got to have Popcorn and yeah, even pickles for the Movie!

 

Off to the Show!

 

 

Can you stand the excitement…Carly got her first Cell phone and when the box started ringing she hardly open it fast enough!!

Happy Birthday Carly!!