Real Party: Polka Dots 1st Birthday Party!

Mia and I met Rachel and Shayna in our Mom's group.  We spent much of our maternity leaves together, so I was very happy to get to help celebrate Shayna turning 1 recently!

Rachel and her hubby threw a party for Shayna at their house, and they were kind enough to let me share some photos with you.

I loved the polka dot theme that Rachel used for the party. It was inspired by Shayna's cute party dress. (Which I think is so great.  I know some people have a hard time coming up with themes for party. You can literally get them from anywhere; this is such a great example of that!) 

Rachel had monthly pictures from Shayna's first year displayed on polka dots in the living room.

 And a bright polka dot Happy Birthday sign.

The kitchen was decorated with bright balloons. 

 Lunch was served on large colorful round platters. 

I thought scattering the bright balls around the dessert table was genius! And aren't they great in the glass vessel? 

Rachel made Shayna's adorable felt party hat.

She also made the adorable highchair banner. 

 Everyone hung out in the sun in the backyard.

Our friend Renee performed for the babies (--and the parents! I freakin' love her music!). 

Mia also loved the show. ;)

Party favors!

 Rachel ordered these "knobby balls" from Amazon. (I think this in a perfect party favor for a party of mostly one years olds or younger babies, even if your theme isn't polka dots. They are inexpensive and babies love them!)

For the mommies who need to relax: round bath confetti.  Cute cute.

Happy Birthday Shayna!! 

Thanks for the great party Rachel & Nic!

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Real Party: Sunflower 1st Birthday!

My daughter Mia turned 1 recently.

Seriously, where did the time go?! This was the fastest year of my life thus far (which felt even faster since the year of my pregnancy was the slowest year of my life!).  She has brought us so much joy... of course we had to celebrate her 1st birthday with a blowout bash.  My friend Deb and I decided to throw a joint party for our little girls who were born 5 days apart. 

Where we live in California the weather is pretty nice most of the year.  But around the end of November you just can't count on sunshine. We had too many guests to fit in our little house, and a park was out of the question.  I stressed about where to have the party.  We needed a big space, but I didn't want to blow the budget on a venue. 

I finally decided to have the party at our gym. My husband I belong to a CrossFit gym. My husband actually coaches there, and we are great friends with the owner. If you aren't familiar with CrossFit, its a workout that can be done with minimal equipment. Our gym is basically a warehouse with lots of open space. And better yet, lots of mats on the floor -- perfect for a large number of the guests who are just starting to walk!

My main challenge was turning the bare bones, industrial space into a party appropriate for 2 little girls.

Here's the before so you can understand my gravity of this task: 

Yikes.

I also had to keep guests away from the equipment.  I didn't want anyone to get hurt.  I decided to rent some stanchions and chains to rope off the party area to keep it on the mats. 

In the end I think it came together quite well...

I love this picture. I feel like it captures the wonderful chaos of so many family and friends packed into the gym so well.  Makes my heart smile. 

Anyway, the reason why you are here: The details!!

It all started with the invitation. My vision was perfectly executed by Jennafer of Oh Creative One. 

Isn't it great?
I had them printed on brown paper, and used a rounded corner punch.

(sorry, iPhone photo -- but you get the idea)

I had decided on this theme awhile ago, and thought I'd died and gone to heaven one day when I was randomly browsing at Gymboree and found a line of sunflower dresses on the sale rack.

I never get that lucky. But the stars were aligned that day and I snapped up the only 2 dresses left in their sizes. They were SO cute, and this mom was happy!
Ella's grandma crocheted sunflowers for their hair.  (Thank you Audrey!)

My big chalkboard sign greeted guests.

I made some paper plate sunflowers for one of the sections of wall.  These were inspired by this, but I made a simpler version with just paper centers to save time. The stems are made from streamers. I borrowed the fencing from Akemi's pumpkin patch.

I rented tables and chairs to scatter throughout the party area.  We had yellow tablecloths and burlap runners.  I had ordered some flower arrangements from a local grocery store that had sunflowers in them, and the order was messed up.  :( I ended up with these potted plants instead. No sunflowers, but I was just happy the colors were right!

I love to use party items multiple times. It helps me justify to my husband why is so important to store them in our crowded garage and attic also! The burlap runners were from here, but have also been used here and here. The centerpiece boxes were from here, but have also been used here.

If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you know I love to use a children's book as a guest book at baby showers.

I decided I will continue this tradition with her birthday parties. Each of the girls had a little station set up for their guest book.  I ordered these to use.

This was the biggest group I have ever have ever hosted for lunch. I struggled with the menu, but I think we came up with a great solution that was yummy and budget friendly.

I am terrible about getting photos when the food table is done. People are usually swarming it when the food gets out, and that was the case with this party. But here's a picture of the set-up before it was all finished. 

We served: 

Grilled sausages (3 flavors) with buns, grilled onions, and assorted condiments

Green salad

Potato chips

Mac & cheese

And then we had clementine oranges and some applesauce pouches for people to snack on as well. 

Monthly banners of each of the girls were hung above the table. 

I made some food labels to match the invitation. 

And I scored again at the Michael's dollar section with these gorgeous sunflower clips. Easiest banner I ever made!

My husband must really love me because he agreed (with a little grumbling) to haul our reddish-colored wheelbarrow all the way to the gym so I could put drinks in it.

How could I not? :)

We had wine, beer, sodas, and bottled water.

Desserts were pretty simple since we were feeding such a large number of guests.

Deb made lots and lots of cupcakes and I made some simple yellow cake pops. 

I did my standard display with the much-used shelf, but kept it simple with white linens and just did an accent of wide sunflower ribbon from the fabric store.

(You've seen the cupcake shelf here.)

Each of the girls had a highchair with a little cake I made and a few balloons.

(I know my party girl readers will understand how frustrated I was when I went to three locations the morning of the party to find yellow balloons. No one had any! After the 3rd stop I decided I was being ridiculous and just stuck with cream. Yellow would have been much cuter...)

My favorite detail of the party:

My husband and I made this photo wall out of piece of plywood. He attached legs to the back and cut holes. The I painted the simple sunflower design. It was SO cute to see all the pictures & so easy to make. I tried to get a picture of each family.  

(I decided to just post one of me, Deb, and Lindsay messing around rather than post pictures of anyone's kids. But trust me, it was cute.).

Party favors were yellow bubbles with custom labels (by Oh Creative One).

I was very happy with how everything turned out. It seemed like guests of all ages really had a great time. 

Happy Happy Birthday Miss Ella!

And Mia...

We are so lucky to be your parents! 

Thank you for making this the best year ever! 

Happy Birthday!

Vendors: 

Venue: CrossFit Vis Performance

Printables: Oh Creative One

Party Rentals: Danny Thomas Party Rentals

Photos: Lindsay Little & Renee Padgett

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Real Party: Dual Gender Baby Shower

My friends Katie & Casey are expecting their first child. I recently helped to throw her baby shower with 4 of her other girlfriends. 

They have decided to wait until he or she is born to discover the gender.  Katie's bff Sam was determined to avoid the standard "gender neutral" shower. Instead, she wanted to throw a shower celebrating both genders. A dual gender shower. We all had so much fun designing a shower that was 1/2 pink, 1/2 blue; 1/2 masculine, 1/2 feminine. There were so many fun touches! 

Enjoy... :)

Of course, we turned to my go-to invite designer Jennafer of Oh Creative One to capture our vision.  She knocked it out of the park as usual. 

Guests were greeted with the following display:

...and encouraged to "wear their vote" to predict the gender.  Snails for a boy, flowers for a girl.  Sam made the adorable snails with poster board and twine.  Too cute. 

Guests were also asked to sign the guest book. 

I found the perfect book on Amazon to compliment our theme.  The Book of Boys (for Girls) and the Book of Girls (for boys) is a funny kids book full of gender stereotypes.  Ha! It even mentions snails and sugar & spice! I could not resist.  Guests signed the inside cover. 

Then it was off to the backyard, where we had two food tables set up. 

One feminine: 

And one masculine:

For the "girl" table, we used soft pink linen and a lace runner. We used our prettiest serving trays and bowls.  Food labels were pink polka dot labels held by clear glass photo cubes.  Pink and white poms hung above. Food items included green and fruit salads, turkey and vegetarian roll-ups, and a "dessert tower" which featured cream cheese stuffed strawberries, cake pops, and strawberry mini cupcakes. 

For the "boy" table, we used blue a blue linen and burlap runner and pulled out all our rustic serving trays.  Mini chalkboards were food labels. We topped it off with brightly colored party poms and a bunting banner.  Food items on the boy table included pulled chicken sliders, mac and cheese muffins, potato salad, monster cookies, and "dirt" cups. 

We had a seated lunch at tables that continued our theme. 

Two were feminine: 

And two were masculine: 

 We used the same linens as the food tables. 

The girl tables featured clustered flower arrangements, rhinestone napkin rings, silver chargers, and wine glasses.  

The boy tables featured a simple wood centerpiece, mason jar drinking glasses, brown wicker chargers, and burlap napkin runners. 

Even the chairs were part of the theme: brown for the boy table, white for the girl. 

Party favors were inspired by something I found on Pintrest.

Lindsay and I made 1/2 pink and 1/2 blue striped pretzels and packaged them up for guests to take home.  Cute and easy!

I managed to capture almost all of the guests with their wearing their gender guess pin. (A couple people managed to escape me & my camera!) 

What a fun record for Katie to have! 

There were definitely more snails... :)

Congratulations Katie!!

I cannot wait to meet him or her!

Resources: 

Invitations: Oh Creative One

Party Rentals: Danny Thomas Party Rentals

Katie's bridal shower is here. 

Katie & Casey's wedding is here and here.

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Real Party: Minnie Mouse 2nd Birthday!

I can't believe its been a year since this adorable birthday party! 

Our sweetest little friend Kyla recently turned two, and her Mom & Dad outdid themselves with her celebration!  Kyla's mom (my friend Joanne) shared all her resources & photos with me, and I'm so happy to pass them on to you!

This year's theme was Minnie Mouse.

Does it get any cuter?  I am dying over her dress and adorable yellow shoes!

Lunch was lots of kiddie favorites: Mickey shaped chicken nuggets (Costco!), Mac & cheese with mickey-shaped noodles, and Pluto's Pizzas. :)

The adorable cake was made by Patty Cakes. Joanne used a Cricut machine to make the banner. And she followed this tutorial to make the cute Minnie Mouse cookies. 

Joanne has several low-key activities for guests to participate in.  There was Disney trivia sprinkled throughout the space.  There was a game of Pin the Bow on Minnie.  Minnie coloring sheets were available. And guests could put on temporary Disney tattoos.  

She also hired a balloon specialist who made Disney characters out of balloons for guests. 

Party favors were sugar cookies (made by Kyla's Grandma) & crayons in the classic mouse shape (made by Joanne). Joanne sealed the bags with mouse ears made on the Cricut. 

Happy Birthday Kyla!

And thank you Joanne for sharing all the fun photos and ideas with us! 

Sources: 

Cake: Patty Cakes

Balloons: A New Twist

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Real Party: "Full House" Sip & See

My friend Deb has 2 boys, which I introduced to you here and here. 

And now they've added a girl to the mix. The family is complete, with 3 Kings and 2 Queens, aka a Full House. 

Combining this with Deb's love of Vegas, we had the perfect theme for her Sip & See!

We had so much fun with this theme! 

 Drea made several huge red and black party poms. 

Lindsay sewed cards together to make a long banner that we strung around the room. 

 We had several full house hands displayed on little stands throughout the room. 

(These stands have been busy lately: they were originally used at my wedding, and more recently at the pinwheel 1st birthday party).

And I made a few little signs with the new baby girl's photo to put in my favorite Ikea frames. 

One said: "Deb & Daniel have a full house!"

The other said: "Watch out Deb, there's a new Queen in town!" 

 I made napkin rings out of playing cards, which we displayed in embellished vases.  Lindsay found the perfect paper plates at a Diddam's.

Lunch was simple. We had several different kinds of sandwiches. 

And we gave them fun poker-themed names! Drea made the mini card picks with a dab of glue and a toothpick. 

On the side we had chips and a few salads.  

I thought about making some kind of cute stickers to seal the bags of chips, but decided to use a playing card instead. So easy!

Desserts were Lindsay's cherry cheesecake layered treats (stay tuned for a recipe!), and Drea's red velvet cupcakes (aka Queen of Hearts Cupcakes). Yum Yum!

We bagged up some red licorice for party favors. Lindsay folded and punched cards to seal the bags. 

Thanks to the party crew: Lindsay, Drea, Leslie, & Jeani. 

And congrats to Deb on another baby. ;)

What a fun day! 

Photos by Lindsay Little and me.

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