party planning

Wintery Rainbow 1st Birthday Party
Crafty!EntertainingPhotographyThe Story

Wintery Rainbow 1st Birthday Party

by Jill
written by Jill

I came up with the wintery rainbow theme for Leyna’s party after falling in love with all the beautiful rainbow parties I’ve seen online the last year. I loved the idea of brightening up a party in the middle of winter with lots of fun colors.

I hired Charlotte from The Paper Cupcake to design the invitations (which featured Leyna’s cake smash pictures that we took on her actual birthday, December 28th) and all the printables for the party. She really helped me set the tone from the beginning.

We had the party at our house, which made for some chaos the morning of and a huge mess to clean up after, but it actually wasn’t that bad having it here.

This front door sign was made with this wooden plaque I ordered from Etsy. I painted it with chalkboard paint and taped ribbon on to the back. Then my sister prettied it up with some chalk markers. Super easy, and now I can just take off the ribbon, wipe off the chalk and repurpose it.

The cupcake stand is one I’ve repurposed since I made it nearly 3 years ago for Kendall’s 1st birthday party. The wreath above the fireplace is our Christmas felt pomp wreath that I added rainbow ribbon to. The picture collage on the fireplace is made from a canvas that’s painted with chalkboard paint. The pictures are stuck on with adhesive photo corners, and we used chalk markers to draw snowflakes on it.

The giant Polaroid photo booth was a huge hit! The kids loved playing with all the funky accessories, and I think even the adults had a good time pretending to bundle up (even though it was nearly 60 outside and I had the AC blasting).

I got my inspiration for this after seeing a pin from this blog, but had no idea how they made the frame. With the help from some reader suggestions, I wound up getting a giant piece of foam insulation from Home Depot for $9, had Scott cut it with a box cutter, and we painted it white. The dimensions were 3.5 feet wide x 4.25 feet long. There is a .2 foot border on each side, a .25 foot border on top, and a .875 foot border on bottom.

Scott hung it from our ceiling with fishing line, a few feet away from the yellow chevron fabric backdrop I got at Hancock Fabrics.

For favors, the kids got Snow Day Survival Kits full of popcorn, hot chocolate, crayons, stickers and notepads. (The babies got packs of Boogie Wipes for those inevitable runny noses.)

We also handed out these beautiful and sooooo delicious rainbow snowflake sugar cookies, courtesy of Cookies By Becky . I don’t know how she got them to look so perfectly frosted and managed to ship them without a single one breaking, but I looked like a regular ol’ Martha Stewart handing them out… until I admitted I had nothing to do with their creation.

The party was 2 hours of total fun, and I’m so happy we had it here… even if it did take a whole day to clean up after it. OH! One more thing. I don’t have a picture of this, but we made the most kick-ass white hot chocolate and let the adults add rum to their cups. Magically delicious, y’all.

1.75 gallons milk
2 bags white chocolate chips
Melt in stock pot on the stove slowly, pour into coffee urn or keep on low on the stove to keep warm.
Optional- top with rum and/or whipped cream.
Serves- a shitton of people

(We have a ton left over, so we froze it in muffin tins and then put the cubes in freezer bags. Now we can pull a few out, pop them in the microwave and enjoy.)

That’s it! Thanks for stopping by to have a look. As much fun as I had doing this party for Leyna, I’m really thinking we might do a birthday outing over a party for Kendall’s 4th in May (OMG MY BABY IS GOING TO BE FOUR).

Becky is going to give a lucky one of you 2 dozen cookies, too! All you have to do is comment telling me your favorite design she has listed in her Etsy shop right now (though you’re not limited to those if you order from her since she does custom designs, too). U.S. shipping addresses only, please. I’ll draw the winner with Random.org in about a week.

The cookie giveaway is closed. Congrats to Emily, commenter #91, as chosen by Random.org!

 

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BabiesThe Story

The Calm Before The Party Storm

by Jill
written by Jill

Leyna’s birthday party is tomorrow! And we all know what that means… I’m about to LOSE MY MIND. 

We’re having it at our house because, why not? Who DOESN’T want 20 something people in their not-exactly-large house that’s been in a constant state of renovation for the last year and isn’t quite completely finished?

“We’ll save money this way,” I told Scott.

Then I proceeded to order half of Etsy and Amazon, and have a shopping list for 2 baskets full of food at Sams Club.

“Just relax. It’s not a big deal. She won’t remember it anyway,” people tell me. Uhm, this party? Not really for the birthday girl so much. I only have 2, maybe 3 years to have any say whatsoever in how this goes down, before she’s begging for Chuck E Cheese and licensed characters. Let’s call it like it is. It’s for me.

I‘m bracing myself for Disney Princesses, but let me be clear- I will CUT anyone who introduces her to Barbie. Give her a Bratz doll? Prepare to die.

Assuming we pull it all off AND I managed to take pictures while running the show, I’ll show it all off to you on Monday. But now, I must go. CLEAN! CRAFT! CLEAN! CRAFT! SPEND MORE MONEY!!!

I think I should stretch first.

Leyna is 13 months old, and we’re having her party one month late since December 28th is sort of a rotten day for a party.

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BabiesThe Story

One Of My Better Ideas

by Jill
written by Jill

The girl was born on December 28th, and I vowed at the time to not let her arrival so close to Christmas affect my ability to throw her proper, awesome birthdays and shower her in cool, non-combineable gifts.

Of course, as with all things in parenthood, it’s so much easier to say you’ll “never” do something before you actually have to deal with it.

As her birthday approached the end of last year, I was left scrambling. How on earth would I throw a party for her 3 days after Christmas and get anyone to actually come? What would we get her that wasn’t already under the tree?

And so, like most things in my life, I put it off. I procrastinated celebrating my baby’s first birthday. And that? Was a really freaking awesome idea.

Now I have most of January to plan (and stay up every night Pinning inspiration), everyone is looking for something to do in the dead of winter, AND AND AND there are so many sales on cheap toys!

I just got back from Target where I got her a Corolle Tidoo doll, Corolle stroller and Corolle baby bed for $30- TOTAL. (These don’t seem to be on sale online, but there are some other good clearance deals to be had on their website.)

Oh yes, this will work nicely. I believe we will celebrate Another Year Plus One Month birthdays every year.  Her party is on Jan 28th. It will be in our house, which could prove to be challenging, but I hope to wow all the guests with a cool photo booth and all the grown ups with Hot Buttered Apple Cider with Rum. 

Now… I must figure out how to make this giant Polaroid frame for the photo booth. Suggestions? I thought posterboard at first, but I don’t think one piece would be big enough.

 

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EntertainingThe Story

Kendall’s 3rd Birthday Party or Why I’d Never Make it as a Wedding Planner

by Jill
written by Jill

Party Planning Psychosis was in full effect last weekend for Kendall’s 3rd birthday party. I’m only now getting to blog about it because I had to spend quality time with family following the episode to make up for my insanity and ensure that they will attend future celebrations under my rule.

The thing is, I have this website, Party Like A Kid, where my team and I spend all this time researching and featuring cool kid’s parties. I was actually inspired to start the site after planning Kendall’s 2nd birthday party. I see all these amazing ideas, fantastical parties, all seemingly pulled off effortlessly. The proud moms pose with perfect makeup, baby on their hip, in front of lush buffets and beautifully homemade cakes. The details are flawless. One may think that I, someone so passionate about sharing such events, would be able to pull one off on her own without morphing into Evil Mommy-wife-sista-child of Doom, but, as has already been established, I can’t.

Oh, I do still try, though.

So on Saturday, after many hours the days before and that morning of crafting and, well, not really cooking (cupcake pull-away cake from Super Target FOR THE WIN!), I arrived at In-Sync Exotics in Wylie, Texas (a seriously kick ass wild cat refuge in the Dallas area) for Kendall’s Animal Rescuer party. Of course, I also brought my trusty slave sidekick, my sister Kelly, who I don’t even want to know how many favors I owe when she gets around to having kids.

 

I made Kelly stay up until the wee hours putting these trail mix bags together with toppers designed for me by Charlotte from The Paper Cupcake.

Look how close you get to the cats there! The zoo is so boring after visiting this place. We've been going since Kendall was a year old.

 

I'll admit I was ticked these sack lunches would not stand in straight lines. They performed perfectly on my counter at home. Tiger bags had PB&J whole wheat tortilla roll-ups and leopard bags had cream cheese, honey and mashed banana tortilla roll-ups.

My desires to keep the party as eco-friendly as possible lost out to the convenience of Oriental Trading Company and the enthusiastic pleas of a nearly 3 year old set free in Party City. Also? Time and the bank account ganged up on me and made me give up my vision of reusable bamboo party ware and homemade cupcakes topped with fondant lion faces.

 

Rescue Pack favor bags full of cool stuff like headlamps, and crap like binoculars and bandaids.

To put it another way, I was SMART ENOUGH to recognize that I could spend all week making those adorable little lion faces to set atop cupcakes made from sugar-free hippy hair and fair trade organic nuts gathered by local squirels, but nothing would make my kid as happy as the high fructose corn syrup puddle of frosting poured over a pile of not so freshly baked cupcakes made to look like a jungle and savanna with freaking DIEGO on it. I would say I’ve successfully completed step one in the Party Planning Psychosis recovery program.

 

Possibly a gallon of frosting on this bad boy.

In my defense, my Party Planning Psychosis tends to flare up when other people *cough* my husband *cough* don’t do what I tell them. Like bring the juice. I simply wanted the man to pack the damn car with everything I so thoughtfully purchased and made, everything part of  my master party plan. I just wanted him to GET IT TO THE PARTY.

Sigh.

Don’t worry, I forgave him. I will not, however, forget. Next year there will be procedures in place to prevent such a slip up.

At the end of the day, all was well. The party went great, the guests were only slightly parched and a touch sunburnt by the end of it. I, on the other hand, was completely drenched in sweat and dehydrated because I refused to drink any of the precious few water bottles we managed to bring with us so none of our guests would die of heat stroke. Naturally, that would be the perfect time for a family photo. Notice the healthy red glow I’m sporting from my brief exposure to the sun. There is vampire in my lineage, I’m sure of it.

Note to self- take family picture BEFORE the party next time. Ha! That's implying you actually get to the party early. Riiiighhht.

Kendall is 3 and Leyna is 4.5 months. Time to start planning her 1st birthday!

 

 

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EntertainingStuff

The Breakdown Of Party Planning Psychosis

by Jill
written by Jill

6 weeks out

I think I’ll have a Halloween party. I think I’ll have a toddler Halloween party. That’s a fabulous idea! A cute little party, nothing big, just something for all the kiddos, something for Kendall. It will be nice to do this for him before the baby comes. Can’t be that hard… I’ll keep it really small.

4 weeks out

Time to send invites… let’s make it an Evite, keep it paperless and eco-friendly.  Super easy to just upload everyone’s email addresses…. Wow. So, hmmm… that’s a lot of email addresses. That’s a lot of people. Oh well, surely a lot of them won’t show up. It’s Halloween weekend. They probably all have other plans.

3 weeks out

Soooo… lots of yes’ RSVPs… not so many no’s. Where are we going to put 35 people in this house? Holy crap. Scott’s going to kill me.

2 weeks out

This won’t be so bad. Lots of people will be great! Lots of kids, lots of fun. We’ll have snacks and crafts. I’ll put in an order with Oriental Trading company. We’ll keep it cheap.

I’ll make some delicious pumpkin muffins that I saw on the Pioneer Woman, and I’ll make banana bread. I can even make some dulce de leche in a can to dip apple slices in.

I’ll use the Party Like a Kid Halloween printables for decorations, and we’ll set up a mini pumpkin patch in the back yard. We can even set up a photo opp spot with a hay bale and a giant scarecrow and some potted mums. The kids can all get their picture taken there and I’ll print them all out and mail them out after the party. Maybe they can even color their own magnetic picture frame at the party? Yeah.. that would be awesome! This is going to be so easy. Piece of cake. Nothing to worry about.

1 week out

Shit. I missed the shipping deadline for Oriental Trading Company. I’m exhausted and I need to go shopping for party crafts. I guess I’ll hit up Hobby Lobby tomorrow.

6 days out

Craft stores are where stress goes to get it’s freak on and procreate. Way too many choices, yet nothing I had in mind. No fuzzy magnetic Halloween picture frames? No foam stick-on pumpkin faces? No time to think this through. Kendall has about 5 minutes before he self destructs. Why did I ever decide to bring a 2 year old with me? Oh right… because I DON’T HAVE A CHOICE. Distractions? Tell him about the party! Include him! I know you’ve kept it hush hush up to now so he won’t bother you about it, but this will keep him quiet. Tell him we’re having a Halloween party with all our friends. Brilliant. I am a freaking toddler whisperer.

Not.

He thinks he gets a say in things.

Although, he’s adorable. Now telling everyone who passes, “Hewwo. I Kendall. I have Halloleen party at mah house wit mah fwiends. I get stickers.”

Yeah, okay. We’ll get stickers.

“At my Halloleen party, we dance to Katy Perry, okay momma?”

Here come the demands of the 12 year old girl trapped in my 2 year old son’s body.

4 days out

Get stomach flu. Puke brains out. Spend the next 24 hours not preparing for the party or cleaning the house AT. ALL. Instead, make giant messes everywhere.

2 days out

Begin cleaning flu germs out of the house. Nag Scott a little more about how important it is that the guest bath be back to fully functional in time for the party.

Begin to make mental list of all the things to buy tomorrow-
pumpkins for pumpkin patch
pot of mums
giant scarecrow
food
decorations
napkins and plates

and all the things to clean
the bathrooms
the windows!
the kitchen floor

and all the things to cook
the Pioneer Woman pumpkin muffins
the homemade cream cheese frosting
the dulce de leche

Start to wonder if I’ll get it all done. Foolishness! I’ll be fine. It’s just a simple little party with 35 guests. Check Weather.com and pray there’s no rain in the forecast. We’ll definitely need to let people spill outside.

1 day out

Begin metamorphosis into PSYCHOTIC WIFE OF DOOM. Breathe fire on husband every 30 seconds, nothing he does is right. Realize time is flying at warp speed.

WHY CAN’T I STOP TIME TO CLEAN THE HOUSE?? WHY DOES THIS HOUSE EVEN NEED TO BE CLEANED? WHY CAN’T WE EVER KEEP ANYTHING CLEAN? WHY DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF? CLEAN, HUSBAND, CLEAN!!! FASTER!

Pick up printables from Kinkos because piece of shit printer doesn’t have enough ink.

Head to evil empire Walmart. Throw last 12 pumpkins in cart while shooting laser beams of death out of eyes at little old lady headed toward me for one.

F*ck Pioneer Woman’s fancy pants recipe. Am now making box mix cupcakes.

F*ck homemade cream cheese frosting. Betty Crocker for the win!

F*ck dulce de leche in a can. That shiz takes 4 hours to cook! And it very possibly could, literally, blow up in my face. Grab two tubs of caramel sauce.

Argue with husband, who thinks his opinion matters, about decorations and plates and napkins. Psychotic Wife of Doom amasses super powers while in evil empire, becomes even more psychotic, even more full of doom. Am now breathing fire AND spitting napalm.

Come home, clean more, bake my ass off, yell at husband, ignore child, QUESTION SANITY x 1,000.

Bed at 12:30

Day of party

Wake at 7:30, QUESTION SANITY, realize Psychotic Wife of Doom is still amongst us.

CLEAN. Half ass the windows. These are parents of toddlers we’re having over. Surely they will understand smudgy windows.

Contemplate dog murder after learning (via my nose) that the Labrador contracted some sort of foul case of flatulence mixed with deadly butt juice over night. Nix idea upon realizing dog murder would just make more of a mess to clean. Grab bottle of Febreze and light 50 candles.

Am pretty sure husband is drawing up divorce papers. NO TIME, NO TIME FOR DIVORCE! MUST SET UP PUMPKIN PATCH! NO, YOU ARE NOT PUTTING THOSE PUMPKINS IN STRAIGHT LINES! HOW HARD IS IT TO LINE UP PUMPKINS?!

Realize we forgot potted mums and giant scarecrow. F*ck photo opp spot. Am over it. Am over everything.

30 minutes until party

Everything is done, house looks great, Psychotic Wife of Doom is gone. Apologize profusely to husband and child. Put on makeup. Put on smile.

Ding Dong

Cue smoke and mirrors.

The party was actually a great success. We had over 30 other people here, including 14 kids under the age of 3. We had hot apple cider and coffee for the adults, cold apple cider for the kids. The pumpkin spice cupcakes I wound up making were DELICIOUS and so easy. Several people on Twitter suggested I try this recipe:

1 box spice cake mix
1 can pumpkin puree
Mix together (will be really dense), bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Seriously, YUM. I topped them with canned cream cheese frosting.

We also had banana bread and apple slices, all of which about 90% was left over. I guess it’s hard for people to eat when they’re chasing their toddlers through someone else’s house.

Kendall had a blast, the weather was perfect, and I *think* I did a good job hiding Psychotic Wife of Doom’s presence once people got there. I have, however, promised my husband I will never do anything like that ever again… at least not while 8 months pregnant. He is a saint for putting up with my moods sometimes, and there should seriously be an official, medical term for the level of psychosis that takes over me 24 hours before I host an event. It’s a freaking miracle our relationship even survived the days leading up to our wedding.

I wish I could share pictures of the party with you, but uh, I don’t have any that aren’t blurry or too dark or just plain terrible.

I do, however, have a few Halloween pics to share.

And a 32.5 week belly picture

Hope your Halloween festivities were fun! Please tell me I’m not the only one who loses her mind party planning.

Kendall is officially 2.5 today and I’m nearly 33 weeks pregnant. Holy. Shit.

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