Happy Monday and Happy 1st Birthday Parker Bright! Yup...Tory's son turned ONE! As with all of our parties, Tory went to town to make her sons 1st Birthday one to remember! They decided to have it in a movie theater so they could invite everyone they wanted to invite and not be hindered by space! Great idea!

Of course, every good party starts with an invitation! Parker's theme was Giraffes! SO cute! Tory was able to find these adorable invitations on Etsy! She had them custom designed and you would be surprised how affordable that can be from the crafty vendors on Etsy.com!

Now a word about having a movie theater party. Most people would think this would just be cost prohibitive but you would be surprised! We happen to have worked at this theater and know the GM at this theater so I'm sure we got some special treatment of some sort (wink) since we are almost family but when figuring out a budget for this type of big event you have to estimate between $10 and $30 per person. That includes event venue rental. This particular theater has a $200 venue fee and then it is $20 per child, minimum of 20 children, and then $10 for each person after that. This includes the rental as well as "snack packs" for everyone...plus some extras as you will see! So for an event of 50 people this venue would run $900 or $18 per person including the food! There are many venues where that would be the space rental only!

Outside of the auditorium was the scrolling birthday greeting to our little man! Such a great touch!

Inside we got to decorate however we chose. As with most venues you need to make sure to use adhesives that are approved by the venue manager. We posted reserved signs for the front row that included family members as well as the Birthday Boy and his special seat!

Tory made this wonderful 12 month Banner and we attached it to the back of the bottom section seats so that everyone coming into the auditorium could walk past it and get a good up close look at how much the little man had changed over the year! She attached the photos to archival scrapbook paper and then put that onto real satin ribbon so they can save this in his Time Capsule for the day he's 21 and gets to open it up!

Since this was a "digital" theater, most are becoming digital theaters, they were able to play a photo montage DVD for Tory and Nate of Parker's first year. She used a computer program to create the 10 minute montage which included background music that is important to the family. After the party she was able to make copies of this montage to hand out to special family members. It was simply wonderful. What an incredible "pre-show" before our movie!

Each of the guests were able to pick up a "giraffe" cupcake from Cat's Cakes before or during the movie as a nice little sweet snack to go with their popcorn and soda!

You can see the giraffe wrappers inside the individual clamshell containers. We provided a container of forks for those who didn't want the mess of the cupcake inside the theater or who were sharing a cupcake with a little one.

Also on the table inside the auditorium were these adorable personalized water bottles! Tory made two sizes so that even the smallest of her guests would have a little something to sip on either during the movie or later at home! 

She found these cute little personalized lollipop favors at Beau-coup.com! What was really great about these were that they arrived already assembled and ready to serve but also the candy, while flavored strawberry, were a neutral white for the party!

They were so adorable and they actually taste really really good! An affordable treat to be able to hand out to your guests!

Now here was the "Aha!" moment of the party planning. Tory wanted goodie boxes for the kids but every box she found was huge. You could fit a stuffed animal in each one. Too big for the little guests who had an average age of 18 mos! So at celebrateexpress.com she found these cupcake boxes...yes, cupcake boxes! She just left the insert out of the box that would hold the cupcake sturdy and filled it with little treats like fruit snacks, bubbles, press on tattoos in the party theme and a little blue rubber ducky for their bathtub fun! Much better than a huge box filled with all sorts of penny toys that are either age inappropriate or will get lost very quickly, or candy.

We are a "book family" so we wanted something that would not just be a guest book but something that Parker could enjoy over the years that just happens to be filled with lots of loving messages from the party guests! We invited everyone to sign this Curious George and the Birthday Surprise book on ANY page. So that when reading it to Parker he would get a nice surprise as he made his way from page to page. Truly a keepsake to be treasured.

Here is the entire Lobby Party Table. The one inside the auditorium was nearly a copy of this one except it held the cupcakes, favor boxes and water bottles and this one has the favors, the Birthday Cake and the Guest Book. Decorated with another banner that Tory made herself from scrapbook paper and ribbon, this party table was crowned with this incredible theme matching banner from Celebrateexpress.com!

Here is a close up of the cake. Parker's very own Sugar Giraffe topped his "Smash" cake and a curious monkey decorated the "Family" cake. These were on display as a centerpiece for those who were not attending the family pizza party later that night. You can find out more about this cake and see a photo of Parker diving into that smash cake over at the Cake blog: www.catscakesblog.blogspot.com

The Lobby Table was important because we were able to move the Auditorium Table next to it after the movie so people could easily grab extra cupcakes or waters or goodie boxes and sign in the guest book as well as mingle and catch up with the friends and family members in the lobby while the theater crew got the auditorium ready for the next show time.

Finally, here is the happy parents and thrilled Birthday Boy. It was such a fun party filled with friends and family from all over! Parker had such a good day and didn't melt down even once! Amazing good luck!


Next week I will bring you some wedding ideas but it was fun to share this big family event with you all this week!

Cat

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter filled with lots of family and love! We did get together as a family and, as promised, here are the photos from our Brunch!

I'm going to start out with the pieces and then show you our entire table at the end. The "centerpiece" was a working centerpiece. The little gardener's bag held the flatware as well as the napkins and colored hard boiled eggs. In our house, there is always Easter Candy out for the "kids" so these little mini cups were perfect for the buffet table. We filled them with Cadbury Chocolate Eggs this year but Jelly Beans would be just as cute. It makes for an easy portable treat to put on the plate and carry away. 

The Star of our centerpiece were the kool-aid dyed hard boiled eggs. To get them to sit up on the top of the bag we used paper under the Easter grass and braced the bag with a folded colored paper plate.

As always, PEEPS made it to the table as well. These are just such a part of our day and as our grandsons first real Easter (he was only a few days old last year) he got to munch on these and loved them. Notice that we carried on the "Gardening" theme with the planter dishes. We bought these new and lined them with paper plates for service. They will now actually do their intended job and sit under my pots on my patio! Finding duel purposes for party goods is a great way to reuse the items instead of tossing them away after the event.

 Most of us love Deviled Eggs and Tory tried out a new recipe that does not have mayonaisse in it. She is not a fan of it and the rest of us appreciate the decrease in calories for this treat. They were SO good, I could have eaten the whole plate myself but I was good and shared with everyone else. 

And then I was "bad". Our Brunch Drinks were Vodka, OJ and Rainbow Sherbet and were SO good. Dangerously good. But we held it to just one each.  What is great is that not only did they match our color palette but you don't need to start out with cold liquid...the ice cream chills it up really quickly!

 Here is how we presented the Kool-aid dyed eggs after Brunch. This was the first time we had tried this method of dyeing and we found it on, of course, Pinterest. I have to say we were pretty doubtful that it would work as vibrantly as the photos on Pinterest would lead you to believe so we only bought 3 colors of Kool-aid for this project. We shouldn't have doubted. The Cherry, Pineapple and Orange Kool-aid worked very very well. I did add just a bit of the orange into the Pineapple to make the yellow a bit more vibrant. But these colors work really fast and are, indeed, as vibrant as promised. Each dip takes only about 20 seconds to get this deep color! Amazing! Oh, and there's no vinegar smell since you don't use any. 

That's right. No vinegar. Just a cup of hot water, to dissolve the packet of Kool-aid, and once it's dissolved you just let it cool a bit and go for it. Your kitchen will smell like Kool-aid but not vinegar. Now the "User Warnings" for this method. The positive aspect of how fast it dyes is also a negative aspect. It means it will dye your fingers upon contact as well! So either wear gloves or, like I did, use a spoon and then pat them off with paper towels so your hands don't actually touch the eggs. I think the "whisk" idea would work here as well. That is where you put the hard boiled egg into the inside of the whisk and dip it into the dye. But, if you have more than one person, you would need a lot more whisks! The other issue wasn't an issue with me. You can see on the red egg in front there is "pitting". So you may not get solid coverage with every egg. The striped egg on top took the colors more evenly where a few of the others ended up sort of spreckled. I absolutely loved it so it wasn't a negative for me.

Our complete table. We added Pancakes, Bacon and Bunny Butt Bread to our treats and Deviled Eggs. Bunny Butt bread is just a round of dough with a small "tail" added on the back and then baked. Yummy Brunch!

At the end of the day this was all that was left..a few PEEPS and a couple of eggs. I'm sure they are completely gone by this morning! LOL! 


We hid and hunted eggs, teaching our Grandson how to pick up and put the eggs into his basket. He picked up on it quickly and soon was putting them into the basket and out of the basket and then in, and then out...LOL. Yes, he loved playing with his Easter Eggs. Our son, who is almost 11, got to hunt his eggs too. The difference is that the almost one year old got baby snacks in his eggs and the almost 11 year old got candy and change. Oh, and we hid the eggs for the old kid in a lot harder to find places and the baby's eggs were just on the grass! LOL! 


So, yes, we had a wonderful Easter. We hope we gave you some ideas of what to do with your Easter next year too. Of course, this summer you could break out the plastic tablecloth and make dying eggs with Kool-aid an Art Project and then make egg salad out of them in the end thus making it a Cooking Lesson too!


See you next week where we share Baby's 1st Birthday!

Cat

Happy Monday! It was mentioned last week that some more affordable  party ideas should hit the blog from time to time. Each party we throw is with an eye on affordability but in these hard economic times you may not have the ability to afford even what we call an "affordable" party plan. So we are Back to Basics this week with a Birthday Boy Party Plan!

As always, we start out with the invitations! These from Celebrateexpress.com are $3.49 for 8. They are SO cute and unusual because they are round! That makes them a lot more fun for the guests to open and hang on the fridge till party time!

For about the same price you can get these cute party plates from the same place! How you save money is then coordinating solid colored napkins and cake plates to the colors of the printed plates. We use the dollar store whenever possible for our solid paper plates and napkins. A great way to save money!

And here is an adorable way to presenting the plastic flatware and solid napkins! Just use strips of scrapbook paper and make them into napkin rings with a bit of double stick tape. Stick them in a sand bucket and you have a really cute way to offer up your flatware sets!

Another cost saver is using the dump truck toys as serving bowls! Especially if the Birthday Boy is under 5, you can then clean these up after the party and make them your birthday gift to your son! Just remember to line the bed of the truck with parchement paper, a napkin or even foil if you are using one for dip or hot foods. What a cute way to serve up the party food!

If this is your Birthday Boy's First Birthday, how about a banner over the food table that marks each month of his first 12 months of life? Just use rope, scrapbook paper, sticker numbers and photos of your little boy to make this cute banner!

A great way to get the older Birthday Boy involved is to print out line drawings of trucks and have him color them in! You end up with his precious artwork as an extra touch to your decor. You can find them online at places like this:  http://printablecolouringpages.co.uk/?s=big%20truck . You can see on this food table how they used many trucks as serving bowls, solid plates and cups and printed napkins along with plastic tablecloths and a few ballons. SO cute! In fact, you can give the balloons out as favors at the end of the party!

Ok, so we have covered how to get people there, what to serve the food upon, how to decorate up the space so that just leaves cake, right?! Not everyone is a cake decorator or can even afford the dreaded Costco cake (or, as we refer to them...the cardboard cakes). But for just a few bucks you CAN make up cupcakes. Brightly colored liners are about $3, about another $5 to make the cupcakes and frost them. Then you can add these totally cute cupcake picks! The easiest way would be to punch out circles of colored paper, layer on a white circle on top and stick a sticker in the middle. Tape or glue a coffee stir stick on a toothpick on to the back, or in between the layers of paper, and then stick it into the cupcake! Or you can print out clipart, like they did above, and then punch that out with a circle punch and place that on the colored rounds of paper! SO cute and so easy. Best yet, they only cost about $2 to make. 

So instead of a couple hundred dollars for a party for your friends and family you end up with a great party for under $50, including the gift for the Birthday Boy! Hope we gave you some great Back to Basics ideas for your little ones party this week!

See you next week with more party ideas!

Cat

Happy Monday! This week we tackle Birthday Parties! I know a LOT of little girls turning 1 this year and so I thought, why not use one of my favorite, and very popular, themes to show how you could put together THE most adorable party for your little girl. PARIS! Then I gave it another moments thought and figured out that your older girl, or hey, even YOU, would love to have this party theme too! So this sent me researching to all the corners of the web, including Pinterest of course, to see what I could find...and did I find a LOT of really cute stuff to share with you all this week.

First up, of course, are the Invitations! Invite everyone to come join you in "Paris" for the afternoon with these totally great "Passport Invitations" I found on Etsy! The outside says "Passport to Paris" and then inside....

Looks like a Passport, including a photo of the Birthday Girl! So absolutely cute. Wouldn't you LOVE to get one of these in the mail? Imagine how much your guests would love to be invited in this way!

No onto the set up. I'm including four different ideas for four different reasons. They are all Pink and Black to match the theme and each shares qualities with the others but there is one thing that stands out on each one that I wanted to share. The first one, pictured above, shows how you can really dress up your food and cake tables just by remembering to dress up the wall behind them! As simple as buying a couple of yards of fabric and tacking them to the wall, this idea really makes a wonderful backdrop for your food and desserts!

 As you saw in the first set up, the second set up uses a banner on the wall to help dress up your backdrop as well. This is a great way to say Happy Birthday or just put the Birthday Girl's name up for all to see. On this table, their dessert table, they included a copy of the invite and the favors as well. Making it easy for your guests to enjoy the theme while reminding them to take home a goodie!

 If you are having a sit down party what a great way to dress up your table than with these patterns. And how easy! You can buy printed napkins even in the grocery store these days and the placemats can just be 12x12 pieces of scrapbook paper! Easy! For this table they used patterned plates but simple white plates would work just as well.

Now, if you really want to dress up your space consider using tulle on the tables. Tulle costs almost nothing and you can easily punch up your tables by using several layers of it. Consider alternating pink and white tulle for a multi layered effect. Notice how they used draped tulle for the entrance way as well!

And not onto the food. These adorable little pink cookies with "Hugs" in them are so easy to do. It's just a sugar cookie dough that you can add pink gel color to, sprinkled with pink sanding sugar right after baking and then chocolate "hug" placed right in the center while still hot. Yummy AND cute!

Cupcakes and cookies make for a wonderful addition to any dessert table, notice the incredible cake in the background too, but flat plates don't do them justice. Think about using this idea of stacking cake stands to make a bigger, more elegant impression.

More for a kids party than for an adult, these cute little bottles of strawberry milk are easily dressed up with some scrapbook paper strips and heart stickers as well was red and white striped paper straws. Put a tiny Eiffel Tower sticker in the middle of the heart and suddenly they "say" I love Paris! How cute to serve to the kids with their dessert course!

A bit more adult are the drink glasses with the Happy Birthday stickers on them. Yup, stickers. You can buy them at your scrapbooking store and just peel and stick them to the clear tumblers you get at the grocery or party supply store. Notice how the paper straws add just a little bit more, even to empty glasses!

A great way to serve a refreshment as well as giving your guests an extra favor is to put on some personalized water bottle labels. These are a favorite of mine because they also used a bit of "bling" on the bottles which fits in perfectly with our theme! Also available in scrapbook stores or craft stores, these gems are just peel and stick. How easy is that?

And speaking of favors! These incredible Eiffel Tower cookies would make a simply wonderful little gift for your guests to take home from your Parisian Party! These are from Sweetopia and worth every penny! Amazing cookies!

Lastly, we adore these little Eiffel Tower keychains that we found on www.littlethings.com for your guests. For years after your party your guests will be able to look at their keychains and remember what a great party it was and what a great time they had with you.

I don't even have a little girl turning one, or 7 and I suddenly want to have a Let's Go to Paris Party!! Hope this weeks post gave you a few ideas for a great party for your little, or big, girls upcoming birthday!
Cat