Lavender and White Rose Baby Shower

About a year ago, I found myself walking through a very dark time with a dear friend.  She lost her nine month old daughter very suddenly, and it affected me deeply.  The moments and hours around her precious baby's death will be something I hold in my memory forever.  But our God turns mourning into dancing, and while we miss that sweet baby dearly, I rejoice that I have a deep bond with this friend and our relationship is one of my highest earthly treasures.  

So it is with great joy that I share this Lavender and White Rose Baby Shower with you.  Shortly after the tragedy, my friend was pregnant with her third baby - a girl!  I could do nothing more than rejoice with tears of gratefulness to our God for his goodness to her family.  And my heart is filled with thankfulness of how the Lord has intertwined our journeys together.

Her baby's name is Rosie.  The nursery colors are lavender and white.  We continued that theme at the baby shower by using those colors and sprinkling roses throughout our party.

Baby booties made from two 2 oz medicine cups, then wrapped in tissue.  A cotton ball was used to make the "toe" and then tied with 1/8" satin ribbon.  Simply a charming way to display trail mix!

Forks wrapped in lavender and white striped napkins, then tied with white ricrac.

Once again, I used the cupcake tower my father built for the Monster Birthday Party.  This party piece is coming in handy time and time again.  Thanks, Dad!

I followed Sarah's example and displayed each cupcake under a wine glass.  This was a big hit with guests!

I also borrowed recipes from Sarah and her cupcakes are delicious!  Seriously some of the yummiest ever!

My dining room table held all the food - mini quiches, veggie tray, fruit spread, trail mix booties, and of course, the mini cupcakes!

I made this felt dot garland using my circle rotary cutter, and then sewed it together.  I draped it around the fitted tablecloth (made from this tutorial) and it added an extra punch of purple color to the table.

I also made a felt ruffle wreath for the front door.  I used Amy's tutorial for the wreath, and then inserted mini purple roses.  The banner was a piece of paper I printed from PicMonkey.

In lieu of a guestbook, another friend found this book, Ballerina Rosie.  Since it was fitting with our theme, we had all the guests sign the inside of the book.

I used my kitchen bar as the drink station.  We served punch, water, and hot tea and coffee.

I ordered items on Etsy and made a cookie sheet full of rose magnets.  (I ordered the roses from Whimsy and Pop and the magnets from CraftProjectSupplies.  Both amazing Etsy sellers!)

Each guest took a white felt bag and filled it with a few magnets.  They were asked to put them on their refrigerator and use the magnets as a reminder to pray for this sweet family.

The afternoon was a time of rejoicing, and it brought much healing to my soul.  The time of prayer for this family was filled with emotions, as you can imagine, but I wouldn't trade this last year for anything.  The way that God has used the darkest of times to draw me to Himself, and the friendships I've formed within my local body of Christ as made all the tears worthwhile.  Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father!

Strawberry Shortcake Party {Simple, Frugal yet Sweet Version}

Today I'm sharing the details behind my daughter's fourth birthday party last month.  She's 100% girl, so it was only fitting to have a Strawberry Shortcake party, since she is completely crazy about this character.

I had a busy few weeks with a major role in a children's consignment sale in late April, and coordinating a craft fair for my church on Mother's Day weekend.  This party fell smack dab in between those two events, so I tried to keep it simple but still have a fun and sweet celebration.  Mostly, we invited family, and a few friends from her preschool.

I used the kitchen bar area to display all the goodies except for the drinks.  A large piece of Strawberry Shortcake fabric (from Hobby Lobby, but also Amazon has a large selection, too) covered my countertop and served as a tablecloth of sorts.  The printable collections from Simone Made It on Etsy helped to put the finishing touches on the food and drink display.  Her strawberry collection was absolutely perfect for this party!

I've used Simone's printables before - for my son's dinosaur birthday party - and absolutely love the way her designs look!  Not only do I love the appearance, but it's a great value for your money!  She gives you so much and I've never actually used every single page.

The main dessert was a "Build Your Own Strawberry Shortcake" tower.  My dad built this tower for my son's monster birthday party last October.  It's been used countless times since then at parties, showers, and even craft displays.  It's a great display piece.  If you don't have a handyman around, this cupcake tower on Amazon looks similar and of good value.  

I used PicMonkey to create a 5x7 paper to put in the frame for the top of the tower.  It helped guests understand why the cups were full of two cubes of cake and undecorated when they arrived.

I purchased the plastic clear cups from Dollar Tree, and then baked two 9x13 cakes - one yellow and one pink.  I cut them into small squares (approximately 2" x 2") and stacked them inside the clear cups.  I loved that the cups have a small "stem" on them and it makes them just a little more fancy than standard cups.  Here's a link to a similar (yet more expensive) cup on Amazon so you can see the exact shape.  

Each guest was able to "build their own" dessert with a berry tray overflowing with raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and of course, strawberries.

To top it off, I had two canisters of whip cream available.  I covered them with papers printed from Simone's party pack.

I used my favorite photo editing tool, PicMonkey, to alter some basic Google images of Strawberry Shortcake and Friends.  These served as "tents" on the food and drink areas to help further describe how the food related to Strawberry Shortcake.  Since it's been 30+ years since I played with Strawberry Shortcake, I too needed a refresher on her friends' names and characteristics.  I found this article extremely helpful in explaining each of Strawberry's friends, animals, and sisters.  

I incorporated a few other desserts and a fruit bowl using Strawberry's friends as the display character.  

Lemon Meringue shared her famous pie with the guests.  Thank you, Winn-Dixie, for supplying the pie since Lemon Meringue was too busy getting ready for the party!  ;)

And Orange Blossom went to Aldi and picked up a bag of Cutie Oranges for her fruit bowl.  She wanted to provide something for party guests who didn't want added sugars.  

Apple Dumplin', Strawberry Shortcake's baby sister, also provided an apple pie for the day, but she missed her photo opp.  

I displayed the drinks outside on our patio, which is screened in around the pool.  I used the same fabric from my indoor food display to drape over the drink table.  Two three-gallon plastic drink dispensers held green and pink punch.  I used this recipe for the green punch, and this one for the pink.   The green punch was super sweet, though - I would recommend cutting the sugar in half!

I ruffled streamers on the sewing machine, a technique I've used before for the Pink & Purple Birthday Party.  Read about how to do that here.  

 I also had water bottles, covered with labels from Simone's printable kit.

Although the greatest form of entertainment was the swimming pool, we did play a few Strawberry themed games.  This site has a great list of games for all ages.

This plastic sheeting came from Party City and was only $5!  It served as a great backdrop for photos and brought color to our neutral patio!  (It's also available on Amazon.)

Happy partying, everyone!

Got a glimpse of my kitchen and want more details?  Read about my cabinet makeover, built-in pantry, and see where it all started.

My other parties:

Dino-Four Birthday Party

Dora Birthday Party

Pink & Purple Birthday Party

Monster Birthday Party

Monster Birthday Party

 A few weeks ago we celebrated half a decade with my oldest baby!  I cannot believe how fast these five years have passed by.  I was miserably ill my entire pregnancy with him.... morning, noon, night, midnight sickness lingered the entire nine months!  We moved to a new state and a new career for my husband when he was only two months old.... a move through the snow, ice and other horrendous weather conditions.  Then, when he was 19 months old, we brought home a baby sister, who he lovingly welcomed into our family.  Just six weeks after that, we moved across the country to our current city of Orlando.  The first two years involved way too many moves, but he has always been an amazing kid to "go with the flow" and keeps us laughing and smiling all day long!

We had this party at a local park.  I paid to rent a pavilion for four hours, and timed the party to start one hour after the pavilion rental began.  This gave me one hour to set up and transform a park pavilion into a monster home!  I had lots of good help and it was all worth it for this birthday boy.

He requested a "Monster Birthday Party".  I always let my kids pick a theme -usually I give them three choices and let them pick one - and then I take over the decor and food and other party planning.  With an October birthday, monsters abound in the stores for Halloween, but that wasn't quite what I had in mind.  I wanted bright colors, silly faces, googly eyes, and fun textures.

The inspiration piece was a stuffed monster that I found at a local consignment sale, Boutique For A Week.  (If you live in Orlando, make sure to stop by their spring sale- it's the cleanest, most organized sale I've ever seen!)  This fun monster had the bright green, yellow, blue and a punch of black that I was dreaming of.  And, it was only $1.  Amazing.

I sat this phenomenal find on top of the cupcake stand that my father made.  It's a wooden circular stand with four "level" for cupcakes.  We'll use it year after year for parties, and I may even use it at craft shows when I sell items from my Etsy shop.  I was inpsired by this photo I found on Pinterest, and originally planned to add fur and googly eyes to the stand, but then decided it was better without.

My mother-in-law and "Mimi" (my husband's grandmother) graciously made the cupcakes.  They were delicious!!!  And, they looked perfect.  The edible eyes came from Target, but similar ones can be found here on Amazon.  The cupcake liners were from the Little Monsters Printable kit from MyGrafico.

For other food, we had a veggie tray, chips & salsa, and pretzels with spinach dip.  I also served fruit in clear plastic cups, which I had done at another birthday party a year or so ago.  It keeps little hands off the fruit bowl, keeps it from getting too mushy, and makes for a great display.  I rarely serve fruit any other way!

For the table runner, I bought a roll of wrapping paper from Target.  After the picnic table was covered with a white plastic tablecloth (from Dollar Tree), I taped down the wrapping paper.  I also used my green shag rug from my kitchen to put under the cupcake stand.  It gave the illusion of monster fur.  (Don't worry, I washed it the morning of the party and didn't use it as a rug again until after the party.)

For the decor, I made monster boxes - 28 of them!  This was, by far, the most time consuming part of party prep.  I collected latex glove boxes from work (most of you know I put on my RN "hat" from 4 pm to midnight each night) and transformed them into monsters.  First, I opened the box on the side and slid a piece of wrapping paper to form the "back of the mouth".  I always used two contrasting wrapping papers to give more patterns and color.  Then, I wrapped the entire box in wrapping paper.  Most of the wrapping paper came from the Dollar Tree, but a bit was from Target, and some was just found in the box under my bed!  After wrapping the box completely, I cut open the mouth (where you reach in to grab gloves) and taped it to the inside of the box.  I glued googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and pom pom balls to give the monster a "face" and then added teeth to the inside of the mouth.  Simple- even the birthday boy (and his sister) helped with some of it.

I strung fishing line through the monsters to make a "chandelier" of seven.  I had four sets of seven monsters, one to hang above each table at the pavilion.  I tied the fishing line to a beam directly above the tables.

On each of the four tables, I had coloring sheets (again from the Little Monsters Printable Kit) and a bucket of crayons.  The buckets were from Target Dollar Spot, but I removed the fall colored ribbon and glued googly eyes.

I covered each table with a white plastic tablecloth and then cut a square table topper from wrapping paper.

For the food table, I made a banner with my 1" and 2" circle punch.  I did a similar thing for my daughter's Pink and Purple Birthday Party 18 months ago.  It's so easy when you have the circle punches.  Of course, I added google eyes to this banner as well - the kids helped with that!

 Couldn't leave the cups out of the decorations!  They got googly eyes, too!

Since this party was at the park, I didn't plan many games or activities, but I did make this fun photo booth.  I used foam board to create the frame, and then glued fur (from Jo-Ann's) to the frame.   I printed the monsters on cardstock and added them to the bottom.  The frame hung from fishing line at the perfect 5-year-old height.

I had a table beside the frame with fun props for the kids to use in their photos, and it was certainly funny to see them put the eyes over their mouths and other 5-year-old goofs like that!

For party favors, I made each child a monster snack bag.  I didn't want to give more sweets, so I figured something useful would be perfect.  If you aren't familiar with reusable snack bags, click on this link to learn more about the ones in my Etsy shop.  The monster fabric was found at the Sewing Studio in Orlando, one of my all-time favorite sewing stores!

Before we sang "Happy Birthday", all the kids sat on the bench and my mom read Where the Wild Things Are.  

It was such a fun party!  Happy 5th Birthday to my sweet boy!

Helpful Links:
Monster Party Pinterest Board (I certainly didn't use every idea, but this helped me plan the party)
Googly Eyes for Cupcakes on Amazon
Monster Printable kit from MyGrafico- search for Little Monsters Birthday Party (what I used for cupcake liners, photo props, and party favor labels)
Where the Wild Things Are book on Amazon
Circle Punches on Amazon

Other Parties I've done:
Dino-Four Birthday
Dora Birthday Party
Pink and Purple Birthday Party

Dora Birthday Party- Tips & Tricks

This is the last post of the Dora Birthday Party Mini-Series.  It's been a fun week, eh?

When my daughter decided she wanted a licensed character birthday party, I started seeing dollar signs.  After all, anything licensed isn't cheap, and I didn't want to break the budget with this party.  Here's some simple tips to keep a licensed character party frugal yet still full of character- pun intended!

1.  Start early. 
I found the cups for party favors at the Target Dollar Spot back in February/March.  Asking your child to decide a theme early (or deciding it for them) allows you to watch for deals and bargains before the last minute.

2.  Select two or three colors to use throughout the party scene.
Just like I chose pink, lavender and orange- the colors of Dora's outfit + Backpack- you can greatly simplify things by choosing colors coordinating with your licensed character.  I used the colors I chose in the pendant bunting, balloons, tableware, food labels, etc.  This saves you money because you don't have to buy Dora plates, Dora cups, Dora fabric, etc.  Just splash a few licensed products throughout and let the colors do the rest.

3.  Use your child's existing toys as decor. 
Since you child has chosen (or you have chosen for them) this themed party, the chances are good that your child already has some character items in his/her toy collection...Just like I used my son's dinosaurs for his Dino-Four party, I raided my daughter's room for all things Dora.  Between the drink containers I put a metal Dora purse, and I had another Dora bag hanging in another place.

4.  Look for images of your character that you can adapt and transform.
I'm not a copyright expert, but I'm pretty sure you can use images on the internet for personal use, as long as there is no selling involved.  I did a simple Google Image search for basic Dora characters, and used Picasa to add text to the food labels.  I printed them on white paper, and then used cardstock from my three colors (pink, lavender and orange) to make the "tents".

The banner hanging on my kitchen bar was actually from a tablecloth (found here on Amazon).  I was able to remove the two sides and hang one in two different places for the party.  It added a nice amount of Dora's face to the decor.  

My mother also found this Dora wrapping paper at a local store.  There wasn't much on the roll, and she thinks she paid about $2/roll.  I taped one roll of wrapping paper on each of the two long tables, on top of a white vinyl tablecloth from the Dollar Tree.  This added a "table runner" effect to each of the tables.  

What are your favorite tips for saving money on parties?  Anyone else had a licensed party and have a great money-saving trick to share?