Ella's Bake Shoppe Party

Back in September we had Ella's 6th Birthday Party. For several months we talked about having a cake decorating party after seeing the adorable one Courtney threw. Ella was immediately on board and helped plan the entire thing!

I knew she wanted to do crafts, play a game, and decorate cakes. The rest of it kind of just flowed together so nicely and the party was AWESOME! Seriously, one of my most favorite parties I've thrown and there were only 5 little girls there.

For the crafts, we decided to decorate aprons, hats and the cake boxes the girls would take their decorated cakes home in. That is how we started the party

After crafting was finished, we had snacks! The party was from 9:30-11:30 so I didn't do a full spread of food, just some fruit, donuts, muffins and juice!





After eating it was time to play the game - the only game Ella really wanted was pin the candle on the cake and well, when I couldn't find it at the store or even Amazon, I quickly realized we can make it! I had Rick draw the giant cake on poster board and one night before the party Ella and I colored away. Is it perfect? No, but it was perfect for what it was! The girls were so adorable while playing this game and I'm glad they're still at an age where this was fun.

After the game came the best part and the part all the girls were waiting for - cake decorating!! I ordered those 6" baby cakes from our grocery store (they are the ones people buy for cake smash photos) I had them leave them white and bought a bunch of fun decorating supplies from Hobby Lobby. The night before the party I also made the frosting and the day of just put it into sandwich baggies - everything was prepped before the girls showed up which was key.

I was literally blown away by the concentration the girls had decorating their cakes! Each girl took their time, was very detailed and had so much fun with it!! Once they were done, I loaded up their cakes in their decorated cake boxes and the party was over. The girls all ran outside to play for a little before their Moms came (I did have 2 moms stay which was nice to have the help! - I made sure to have coffee and coffee cake for us)

This party will be one we always remember, that's for sure!!

Brayden's 5th Birthday Carnival Party

The carnival party is over and man did it turn out awesome!!

The days leading up to the party I was literally checking the weather about 20-30 times a day. One day it said t-storms, the next it would be nice, back and forth and up until the morning of the party the weather channels all said it would be a gorgeous day, phew I was so relieved! Then about halfway through the party I saw that rain was on its way (yes, I was still checking the weather during the party LOL) and wouldn't you know, it DID rain but thankfully it was just a light annoying drizzle and the real rain didn't start until the party was over.

Anyhoo. I've had the idea of throwing Brayden a carnival birthday probably since he was 2, no joke. I figured it would probably be the last birthday party theme I was able to pick and I just loved the idea of a real carnival party.

I'm so glad I started the preparations for this party months ago because it was BIG (it had to be, I had been building this up in my head for 3 years now!) I did a ton of DIY stuff (with the help of my hubby too) and of course family is amazing for helping out the way they do too. 

Our backyard is ridiculously big and was the perfect setting for a carnival party..so I'll stop rambling now and get to the good stuff, the pictures, and I'll warn you, there are ALOT

I made this banner using my silhouette and loved the way it turned out! Too bad 5 minutes later it kind of fell apart here so we had to move to another location

Our yard is so big to really make the carnival "pop" I knew I wanted to line the fence with something. I had to get 500 ft of whatever I wanted so I knew I couldn't spend too much because that is alot of feet to cover! I chose this cute colorful plastic banner and it worked so well!

Like I said, our yard is so big that while we were setting up and going to the back or yard then to the house and back, I swear I felt like I ran a marathon afterwards...

We set up all of the games alone the back of our fence...we wanted to utilize our whole yard and thought that was a good way to do so

Close ups --- Face painting tent

For can knock down I just used empty food cans and wrapped them in striped color scrapbook paper - this game was a hit!

Ring toss was all the hubby...and a few other family members who had to consume a good amount of beer so we could use over 80 bottles for the game. The hubby also made the box for the bottles to go in. For the rings, I just bought a 6 pack of cheap bangles from Forever 21

Ping Pong ball toss was ordered from here 

Bean bag toss was empty paint cans and bean bags..pretty easy

I figured we needed something easy for the smaller kiddos...pick a duck was perfect (until later in the party when all of the older boys starting throwing them at eachother....either way, they were played with LOL)

Here's the front of our house...another banner made using my silhouette and a sign pointing to our fence where you entered the party..

And the cake, OMG the cake! My Aunt made this! How awesome, right!?? I added the banner for a little extra and also made the cake stand by covering it with green felt and super gluing tickets around it.

Goody bags were plastic popcorn boxes from the dollar store filled with colorful lollipops, goldfish, bubbles, a whistle, a pencil and some sort of fun little toy that I got from an assortment bag at Oriental Trading. Most of the other stuff was found at Micheals.

Now on to some pics of the party

My big 5 year old!!

I was so thankful my family helped out with the games!

My sister in law and hubby did the face painting and they were awesome!

My in laws :)

Terrible picture of my awesome popcorn maker I got off Craigslist for a steal! So happy we have this now for movie nights

I love this little boy so incredibly much!

Cake Time!

At some point he lost his 'V' on his shirt so he was just FIE :)

We had a magician come...get this, his name was Magic Mike - ha! Poor guy! He's been around way longer than the movie and he says all he hears now are references to the movie.

Thankfully his show was rated PG and he was AWESOME!!! The adults and children loved watching him.

"Mom, I'm not sure about holding this snake thing..."

"OK, it's pretty cool!!"

Finally sitting down to eat...a lollipop and a soft pretzel. Hey, he was the birthday boy after all!

That pretty much wraps it up! His party was a whirlwind and I barely remember it. That's the only downfall to having it at your house and being so busy with everything. But, I wouldn't change it for the world because Brayden had the best time with all of his friends!! He is one special boy, that's for sure.

1 party down, 2 more to go...ahhh the benefit of having my children born in July, August & September. LOL.

Ella's 1st Birthday Party

I am finally getting around to posting about Ella's 1st birthday party.  It was such a fun and cute party!

I booked the venue months ago, it's a room through the park district that has an actual carousel in it along with another room full of play mats, tubes, slides, etc.  It is very popular which is why you have to book almost a year in advance!

I decided to do the colors light pink and light blue and that was pretty much only based on those were the colors the invitation I liked.  I was a little worried about doing baby blue with the light pink, but it turned out so pretty and delicate, just like my Ella :)

I am all about the little details, which you will see in the pictures.  I searched Pinterest forever to get a ton of inspiration.

Here is the cake, can you say gorgeous!?!? My lovely aunt made this for me and I could not have been happier, it looked better than I imagined!

I made the cute little banner for the top which I thought just made the cake complete.

I bought a digital file through Etsy for the water bottles and my hubby was so sweet and put them all on for me

I purchased the baby blue paper cups from the dollar store and then came across this pin and knew I had to replicate! I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased 2 rolls of silver glitter tape - love that stuff!

The cute pink straws are also from Hobby Lobby - I could totally live in that store!



I put a lot of effort into the "sweet" table.  I did one for Brayden's first birthday and knew I wanted to do one for Ella too.  I did however, learn my lesson with Brayden's and that was to not put out too much stuff.

I made chocolate covered pretzels and had pink and blue m & m's and those sugar cookies were the party favors

Those chocolate covered marshmallows were a huge hit and the best part, they were SO easy! 

I bought the O N E letters from Joann's and covered them in scrapbook paper, another easy little project but a fun added detail

All of the banners were made using my Silhouette Portrait - I seriously LOVE that thing!

Now here's some pic of the adorable birthday girl!!! I think she had a great party :)

I made her cute little party hat out of scrapbook paper and got another use out of the glitter sticker tape.  I made her shirt with iron on decals I found at Michaels.

Yummy birthday cake!

I seriously had so much fun planning every detail of this party, this is the stuff I live for and I am so happy I have a little girl so now I have an excuse to use glitter!!