Birthday Party

Splish Splash it’s a Mermaid Birthday Bash! We had a great time Shellabrating our little lady as she turned 4. Although our guest list was limited this year, the pandemic can’t take away our mermaid state of mind!

These are weird times. I hope someday we all look back on this and choose to remember the fun times we had during our COVID-19 quarantine. Our daughter Liesl, turned the big 10 this year in April. We celebrated the only way we knew how—with a Quaran-TEN social distancing drive by birthday party! In the photo below she’s wearing a custom “I turned 10 in Quarantine” shirt. I ordered rainbow number balloons and had our local grocery store inflate them.
I designed these custom COVID-19 / Quaran-TEN birthday invitations with that I emailed out to friends and family letting them know about her drive by party!
Liesl held up her “HONK! I’m quaran-TEN today sign that I also designed and is for sale in my etsy shop. Behind her you can see a blow up 6′ tall inflatable birthday cake that was sure to stop traffic!
I purchased emoji face balloons and added some real quarantine style face masks to them—I just couldn’t resist!
Using the same face mask motif, I designed custom paper plates and custom napkins for the birthday girl’s dinner party. I added the line “You’re not invited!” to the top of the napkins! I printed my plates and napkins on Zazzle, and I am selling the design files (in both pink and blue) in my etsy shop!
A local bakery, Sweet E’s Bakeshop, created custom cake pops of face mask emojis. I was SO thrilled without how they turned out! I also ordered the “Happy Quarantine Birthday” sign from etsy—it was a cake topper, but I used it on the front of my cake pop display instead!
I had a fun time creating this unique cake for her birthday – a toilet paper cake! I used real candles, ribbon, and fake flowers to decorate this masterpiece. Don’t worry, no toilet paper was harmed in the making of this cake!
That’s right folks, we actually lit this birthday cake up! My husband was standing nearby with a fire extinguisher in case of any mishaps. It wasn’t the birthday we had planned, but it was one we won’t ever forget!

I think I began dreaming up this party when Lennon was 2 months old. I’d be holding him watching him sleep and thinking about the stir sticks in the cups on his 1st birthday. I am a sucker for details and it was extremely important to me that every detail be thought of. As soon as I walked into Little Play Society, I knew that was the place. It fit the aesthetic perfectly and included an activity space for the kids, which they absolutely loved. Throughout the year, I was gathering lots of inspiration off pinterest and instagram and stumbled upon a party that Malisa @creativeamme did for her daughter. I was so inspired and from that was born the Lennon’s face trace with his infamous smile. This kid is the smiliest kid there is and the trace of his smile depicted that perfectly. The details of this party were really the heart of it all, the balloon jetpacks for the kids, star and rocket shaped sandwiches, saturn shaped stir sticks, it was all a dream. Lennon’s launch party was out of this world. I tried to keep everything in the same color palette, the florist absolutely stunned with her beautiful yet boyish arrangements. The addition of the coffee cart and churro cart were so well received and obviously these were for mama. The churro sleeves had stamps of Lennon’s face and the coffee sleeves were customized to read Lennons First Launch. The Beat Buds entertained the kids with music and instruments. The kids were so happy. Lennon’s First Launch was truly a labor of love and I could not have done this without my friendors.

I have always loved Paris since I was a little girl, and wanted to throw a Parisian themed party for my girls. When I was pregnant with my third, my friends surprised me with a Madeline baby sprinkle. I decided to pull in that theme for a joint party for my two youngest. I love pinks and blues, so veered away from the typical yellow, royal blue and red colors for the party. I wanted a good mix of Madeline theme but also just Parisian elements.
I had a vision for a balloon invitation and a party filled with colorful balloons as well. My friend, Monica who owns Paper Flour Ink, is incredibly talented and designed the invitations, as well as the welcome mat, backdrops and the beautiful Laduree cake. I was so thrilled with every detail! I shared more details on my blog here.

I started planning my daughters first birthday months in advance. I wanted to do something she was actually interested in but also something that had not been done before which is where the idea to do a jellycat first birthday came from. I couldn’t be happier with the way everything turned out and we will cherish these memories and photos forever.

To celebrate our youngest turning One, we had a quaint Winter ONEderland with hot cocoa, cupcakes, snow fairies, and a polar bear adoption. I repurposed many of her sister’s Swan Lake Soirée party decor which made this a breeze! It’s Snow much fun to be One!

I love ballet and so does my little girl. I took classes as a child and now see around 17 performances a year, many of them with my daughter.  She attended her first ballet, sitting quietly mesmerized for the entirety of George Balanchine’s Rubies, when she was 1 year old. And she began learning basic ballet moves at that age and started classes at two and has continued since. For her “Ballerina Birthday Ball”, one of her former ballet teachers choreographed a dance for her to perform, as Princess Aurora, to Tchaikovsky’s “The Garland Waltz” from The Sleeping Beauty ballet.
My favorite elements from the dessert area were: the personalized pointe shoes by American Ballet Theatre Principal Ballerina, Sarah Lane, my little one met when she was two and four years old, backstage after performances. And, the gorgeous cake executed masterfully by Lesley Wright of The Royal Bakery; it was a joy seeing my design for this cake come to life through her impeccable work. I selected 3 of my favorite ballet paintings by Edgar Degas to be placed in the fondant frames surrounding the fondant stage.
I also truly enjoyed designing the invitation, the tutu worn by the ballerina in the image was based off one we saw together during a ballet in Paris, designed by Christian Lacroix for the Paris Opera Ballet’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Balanchine.
Music from classical ballets played during the party and some of the activities for the little ballerinas included making masks for Romeo & Juliette’s masquerade ball and learning a dance from ballet teachers at a local school to Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty as well. The garlands were handmade by my sister and brother-in-law, my husband, and me using hula hoops, silk flowers, and floral tape.
I also adored the cookies and chocolate covered Oreos, but my little one only wanted to eat the rose petal Turkish delight…must be too much listening to the “Rose Adagio” from The Sleeping Beauty… The “stage” was made by using a large soccer goal and curtains both found on Amazon.

From the time Nash Hampton was in the womb, we called him our little “cowpoke”. He always seemed to do what he wanted, when he wanted. When he was born and his personality began to bloom, “cowpoke” really defined his sweet soul SO well! He was an easy, go-with-the-flow baby and stayed that way up to this day. It only made sense for his first birthday to be COWPOKE themed!
When I began looking for inspiration and invitations, I couldn’t find anything that fit my vision. I ended up designing his invitation on my own and creating my own vision for his birthday party.
For each party I throw, the small, intricate details are most important to me. Every decor item you see on came from antique stores, estate/garage sales, and things I collected over time to complete Nash’s nursery (did you see his own branding iron with his initials?).
I wanted to only offer finger foods to keep things simple – just like life is on the trail. A cowpoke is always on the move and doesn’t have time for dishes ;)