HOLIDAYS
HOLIDAYS
"You are my Sunshine, my only Sunshine! You make me happy when skies are grey. You'll never know dear, how much I love you..."This song fits my little one perfectly. My little girl just turned two. For our family party, I had fun decorating in colors as happy as she makes her family! First, I used the orange, yellow and white tulle gathered in the center and secured by an elastic then attached the elastic to the center of my ceiling. Then I taped the other ends of the tulle to the walls in a tent-like fashion. I then hung some paper lanterns of differing sizes, colors, and lengths.
We decided to serve some of Livy's favorite orange and yellow snack foods: gold fish crackers, oranges, pineapple, mac&cheese and cantaloupe! I served orange star jello-jigglers, but my little one was not thrilled about the texture.
Instead of a cake, I made Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes topped with cupcake toppers featuring the birthday girl!
We played a DVD that my husband had made during the party. It had the last two years of pictures put into a slideshow format! It was fun to see how much our little sunshine has grown!
My favorite preparation for the party was the banner. It said, "Sunshine" with her face on either end. The favors were small boxes of gold fish crackers and bags of lemon drops and bags of lemon drops with tags saying: "Thank you for brightening my birthday!"
See photos at: http://www.nofussfabulous.com/?p=3866
Even snowmen need to get away, and nothing's more relaxing than the beach. Guests will be greated outside by cutouts of snowmen in their beachy best. (You can never depend on Mother Nature to cooperate when there's party planning to do.)
Inside, the decorations will be paper palm trees with styrofoam snowballs instead of coconuts, and flower leis festooned with snowflakes.
Kids will use styrofoam balls to build their own snowmen, and decorate them for the party. A kiddie pool filled with "snow" (white sand and glitter) will hide prizes that guests will dig for with mini snow shovels.
The menu will include cool-weather friendly versions of summery favorites, like s'mores hot chocolate, corn-on-the-cob popsicles, and weenie-roast pizza. The main event will come with the beachy-keen cake, covered in sandy cookie crumbs and lounging marshmallow snowmen, along with cotton candy ice cream.
Guests will take home sand pails filled with week-at-the-beach treats like the saltwater taffy my grandma used to send me from Atlantic City every year.
Upon arrival, a miniature red carpet will wind to the front door, with stand-up cutouts of "other" celebs. Inside, a small stage, built from a packing pallet, PVC pipe and black curtains will glow with lights, and a small party-store smoke machine will set the right mood. Velvet ropes will divide party areas, like the "green room" where snacks are set up, and "backstage hair and makeup" where guests can get primped for close-ups and paparazzi.
In addition to the dress-up fun, guests will enjoy karaoke song stylings and a follow-the-leader dance competiton.
Refreshments will include Diva Microphones (cheese-stuffed breadsticks), Pop Star Popcorn (with pizza seasoning), and Sweet Success Smoothies (creamy lemonade shakes). The star of the show? A marquee-shaped ice-cream cake with mini cupcake pops dipped in white chocolate as the surrounding lights.
Each guest will take home a picture of her glamorous night with the stars in an A-list swag bag just like they hand out at the Oscars.
For my son's first birthday we threw a barnyard bash with all of his closest friends/cousins. The birthday invites were made out of cardstock and were folded so that you had to open the barn doors to get the details of the party. On the inside of the invite their was a picture of "Farmer Aidan" holding the party details and standing in hay that was hot glued to the inside of the invite. On the day of the party as the kids entered there was barnyard music playing (downloaded songs from i tunes) that the kids could sing and dance to. Each guest was given a bandanna and farmer's hat. They were also set up at a table where they could make a balloon animal (oriental trading). They each got to choose the stickers for their farm animal and got busy making their balloons. Once they completed this, they went on an egg hunt to find the egg that hatched. Inside one egg was a chick. Then the kids played pigs in the mud to see. They were lined up with chocolate pudding on plates and had to have their hands behind their back and see who could finish their "mud" the quickest. Following this, this kids went outdoors to get their pigs in the pen (pink balloons with faces drawn on and pig tails that were pink pipecleaners). There was a pig pen spraypainted in the yard and each kid was given a fly swatter. The first kid to get their pig in the pen won. After the pigs were all penned, the kids moved on to milking cows. They lined up on stools or stood and milked their cow. There were plastic white gloves filled with water hanging from a clothes line with pinholes pricked in each finger of the glove. The kid that had their bucket filled first won. The kids moved inside to warm up and eat some cake/icecream. They sat at tables lined with $1 white plastic tablecloths that had cow spots hand drawn on and colored in with permanent marker. Each child had a cup that was a barn with a stilo top and straw. The cake had a chick, lamb and cow with the faces of the animals pictures of my son at birth, six months and one year. Once we finished cake, we opened gifts and each child was sent home with a barnyard placemat, their farmer accessories, cowtails, and a barnyard CD that I burned for the children. The kids had a blast at the barnyard party and went home to "hit the hay!"
Since my 4-soon-to-be 5 year old is all about firefighters it made a perfect birthday theme this year. Our first stop, we met our guests at our local firehouse for a tour. The kids were excited to me our local heroes and see where they live when they are on call. They learned about all the different parts of a fire truck, we took pictures of each one as they walked through a fire truck, and our guide even did a full suit up and took pictures with the kids.
Then it was back to our house for more fun. Guests were greeted with a front door covered with black butcher paper and die-cut words STOP DROP & ROLL in red, yellow and green, and inflatable Dalmatians on the porch that flanked the door. I covered kid tables with black tablecloths and set a wooden fire truck for each guest to paint while I set up for lunch. Bunches of red, yellow and orange balloons and a large Mylar fire truck made perfect porch décor, while overhead fluttered a birthday banner and cutouts of flames, Dalmatians, and fire hydrants hung overhead. I also scored on great plastic fire helmets, which I personalized and passed out to each child.
We had a "No Alarm" chili dog bar with all the fixins, red and yellow food like watermelon, grapes and mini carrots, BBQ chips and red fruit punch. Our cupcakes were Devil's Food cake with red, orange and yellow swirled frosting and a fire hat pick, and of course chocolate chip ice-cream to mimic Dalmatian spots.
After lunch, all the children went through a Firefighter Training Course. One at a time, everyone put on my son's firefighter dress-up, boots and a great mask I scored from a local dollar store, and went through 4 courses. With a plastic extinguisher full of water, they put out a paper "fire" taped to the side of our shed. Second, stop, drop and roll down the hill on a blanket. Third, 5 tires set up for them to run across, to test their agility. The last station was a table covered in a black sheet with one side covered with red, yellow and orange streamers. They had to crawl safely through the "flames" and out the other side of the table.
After the relay, we settled down for cupcakes and ice-cream and gift opening. With great goody boxes shaped like fire trucks, I filled them with rubber firefighter cows, a Dalmatian sucker, a fire extinguisher sharpener, red firefighters, (like green Army men), and fire truck stickers. I also sent them home with a balloon, and they received a treat bag from the fire station that had another helmet, stickers, fire safety info, and a coloring-book calendar. Lots more pix at http://dawnypoo.blogspot.com/2009/06/fie
