A Lego Party!!

This month we celebrated Andrew's 5th birthday with a Lego party for a bunch of his best buddies here in Baltimore. His actual birthday is at the end of December and with the holidays and traveling to and from Canada it worked much better to wait a bit and take the time to plan it just right!

To say that Andrew is a Lego fan would be putting it mildly. He plays with Lego constantly and when he's not playing with it, he's talking about it, reading a book about it or drawing plans for his next creation. He is often heard to say "Mommy, Lego is my life!" So with this kind of dedication, there was absolutely no question about the birthday party theme for this year!

Finding ideas and inspiration for throwing a Lego Birthday Party is super easy. The popular theme is all over Pinterest and the creative ideas that people have put together are amazing. I was very tempted to try everything I pinned, but forced myself to be reasonable and kept it simple! Our decorations consisted mostly of a Happy Birthday Banner that I printed from this website, some balloons tethered with jars of Lego, a few colourful strands of garland and some of Andrew's most impressive Lego builds.

I made each child a Lego T-shirt using printable iron on transfers that had their first initial and we also made some cute Lego construction hats using a plain hat and a Sharpie.

When the children arrived I set them up with some mini-figure colouring pages to keep them busy while we waited for all of the guests to arrive. We also played a game of "Let's make a mini-figure"(our Lego version of "Pin the Tale on the Donkey"), had a Lego Spoon Race and had fun with a Piniata.

For lunch we had the kids build their own mini pizza and served them with veggies and fruit salad, followed by cake, cupcakes and ice-cream. 

As the kids packed up to leave, they each received a little bag of Lego chocolates, some cookies and a new Lego City book. 

It was a great party, the kids had a blast and Andrew was thrilled. It is so rewarding to watch him that day. He loved being the centre of attention and we loved celebrating what an amazing kid he is!

A party planning journal...

Today, I wanted to share a simple party planning idea that I use whenever I am getting organized for a party. I have been using a Party Planning Journal for years, for parties big and small!

The idea is simple (and probably used by many), grab a notebook and give it the job of housing all of your lists when getting organized for entertaining. For dinner parties I usually just jot down the menu, but for birthday parties I include the guest list, games and decoration ideas.

What I find most useful about having this information all in one place is that I can look back to see what  I served at previous parties. That way I can make sure I'm not always serving the same food to our guests! It's also helpful when brainstorming a menu to see whats worked well in the past.

I recently filled my original party planning journal and had to start a new one. I chose this pretty Martha Stewart journal and added a festive touch with some silhouette vinyl cut outs. It's a great size to take along to the grocery store and looks super cute sitting out on my desk!

A Superhero Birthday Party!!

This past month we celebrated Andrew's 4th birthday. If you know my little man, you know that there was absolutely no question of what the theme would be! I was so excited to get started on this party, there are so many amazing ideas out there and it was really hard to restrain myself from attempting them all!

I wanted to keep the decorations as "DIY" as possible, there are many items that can be purchased, but the cost can really add up. I have a large supply of card stock on hand and lots of ribbon. I only had to purchase the balloons and two comic books! I think I spent less than $20!

Our new place has a great big mantle which is fabulous for decorating for events. I used Andrew's giant batman, some balloons and the cake and cupcakes to decorate this space. I always try to put the birthday cake front and centre... after all they take a lot of effort! I used rolled fondant for the buildings and Superman logo getting my inspiration here and the cupcake toppers were found online (here). 

I used a couple of comic books to make some colourful banners by cutting each page into triangle and stringing them on ribbon. When selecting the comics I looked for bright pictures with appropriate content (some can be pretty gruesome!). I strung these banners around the mantle, across some mirrors and along the counter. They added a lot of colour to the party!

We snapped some priceless photos of Andrew modeling his new superhero underwear, on Christmas morning. I couldn't resist printing a bunch and adding them to the decor. His friends thought they were pretty awesome (probably not an option for future parties!!). I also used one to make this little sign that his friends could sign and had it ready with some markers for their arrival. 

We gathered all of our Superhero toys and books and had them ready for the little ones to play as they entered. I always find this to be a chaotic time and having an activity that kids can join whenever they arrive is very helpful. 

We also had a Superhero Snack bar ready for munching and a little cape for every little Superhero (this little sweetie was the only girl at the party but that didn't slow her down)! I used fabric from a previous project for the capes and this pattern. The fabric was actually taken from inexpensive flat sheets that I bought at target for $5.00. 

                

We kept the kids busy with lots of fun Superhero games! We decorated Superhero masks, used "Silly String" to get some Super villains (pictures on the back of a door), practised jumping over skyscrapers and raced to change into superhero costumes.

After lunch everyone sang to Andrew and many little buddies helped him to blow out his candles. This is always my favourite part of the celebration. His big smile makes all of the party prep more than worth the effort!

It was so nice to see all of Andrew's new friends come together to celebrate his birthday. It's hard to believe that just a few short months ago we knew nobody in this city! I think he will be wanting to take a few back to Canada with him!

**please grab a printable for your little superhero's big celebration!**

A Crabby Party!! {Henry turns 1!}

This weekend we celebrated the first birthday of our little man! I love birthday parties and can get a little carried away with all of the details, but having recently moved to a new home in a new country this party was a little more low key. We were happy to have Henry's Nana, Auntie and two cousins fly in for the event and coincidentally some other family friends were in the city so they stopped by to join the celebration!

We decided that "A Crabby Party" would be a fitting theme for Henry's first birthday, now that we live in Maryland. To get ready for the party I cut out some beachy shapes on my silhouette, hung some beach balls around the living room and placed some snacks in sand pails (including "Oh Henry" bars of course!).

The kids made some simple crab hand print art using red finger paint and googly eyes.

I baked white cupcakes with Cookie Butter frosting and graham cracker crumbs, to resemble the beach, and placed a few little crabs made from edible moulding dough. I also made a matching smash cake for Henry to tear apart!

We all laughed as Henry politely sampled cake. He needed some help from Daddy to really get the idea! 

A good time was had by all. We got some fantastic pictures and made some great memories. As it turns out, Henry doesn't really care if the water bottles are personalized and napkin rings match the goodie bags. He's just happy to have his family there to play!

p.s. I go crazy for personalized water bottles and matching napkin rings, 

so I am totally doing that for his second birthday!

Mermaid Tail Tutorial

Good morning! I hope everyone is having a fabulous week! Today I am sharing a Mermaid Tail Tutorial at Mimi's Dollhouse! This is the mermaid tail that my friend Jenn gifted to all of the little princesses as they arrived at her daughter's birthday party. The "Under the Sea" party was an amazing success. Jenn never fails to go completely overboard with food, decor and games. She used fun custom printables from Mimi's Dollhouse for her invitations as well as banners, cupcake circles and thank you notes. I will be back later this week to share a few more of Jenn's creative Mermaid Party ideas, but in the mean time, take a minute to check out my Mermaid Tail Tutorial!

Isn't she adorable!!

Here is a link to the Christmas Craft Party that Jenn and I hosted together. I just loved collaborating with someone who loves throwing a great party!

A pirate party!!!

This past weekend we celebrated Andrew's 3rd birthday! We always plan for this party in late November because we just can't bring ourselves to try it on his actual birthday... 5 days after Christmas. So far this plan has successfully avoided subjecting the poor little man to birthday/Christmas presents! I absolutely love planning birthday parties.  They combine some of my favourite things: baking, crafts, decorating and overall creativity.  This year was especially exciting because Andrew actually understood what was happening and was really into it!

The theme of the day was pirates, which lent itself very well to decorations, costumes and games. The house was festively decked out in red and black, a birthday banner, mop buckets, and pirate ship sail added some nice touches!

Upon arrival, all of our party guests were greeted with a bandanna and eye patch, and the kiddies even got a pirate sword (post Halloween special at the dollar store).

Andrew's "scary pirate face"

The kids had fun playing a few games... 

Go Fish - use your hands to find the goldfish crackers in a paper bag filled with yummy snacks (popcorn, teddy grahams, raisins, Cheerios)

Swab the Deck - be the first to mop all of your team's balloons to your side of the deck

Who Wants to be Andrew's Best Friend - try and guess how Andrew answered each question (My techy husband created this game on his computer so that after each question was answered a video of Andrew answering the question played!)

 (Andrew and Attie ate their way through)

We enjoyed some yummy pirate treats...

And to take away... a little pirate treasure!

I sewed simple drawstring bags from the same fabric as the bandannas and table runner.

A treat for the adults... banana chip muffins

It was an amazing day! We were so happy to have Andrew's friends and family here to celebrate with us! It's hard to believe he is already three! He amazes us everyday with his witty sense of humour and insatiable curiosity! Can't wait to see what this next year will bring!