Monster Party 3rd Birthday

Our little man turned 3 in April and we hosted a monster themed party this year. I wanted to buy clipart and design everything myself, but knew I wouldn't have enough time to finish it all before his party. For some reason March flew by and April was well under way before I realized his party was rapidly approaching!

I ended up ordering a personalized party kit from Your Printable Party on etsy.com. The kit came with everything and more! It was just the right colors and just the price. The entire kit only cost $29, and she personalized the invitations, cupcake toppers and banner! It was nice not to have to worry about doing everything myself, however, I did feel a little guilt about having created his first and second birthday party themes from scratch. I think I will for sure go back to designing my own again for his birthday next year, but this worked great too!

So without further ado, here is a look at Hudson's 3rd Birthday Bash.

The big balloons on the floor in this picture are actually punching balloons from the cheap toy end-cap at Target.

I did actually make this, well sort of, the designer provided the pennants and I added the photos. I made it just like I have for past birthdays. I picked my favorite picture from each month of the year and then put them in order starting with his birth month. It's a fun way to see how he changed over the course of a year!!

I made Cookies & Cream cupcakes from a recipe I found on Pinterest. I'll be sure to share it in a future post because they were pretty darn good. But if you can't wait, just click on the Pinterest button on the sidebar and it will take you to my boards.

The kit also included coloring pages which I really liked as favors for the kids, so I added them to the goodie bags.

I decided to add an extra touch to Hudson's party hat by gluing on googly eyes. It was pretty cute!

This was the best family picture we got that day...not the best photo we've ever taken, but that's the way it goes with kids. And it's still a great moment frozen in time!

It was a fantastic party and most importantly, Hudson loved it!

I highly recommend Your Printable Party if your looking for cute, personalized AND affordable party decoration kits!

**Harper's first birthday is just around the corner and I AM designing her party myself. I can't wait to see how it turns out. The theme is mermaids!! It's so much fun to change things up a bit and throw a girly party! I'll be sure to post all about it!**

Supper Clubs, Yay or Nay?

I've always wanted to be a part of a supper club. It sounds like so much fun being able to get together with friends and share new recipes!  I don't know anyone who's in one nor have I even heard anyone talk about a supper club.  I had no idea how to start one or who I would ask to join.  Then last month in Everyday Food magazine there was a small article about how to get one started. It was as though Martha Stewart was reading my mind! She really is amazing! Here is the article that I tore out of the magazine:

So, now I'm totally excited about getting one started! How hard can it be, right?  All I need to do is figure out which of my friends would be willing to join in and actually follow through with it.  That's actually harder to do than doing the planning and the cooking!! So many of my friends have young children and very busy schedules.

But, I like the idea of having a dinner once every couple of months. That way it won't be too overwhelming for most people or too much of a commitment that they end up backing out all the time. And now that we have Facebook, it will totally help keep the information flowing.

 If anyone is part of a supper club and you has some pointers to steer me in the right direction, that would be great!  I think I'm gonna need all the help I can get in order to get it started! I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Easter Birthday Decorations...Sort Of

I made a couple banners for Hudson's actual birthday, which fell on Easter.  I decided I didn't really need to go all out since he'd just had a well decorated party the weekend before.  I ended up making another high chair banner and another happy birthday banner.  I purchased the clipart used to make my banners from Stockberry Studios.  I wish I would've had a little more time to work on them, but it was a busy week and I caught my sixth cold of the year, so I wasn't feeling like doing much.  However, I still think they turned out cute and I'm pretty sure Hudson didn't even notice them!  Ha!

The lighting didn't allow me to get very good pictures of the happy birthday banner.  I hate my camera...I've been saving up for a new one and already have it all picked out!

Here is a little better view of the rest of that banner.

Barnyard Bash

This past weekend we celebrated Hudson's 2nd birthday with a barnyard theme party.  I designed all the decorations myself using clipart that I purchased off etsy.com at stockberry studios.  It all started with the design of the invitation, which I showed you earlier:

Once that was finished I knew the direction that I wanted everything to follow.  So here is how everything else turned out:

The silverware

 I wanted to dress up the party cups, so I designed some stickers for them, and loved the way they turned out!

 Here is a close-up of the napkin ring.

Here is a shot of the favor table.

 The favor bags.

 The favor bag table centerpiece.

 Picture-a-month banner.

 Close-up of the first six months

 The second six months

 The highchair banner

 Hudson enjoying his lunch.  What a mess!

The dessert table centerpiece.

Happy Birthday banner

Close-up

Dessert table

Cupcake toppers

The cow birthday cake.  I made it myself and have never done this before.  It didn't turn out too bad!

The party turned out great!  However, I found out that trying to get a 2-year-old to stay still long enough to pose for pictures is basically impossible, especially when it's nice outside!  But hopefully we'll be able to get some good family pictures on his actual birthday, which I'm also making some decorations for, so check back to see how those turn out.

I'm linking up here:

Thirty Homemade Days

tatertots and jello

A Little Peek

This weekend is my little guy's 2nd birthday party, so I've been very busy trying to get things ready.  As I mentioned here, I'm designing all the party decoration myself...along with a little help from my hubby, using clipart that I purchased from here.  I started with the invitations and am totally in l-o-v-e with how they turned out!  I'm so happy that we decided on a barnyard/farm theme and can't wait to see how it all comes together on Saturday.  (I'm even making a cow cake myself, so you'll want to come back to see how that turns out!)  Anyway, I thought I would give you all a little peek at the invitation.  

Have any of you thrown a barnyard party?  If so, or if you have any genius ideas, I would love to hear about them!  I'm always looking for inspiration!!

We Have a Theme!

In the past couple weeks, Hudson has really been into farm animals and all the sounds they make.  He knows how to say them all and his new favorite word to say is "barn".  With that in mind, I decided on a party theme for his upcoming 2nd birthday, Barnyard Fun.

I found this amazing shop on Etsy called Stockberry Studios that has the most adorable clipart vectors, and since I'm into making my own decorations, that was right up my alley.  And the best part...it only ran me $5.00!!  They have tons more clipart available and I can't wait to be able to use it in the future.  They also have lots of super cute personalized invites and printable party packages at very affordable prices.  They also have a blog you can check out: Stockberry Studios Blog

Here is a peek at my order!

I can't wait to get started on the invites and decorations!

* I was not paid or perked for this post. I just love their products and thought you might be interested too!

Another Party Idea

First, I somehow messed up my blog header this morning and need the hubby to fix it when he gets home tonight, so it will look like this the rest of the day.  Bummer.

Anyway,  here is another idea for Hudson's 2nd birthday party.  He is really in to Mickey Mouse at the moment, so I thought maybe a Mickey party would be fun for him.  I found these cute ticket style invitations at Fun Invites on Etsy.com.  If I got these, I would make the rest of the decorations myself.

I'm stilll leaning toward the space party idea, but I'm trying to explore all my options.

Birthday Party Planning

Even though Hudson's 2nd birthday isn't until April, I've already been thinking about party themes and decorations.  Today The Celebration Shoppe unveiled a new "space" design that I think is absolutely adorable!  I'm definitely adding this to my options!  Check it out!

She has so many great designs!!

I plan to share all the possible themes I find along the way, and if you have any suggestions I would love to hear them!

Here is where I'm linking up today:

33 Shades of Green

An Owl Themed Baby Shower

I'm so sorry about being so absent from the blog!  But things seem to be returning to normal around here...I will fill you in about the happenings later in the week...so hopefully I'll be back to blogging on a daily basis!  Here are the pictures from the baby shower I've been promising.  I made all the decorations and the cupcakes.  It wasn't an over the top party, but simple and sweet and the new mommy loved all of it!

The Invitation



Cupcake toppers

Door Sign

Banner

Advice cards for the new mommy

I'm so happy with the way everything turned out!

***As mentioned previously, these cute little owls were designed by Crystal Wilkerson and can be found at creativitybycrystal.blogspot.com

Here is where I'm linking up today:

Craft-O-Maniac

Polly Want A Crafter