Birthday Party

when it came to planning my son’s 10th birthday, figuring out a theme was a little mind-boggling because he’s getting older (but throwing him a party was still important to this party-loving mama!)
ten is such a milestone, so i went kind of easy with celebrating everything this boy means to us, the things he loves (like deloreans, sushi + mac and cheese pizza!), and having fun celebrating his first decade! he loves giving input on his parties, and he chose the bold color palette of red, yellow, green, blue, along with his colorful cake! overall, we wanted to show our boy how much we love him, and how much having him in our lives has meant to us – down to the seconds he’s been with us!
when it comes to planning + styling parties, i love to bring the personal elements into the day. whether it be featuring a child’s favorite toys or characters, their favorite colors, or foods, i love making the day really about them.

My daughter Ellie asked for an Alice in Wonderland party and the party planner in me burst! Haha! This theme is so much fun and there is so much joy in going all out! To start, I knew I wanted to set the dessert table as a tea party tablescape. Chargers, plates, silverware, cups, chairs as the end caps. The plates became the serving trays for the cookies. I also had a candelabra, vintage clock, white bunny and a tea pot as vases, bite size treats, macarons, “eat me” and “drink me” tags…all the things you would imagine at a Wonderland Tea Party. For the backdrop, I wanted a color block balloon garland in the main colors of the party. Play cards were hung on clear fishing line and dripping down from the red balloons! A fun DIY was making the “talking flowers”! I used paper plates as their face and tissue paper fans as the flower petals. I hand cut some eye brows and created the faces with circle paper punches to make them look like they are singing! The kids table was also set as a tea party and had macarons and mini eclairs, as well as heart shaped watermelon for the Queen of Hearts, of course! The cake by Charm City Cakes West was the highlight and centerpiece of the party! Every layer had amazing details. The beautiful sugar cookies by Cafe Everyday Sunday were as much for decoration as they were for a tasty treat!! These cookies really brought this party to life! We had a balloon artist, 2 bounce houses and a tea pot piñata!

We celebrated my daughter’s 5th birthday with rainbows!! She’s a little artist and loves coloring rainbows so I thought it was fitting to celebrate her birthday “rainbow” style. Her art inspired me to create the theme and we used her artwork for the invitation. We celebrated her birthday at home and wanted to keep it intimate. We thought it would be a fun idea to do some painting and crafts and throw in a rainbow piñata of course.
I used tons of streamers to create the rainbows, white balloons and paper flowers for clouds, and also made clouds out of poster board. Super easy and inexpensive way to create colorful decorations. The backdrop in the dining room took a little more time to make, but so well worth it. I got creative and purchased metallic white door streamers at Party City and hung streamers from it. A couple big confetti balloons and a big #5 balloon finished the look!
What a fun birthday and a pretty special one too!
 
 
 
 
 

My baby girl just turned three, and since her birthday falls in winter, and since she loves Disney’s Frozen, we threw her a Frozen Winter Wonderland Third Birthday Party! It was a huge hit, she was so excited to see all the decorations and the Christmas tree when she woke up. And bonus for me, half my holiday decorations were done for the season!
It was a subtle Frozen theme; no Elsa shaped cake or Anna balloons or “Pin the Nose on the Olaf.” I wanted something simple and sophisticated, and honestly I didn’t want to have to buy any more Frozen things than we already have. So, I just kept everything white and turquoise and I used her own toys as decorations. It was all she needed and it was perfect!
For links to the recipes come on over to my blog, www.turquoisetoffee.wordpress.com !

My Baby Boy recently turned one and while I was drawn to the adorable circus and carnival themed parties I saw online, they just lacked that pizzazz I wanted for my birthday boy. I knew I wanted something masculine yet cute, but also unique and maybe even a bit edgy. I brainstormed our favorite travel locations and my mind was instantly drawn to Coney Island with its delicious hot dogs and ice cream and, of course, the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth. And thus was born Baby K’s Freak Show Circus themed first birthday party!
The party was filled with homemade baking and DIY projects, from the backdrop for the cake smash to the freak show cutouts. All the DIY instructions and recipes are available on my blog, www.turquoisetoffee.wordpress.com !

Madison’s birthday is so close to Christmas, but I always want her to feel her birthday is separate and special from the holidays. Her first birthday was designed in a winter wonderland theme with a soup bar. The soup bar was great and easy to prep ahead of time so I could enjoy the party!!

Frozen has continued to be a popular theme, and at the shop we wanted to put together an event centered around Elsa & Anna without being overly Frozen specific. We worked with one of our favorite party product brands, Daydream Society, and put together a winter wonderland that evoked the Frozen spirit in a fresh way.
On the tables, we used the Frosted collection by Daydream Society. Layering small plates on top of larger plates fills the tables more and adds dimension. Plates were topped off with adorable cupcakes by a local favorite! We always love adding confetti on tables, and this snow confetti was perfect with the theme. Fun white sparkly Christmas picks were added as table centerpieces, and kids took home snowflake tattoos as their favor.
The backdrop needed to be fun and draw attention because we had Elsa and Anna coming from a local princess company (Princess Pros Entertainment). Iridescent foil curtains lined the backdrop and then we framed out the princesses with a sparkly balloon garland. We worked in blush, light blue, silver and snowflake balloons to give a magical feel to the garland. Everyone tends to go more blue with the Frozen theme, so we mixed in a little pink to change it up.
For the crafts, the party guests make snowflake wands and pipe cleaner tiaras – both fairly easy and affordable supply wise. We kept it easy and purchased foam snowflakes in different sizes and colors, and small snowflake stickers to add on top. on the sticks, we had them tie thin ribbons. The tiaras, they got creative and shaped sparkly silver pipe cleaners.
It was such a fun morning, and it is always fun to see the kids’ reactions when princesses walk in. Frozen is a favorite, and such a fun theme for winter! Plan a birthday party, holiday party or just a fun little get together.

My little superhero just turned three! I hope this party inspires you to get out your scissors and glue stick and tackle some fun DIY projects! Your birthday babe will thank you! Luka’s reaction to the party was priceless. We had the best time celebrating and I’m so happy with how everything turned out.
Newspaper poster – Created in Photoshop
Colourful block buildings – Used spare wood to create these and then a paint marker for the windows
Backdrop – Created in Photoshop and used good old Bristol board for the buildings
Treat bags – I used a free printable here: http://paixaodesigns.blogspot.com/2013/10/free-printables-from-superhero-party.html I also added Thank you for coming stickers that I created in PicMonkey
Signs – Made from left over drywall and black paint
All labels were created in PicMonkey.
xo!
Tara