A joint birthday celebration for my two little golfers! I dreamed up a few special features to make it memorable since I knew it would be held on site at a local golf dome. I wanted to put as much TLC into this party as I would with one at our home.
Like most boys his age, JD loves dinosaurs but we can honestly only credit this love for dinosaurs to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles! We began visiting the museum with him in 2010 and became members soon after; we haven’t stopped visiting it since. When the Dinosaur Hall opened last year JD became completely fascinated with dinosaurs and fossils. There isn’t a week that goes by that he doesn’t ask to go to the “Dino Museum.” So, when the time came to plan his 3rd birthday party we knew dinosaurs would be the theme. When we found out the NHM of Los Angeles had a birthday party program, we didn’t have to think twice about the location.The Natural History Museum’s birthday party program is really great! They provide everything you need to throw an amazing dinosaur party, everything but the food and cake! The program even provides event assistants (really awesome assistants) to help you run your party and direct all the activities and games. All your party guests also get admission to the museum for the day!
My boy is obsessed with cars. Not the movie, not NASCAR, but top of the line, exotic cars which he calls “race cars”! He literally can name any brand of vehicle there is, even I can’t believe it sometimes. So since he loves his Hot Wheels, I envisioned a “race car” themed party featuring only one type of car, — a Porsche — along with my favorite color combo and chevron pattern.
The hungry caterpillar was one of Bennett’s favorite books so we used it for the theme for his first birthday party.
I knew this year party theme would be angry birds when my son became hooked on the game last fall. Since then everything has been Angry Birds this, angry birds that… so again my vintage baseball theme got squashed for the second year in a row! So In I dove looking for ideas to get this off the ground. I started with the basic primary color theme that is Angry Birds, Red, yellow, and Blue. My next thought was pattens… Every Birthday so far has been laden with Polkadots and I cant ruin a good theme so I knew somehow I would include Polkadots and my new favorite pattern, Chevron. And thus my ideas were born ;)
Max is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine but I just could’t bring myself to put together a Thomas party. So I went with an overall “vintagey” train theme instead. We didn’t wanted to do special-on-a-budget so decided on an early evening party with a few treats and a pinata.
The Smurfs Invited Marco’s Fiends and Family to a gathering hosted by them. They celebrated his Fourth BIrthday with blue treats and sweets.
Choo! Choo! Jasper is 2! Jasper’s 2nd birthday party!
For more information: http://www.greygreydesigns.com/2012/02/my-parties-bretts-planes-trains-and.html
Desserts. Our party was small, and for once, I designed a table sized appropriately for our party. Lynlee’s Petite Cakes (LynleesPetiteCakes.com) make the cutest little dragon wings and tails that popped up out of mounds of dragon-fire toasted marshmallow frosted brownies. She also made some darling monograms cupcake toppers. The cookies came from the talented Renee at Bees Knees Creative—the detail she put in the patterns on Puff were amazing! We had oreo truffles (approved by Jackie Paper, of course) and a homemade version of Kinder Eggs. The eggs themselves were made based on a Martha Stewart tutorial. After coating the insides in chocolate, I stuffed them full of candies and made darling little pom-pom baby dragons to put inside. The kids had to smash the eggs open to get to the treats; the adults seemed a tad more excited about this than the kids! The kids’ table. For lunch in the magic land of Honalee I chose a low to the ground table for the kids and used cushions (from Brennan’s 1st birthday) for them to sit on. We served boxed lunches to the children. These are always a great option for kids, as they get excited about opening their lunches as they would opening a present. Décor and activities. Puff traveled with Jackie Paper on a boat with billowed sails, so we painted our floor blue like water (really, we are about to put in a new floor so this was a happy chance to do something so crazy) and put up a ship in the living room. We even had railing up to rope off the water area! Three year olds don’t stand for organized activities in general, especially if there is a bounce house down the cherry lane in the backyard, so we put a treasure box of “Fancy Stuff” out for the kids to play with…pirate swords, bubbles and giants rings (hula hoops) were snatched up and run through the house. We had a crafty activity for the kids, making little sailboats, and set up a baby pool for them to go sail them in. There were a lot of shipwrecks in the bottom of the pool from overzealous tiny sailors, but the handful of 5 year olds there really enjoyed the little boats. Favors. Since I didn’t overdo the dessert table, I made up for it with favors! Puff laid out his “treasures” for the kids and they got to choose lots of magic little things and put them in their box of dragon magic to take home.
A fun and functional construction-themed party to celebrate our little boy’s second birthday.
Cowboy theme. We didnt want the same ole’ theme from the stores, so my husband suggested Cowboy and Indian party. We had to ditch the indian idea after not finding anything in the stores. So Cowboy it was!
Jackson’s Winter Onederland
The party is a blast of colors, that come from fruits and nature, such as apples, pears, strawberries, leafs and the most important character; a Caterpillar who has different shades of green and a red head.
As a designer, I wanted my son’s first birthday to be a memorable one. Being on a budget, I took out my crafting & designer skills and DIYed everything from the decorations, to the food and desserts.
I wanted a music themed party that was appropriate for a one year old. My son loves to play on the keyboard and the drums.
We just recently celebrated my Son’s First Birthday. Because I have a love for all things crafty, I decided to make everything by hand. We had 80+ guest and everyone had a GREAT time!
