Game Time.

A football themed party for my future Heisman winner.

My youngest son B, turned four recently.  He also started flag football.  And since that day we talk football.  All day.  All night.  Literally.  The boy talks in his sleep and two early mornings ago he was screaming "Go Pirates" in his sleep.  From his bed.  He wasn't having a party unless it was football themed.  If I didn't love planning a party so much, I may have taken my chance and run.  Far far away from partyville.  Thankfully he wanted it at a park, so no cleaning the house.  Done!

There was a lot of Etsy and DIY for this party but it was still very super simple.  

I worked with Anne of Letter Bee Paperie for the invites.  I wish I could have gotten these out in the mail.  I wanted it to be more VIP like with lanyards etc.  But alas, September snuck up on me.

Since we were at a park, I wanted easy food and nothing that had to be refrigerated (for long).  This party was fun and my husband had a good time helping with it!  I created the food tags with picmonkey.  I covered the tables with astro turf.

 Yellow napkins were penalty flags

My collection of food tags:  I can send you the jpeg if interested!

There wasn't a need for many games.  The creek kept most of the kids busy and certainly entertained.  But my husband the boys found a helmet pinata at Target.  We filled it with some candy, football shaped erasers, rubber bracelets that said things like win, goal, score etc.  I also had some pretty heart and sparkly ones for the girl guest.

The hubs and the boys also made a target tarp.  It was really hard for me to not join in and tell them what size and colors and and and..but I didn't and they did a great job.  The littlest guest may have had fun running and diving through the lower holes...We didn't assign points for different holes, although some are smaller than others.  The tarp was less than $10 at Walmart and we bought a few rolls of different colored duck tape.

A few of my favorite shots:

 The pied piper and his toad:

The cake.  I bought at a local grocery store.  This is the cake I wanted.  I bought the figurines at Party City.  I was hoping that they could put the lines on the field and a nice blocky B in the middle.  For $20, they would have!!  Say what?  Instead I had to have the terrible white rolly boarder (which I scraped off) I already had to pay $4 for the green icing.  Not that anyone cared or noticed?  At least the 4 & under set..

The favors...I was trying to keep it easy.  Although, I'm sure people are still cursing me for sending home whistles...sorry, but it goes with the theme!  I could have sent them home with cookies!!

I got the drink wraps (to wrap Powerade) from  EllisonReed and favor tags from chickabug.  All on Etsy.  Everyone was great to work with, even though I was super short on time....not their problem!

I could not be more excited and proud to be this boys mom.  He is smart and sweet with a dash of snakes, snails & bad temper.  He is strong willed and 100% B-O-Y.

Happy Birthday Beezie

What is Black, White & Pink all over?

A book themed baby shower for a little girl of course!

There is a new baby in my life....And she is cute cute.

Photo from Megan Lane Photography

Meet Miss Vivi.  She is the first child of one of my lifelong friends.  But before she came...and she came early...her mama needed to be celebrated!  Her mom and our friend Jenny is a huge fan of books so Vivi's Auntie Lissa, Aunt Bertha and I pulled together our talents to throw a book themed party.  It was a no brainer.

For this party I worked with Candy at Your Monogram.  She was fantastic to work with and just happens to live in one of my favorite cities!  She took my ideas and created what I wanted and worked on edits!

The Invite:  It had to be pink and it had to be "story book"

Inside the invite envelope we included book plates.  Instead of cards we thought everyone could fill out a bookplate and put it in a book to build Miss Vivis library.

Then it was party time..Welcome wreath for the door, now on her door at home.  A book wreath of course.  Book pages make up the wreath and tiny little "books" spell out babies name.

Our guest of honor

Tables & Decorations

 This rocking chair belonged to Jennys great aunt, who Vivi got her name from.  Her Aunt Bertha recovered the cushions in pink minky!

 Spoil Me table...oh no problem!

Food:  We created a game and my co host took over!  I stuck to making the game cards and covering stacks of books in pink paper!

Name the book that goes with the food.

We also played a music game.  All the songs were "baby girl" songs and everyone had to guess the title and artist.  No pics. Boo.  Bad friend.

Words for the Wee Hours" a table for writing funnies on diapers for midnight changes.  

Guess how many jelly beans.  I like this game because it's easy!  And I really like coconut jelly beans.

Prizes!

The amazing and delicious cake from Edible Art in Raleigh.

Favors.  I forgot to print this our pretty so I had to write it.  Eeek.  Favors where cd's with all the baby girl songs from our game and a monogrammed book mark (no need for Etsy on this one, I made them!)

 CD Cover

Cover also from Candy at Your Monogram

I made this new baby girl a bow holder and lots and lots of bows, but my favorite gift was this:

                                                       Vivian Tara: This is your story.

It was a great time and I'm so glad I had super party planners & executors to work with!!

My Little Lego Master

So it's been awhile.  A LOOOONNNNGGGG while.  I've done a few parties and room designs since my last post, and while I'm laid up with a broken ankle and high ankle sprain and my two littles run a muck in the play room I thought I'd stop in with these.

Q turned 6 (I know, I can't believe it!) in April.  Our kick off to the world of Legos was a trip to Legoland Florida in February.  It's an amazing place and I highly recommend it.  We only spent one full day and would have spent more time but the park actually closed some what early.

After that trip it was ON.  Our house was all things Lego.  It was my go to bribe.  Thank you Lego for making those little packets of mystery mini figures!!  I keep stashes of them EVERYWHERE!

Needless to say Q had his birthday shortly after and he wasn't having anything else but Legos.  I perused Pinterest for ideas.  Thanks to my lovely little addiction, I rarely have to come up with my own ideas,which is kind of sad at the same time.

Invites:  I got the invites, Thank You postcards, and Thank You tags from Heather at Tiny Corner Store on Etsy.   Heather was great to work with!  She created exactly what I wanted and turn around time was super!

Photo From Tiny Corner Store

I made the birthday boy and his siblings (Q said they could) Lego figurine tees.  They were great the first five minutes and then after that hands and heads started falling off.  I used double sided heat n bond.  Ultra hold. I could have reinforced with some stitching but that would have required taking out the sewing machine..I drew on their faces with a black fabric marker.

Thankfully (or not?) Q wanted his party at Chuck E Cheese.  They supplied the pizza and I didn't have to clean my house!  There was no reason to plan "Lego themed food"! Which is fantastic because I hate planning the food part.  A little tidbit about CEC...there is no space for a tip on the credit card receipt!!  Our hostess was fantastic and my husband and I didn't have a clue that we couldn't put a tip on a restaurant receipt!!  I had to go back later to give her a cash tip.

But we did have cup cakes.  We bought the Lego man ice tray at Legoland, having no idea what to do with it.  I couldn't make a living, but I think they were fine for six year olds!

Gift Bags:  I love to involve the kids in craft stuff when I can.  Especially if it's for their party.  Q cut the bags, drew the eyes and smiles, cut the tags and taped them on.  There weren't too many Lego favors to be found.  We found a tiny note pad and some crayons with the Lego logo.  The rest were items that were either, red, yellow, green or blue.  We got all of the trinkets at party city.  I'm sorry moms.  I hate it when nothing but trinkets comes home too.

My Photo, but created by Tiny Corner Store

Thank You postcards.  Which I thought would be great for postage savings.  However, the guy at the post office told me I needed to buy 100 post cards stamps.  I didn't bother going back, and asking someone else.  I just sent them using a regular stamp.  My kids love getting mail, so I really love mailing them.  Q was able to write them (woo hoo kindergarten!!) and I addressed them!

My photo, but link to Thank You postcards

It was a really fun day and every one was exhausted...including the hubs and I!

Since it seems to be birthday season in our neighborhood, he is already planning his next one...I love that he wants to be involved and pick things out....I better get to pinning.