Cake Decorating Birthday Party!

Today my oldest daughter celebrated her 9th Birthday. We had a hard time coming up with a theme for this party but after doing a lot of talking we decided to go with a cake decorating theme. We like to do unique parties so this fit right in with that ( past  parties have been Strawberry Shortcake, Wizard of Oz and Rock Star).
Like most parties it all starts with the invitations. These are the invitations we sent out. You are only seeing part of the inside so my personal details are not shown.

Next came the planning. Although it didn't take a lot of planning it did take a lot of prep work! I knew I wanted to let the girls decorate cakes of course but I also knew I had to have a few more activities to do or I would have way to much free time on my hands with them. I tried to come up with something that would go with our theme but I finally gave up and just did crafts I knew the girls would like!
The day started with the girls arriving and serving lunch. I wanted to keep this simple so I just served pizza and potato chips. They had Capri Suns to drink.

Once the girls were done eating I sent them into the room to decorate little bags that I had picked up. While they decorated I cleared off the table and set up everything for cake decorating.

Once the cakes were set up the girls were called back in. Each girl had a 8 inch round cake to decorate. I had also made 4 batches of homemade buttercream icing.

 

 

The girls were showed all the yummy stuff we had to use for decorations and were given some paper and pencils in case they wanted to draw out their designs before just going crazy! They really got into it and came up with some cool designs.

 Once the cakes were done I put them in cake boxes with the girls names on them so we would know whose was whose a the end of the party. Next everyone put shoes on and went into the garage for the piñata!

Once the piñata was over back inside we went for cake and ice cream. Because I had made so many cakes we decided to order the cake that would be served to the girls.

Next we did presents. I am weird and have issues with how people handle this part of the party. I honestly can't stand all the kids crowding around and no one being able to see. To avoid this I bring in 2 chairs- 1 for the birthday girl and 1 for the friend  whose present they are opening. It works well and it gives the giver of the present a chance to feel special.

(My youngest one insisted on giving her sister her present today even though her birthday isn't until tomorrow.)
We had about 30 minutes left once the presents were open so we made one more craft. They painted wooden door hangers for their rooms.

Neither one of my crafts were fancy but the girls seemed to have fun doing them anyways.
When the girls left they all walked away with the aprons I had made them(tutorial coming soon), 2 crafts, a cake, a goody bag and candy from the piñata.

Overall I think the party went well and the girls seemed to have fun.
I can't believe my baby girl will be 9 years old tomorrow. Happy Birthday Emily. I love you very much!

Now to start thinking about my youngest daughters birthday in April!

make it monday Carnival birthday party

Hey guys since I moved almost 2 months ago I have been very busy.  With getting things done to the house and trying to unpack and arrange things in a new house. Still not done with all of that. 

 

I am also trying to start a new business. Planning birthday parties for kids. I figured why not take my 11 years experience taking care of children an put it to good use.  Since I know what most kids like from trying to think up fun activities all these years. Also I have helped Mindy plan all of her DD parties the last couple of years.

 

The Name of my new business is Perfect Party Planning by Stephanie (P3)

 

So this weekend was my first party.  I was a carnival theme for a 2 year old. First I made tickets for invitations.  So I had to keep the party games pretty simple.  We had a ring toss for drinks, a knock the cans over game, a fishing game, a face painting station, a bubble pop station, and a photo wall. 

 

Today I am going to share with you how to make ticket invitations.

Our color them mostly red and white so I bought red card stock.

First I decided what I wanted the ticket to say then I went in word and made them up

Admit one

Carson’s 2^nd Birthday

Carnival Party

July 13 12:00 to 2:00

(Address here )

RSVP to the ringmaster at (phone number here ) 

Here is a example of what they said. 

Then print them out of your card stock it can be any color you want I used red to keep with our color theme. I was able to fit 3 on a page.

 

Next you are going to cut them out with zigzag scissors.

Once they are cut out take around about 1 inch hole punch and in the middle of each side punch a half circle.

when you are finished it should look like this

If you have any questions please let me knows

I know this is not a new idea by any means and there are probably better tutorials out there but I forgot to take pictures every step of the way.

I will be posting more carnival themed stuff all week.

 

Stephanie

Smurf Party!

Life sure has been busy here lately. I am looking forward to summer and things slowing down some!
Last week my youngest daughter Katie turned 5. She really loves the smurfs so that was the theme of her party, Now if your kids are into smurfs you know that it is impossible to find anything with them on it. I lucked out and found a tablecloth and plates at Party City. As for the cake, it had to be made at home.
The day before her birthday she got to have a party at Preschool. Our local Kroger store had smurf rings so they put them on top of cupcakes for me. Everything that is sent in to preschool has to be store bought.

For her game I took in a pinata

It was so heavy that when Katie hit it , it fell to the floor....oops lol

It was okay, we put it on a chair and the kids still loved hitting it!
The Saturday following her birthday we got to do a party at home. I think she had a good time!

Next year she can start having friends over for a party...that is always a lot of fun.
Saturday I am hosting a Mother /Daughter banquet for Girl Scouts. We have a rock star theme going on. I will have lots of pictures to share for that one.

Rock Star Birthday Party

Saturday was my daughter Emily's 8th birthday party. She wanted to do a rock star theme so that is what we did. It was pretty simple to pull off and the girls had such a good time!
For the invitations I had used store bought ones. I had found them on clearance for 50 cents and they said rock star on them.
We decorated the outside of my house with a red carpet.

Stephanie's husband made the wood stands for me.  I bought red rope from the craft section at Hobby Lobby and used red tablecloths. The sign on the garage said Emily and the Rockers.
Once you got inside we had a pink metallic curtain at the front door for the girls to walk through. My front room was the dressing room.

We painted nails and the box on the floor had a bunch of wigs and stuff in it for the girls to dress up with.

I had a bunch of avon samples of eye shadow and lipstick for the girls to get dressed up with. We  had some combs layed out and mirrors for the girls to see themselves in.
In my great room we set up a stage.

The girls loved it and the drum set was part of my daughters birthday present. We used it to take pictures on.

We decorated my fire place with records and then that is where Emily opened presents later on.

I set up a table that had all of the girls "goody bags" on. The goody bags were old records that had been melted into bowls.

I also made all of the girls notebooks to take home.
In the kitchen we set up the cake and cupcakes.

The girls made picture frames for their crafts. I am going to print off a picture of them so they can put it in the frames.

We did a pinata and then cake and ice cream while Emily opened presents.

We even got to walk the red carpet! I let every girl have a chance to be the "rock star". I think this was their favorite part!

I also had a chance to take some group pictures. I alternated the girls so that the group of  3 all had Emily in them but had 2 different girls each time.

For food we did concession type food....nachos, hot dogs, chips, popcorn. The girls got to drink out of champagne glasses ( I put lemonade in them)

The party was so much fun. If you would like to see the rest of the pictures you can check them out here;
 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3899855461768.2140838.1440618269&type=1&l=b5b464bb75