All-American Girl Birthday

 

Hello, y’all.  Today I want to share some photos from Lucy’s 7th birthday party.  This year we celebrated Lucy’s birthday a couple of weeks early because I was expecting a baby the week of her actual birthday.

Months ago Lucy decided she wanted an All-American party.  That’s a terrific theme for someone whose birthday is in July.  There is no shortage of red, white, and blue party supplies at that time of year.

Since I was 8 1/2 months pregnant, I recruited some help prepping for the party.  Ty and Lucy were in charge of making white chocolate dipped pretzels.  As you can see, Lucy couldn’t resist doing a little taste test of her work.

I made myself keep the food and decor pretty simple for this party, but I did want to give Lucy an awesome cake.  It’s been quite a while (years) since I’ve done any serious cake decorating.  It was nice to know that I still had it in me!

Like I mentioned earlier, I kept the decorating pretty simple – red and white table cloths, a few streamers, and some stars scattered around the tables were just about it.

Y’all know nothing says America like a hot dog feast!  Along with the hot dogs, the party guests enjoyed corn on the cob, strawberries, chips, and dips.

In addition to inviting her friends to the party, Lucy asked the girls to bring along their favorite dolls.  Lucy and I made some patriotic, doll-sized tutus and hats as party favors for the girls.  During the party, the girls also made personalized necklaces for their dolls.

While shopping around for party decorations, I stumbled across a package of cupcake sparklers.  Score!  We stuck a sparkler in the top of Lucy’s cake while we sang Happy Birthday to her.  It was awesome!

A few gifts Lucy received for her birthday were manicure supplies, Bath & Body Works products, a jumbo pack of gel pens with a Scripture coloring book, doll clothes and accessories, a pair of sandals, and a pretty little gray kitten.  We adopted the kitten from a local shelter, and he has turned out to be the sweetest cat I’ve ever seen.  Lucy named him Whiskers.

Happy birthday, sweet girl.  We sure do love you!

Lindsey

Happy Birthday, You Two!

Well, the big birthday party of 2015 is in the books!

This year, for the first time ever, I decided to combine Ty’s and Lucy’s birthday parties.  Since their actual birthdays are only two months apart, we split the difference and hosted a birthday bash right smack in the middle of the two dates.

Upon first mentioning the idea of a combo party, I received a little resistance from the monkeys, but I reassured them that they would each be able to have their own cakes and eat them too, so to speak.  Once the monkeys finally agreed to the plan (as if they had a choice) I had the challenge of intermingling two totally different party themes:  Star War and Minnie Mouse.

For the most part, I kept the two themes separate.  We had a Minnie area, and we had a Star Wars area.  For the buffet I created an arrangement and a menu that reflected both themes.

At 11 years old, Ty has nearly outgrown extravagantly themed birthday parties.   Still I had to do a little decorating for my birthday boy.  I jazzed up the Star Wars table with touches of black and gold.  For the table centerpiece I filled a vase with gold star balloons and black crepe paper.  I also hung black and gold crepe paper from the ceiling.  Then I set out this bowl of “Chewie’s Wookie Cookies” for the boys to carry home as favors.  Out by the pool I had a basket full of pool noodle light sabers for the boys to battle with.

Since I was pretty busy with all the party planning, I had to keep the cakes fairly simple.  Ty requested a vanilla cake with two light sabers crossing on top.

On the Minnie Mouse side of the house I got a little more fancy with the decorating.  Lucy and I created this name garland to hang across the mirror, then we placed the party favors and utensils on the buffet underneath.

Inspired by the Minnie’s Bowtique cartoons, I created ribbon ponytail holders for Lucy and her friends.

Lucy helped me out in the kitchen making and bagging these sweet Mice Krispie Treats.

On the other end of the buffet we set out the Mouseketools for cake and ice cream.

Lucy’s cake was red velvet.  The mouse figures on top were purchased at Dollar Tree.  Minnie’s outfit was initially pink, but I gave her a makeover with some red spray paint.

After swimming for a while and dining on some yummy hot dogs and hamburgers, the monkeys eagerly opened their birthday presents.  Lucy received lots of Minnie toys, a bracelet making kit, camping gear for her American Girl, art supplies, some cute clothes, and this sweet handmade card from her friend.

The one thing Lucy requested for her birthday was an aquarium.  Of all things!  An aquarium!

She was thrilled when she opened her last gift to find this neat little tank with a colorful Betta fish.

Ty told everyone who asked him that he wanted Legos for his birthday.  Well, he got what he asked for – lots and lots of Legos.  I was dumb enough to think that all those Legos would keep him busy for at least a week or two.  Ha!  More like a day or two!

He assembled all the kits before the weekend was over.

As you can see he was particularly excited about these Minecraft Legos.

One last picture for you today.  Little sis enjoyed the birthday party too.  Tacy had a blast batting around balloons, blowing bubbles, and helping Lucy open presents.  I think her favorite thing of all, though, was this chocolate ice cream.  As usual, Tacy insisted on feeding herself, and she didn’t get one drop on her dress.  Although, she had quite the chocolate mustache by the time she was finished.

Whew!  It was a fun party, but I’m glad it’s behind me.  I think I am officially through with all my summer duties:

• Plan next school year – Check!
• Chaperone children’s church camp – Check!
• Vacation Bible School – Check!
• Birthday parties – Check!
• Relax the rest of the summer – Working on it!

Lindsey

One’s Upon a Time ~ Tacy’s First Birthday

October 1 was Miss Tacy Mae’s first birthday, and this weekend our family gathered to celebrate her special day.

How I would have loved to have given Tacy a magnificent, birthday blowout, but I don’t have the time or the money to afford such an affair.  Instead we celebrated with a simple, Sunday lunch at home with our closest family.

Even though my goal was to keep things simple, I still wanted a theme for Tacy’s party.  Inspired by the book parties I’d seen on Pinterest, I decided on a storybook theme which I called “One’s upon a Time.”

I designed the invitations to look like an old library card.

For the decorations I set around some old vintage books belonging to me, the Tool Man, and my mom.  Vintage sounds so much more pleasant than old or antique, doesn’t it?

My favorite book was this Little Red Riding Hood.  Y’all might remember that this book is normally on display in Tacy’s Little Red inspired nursery.

In fact, Tacy’s nursery sparked the color theme for the party – red and aqua.  I even used leftover fabric from her room to make Tacy’s party dress.

Another fun detail I made for the party was this chalkboard summary of Tacy’s first year milestones.  I finally broke down and ordered myself a chalk pen, and let me tell you, it works soooo much better than traditional chalk.

For lunch, we dined on delicious lasagna, green beans, fresh salad, and breadsticks.  Yum!  I was surprised at how much Tacy liked the lasagna.  Although she was down on the floor running around, she kept making her way over to me with her mouth gaped open, ready for a bite.

Before cake and ice cream time, Tacy got some loving from her grand-ma-ma’s.

For the birthday cake, I made a red velvet with cream cheese icing.  I left the sides un-iced to highlight the layers.  To spruce it up a bit, I added a banner made from scraps of fabric.  Simple but sweet!

Time for presents!  Tacy would rather have eaten them than opened them.

Tacy got more than enough help from Lucy while opening her presents.

Of course, Tacy got lots of books for her birthday, but she also got a Little People car, a beautiful, pearl bracelet, a snazzy pair of red shoes, and pint-sized chair for reading.  Here she is sitting in her chair, reading a book, and admiring her new shoes.

After she was done opening gifts, Tacy got to try some birthday cake.

She loved it, as you might can tell by looking at this face.

Then she tried a bite of ice cream.  I don’t know why, but for some reason, Tacy wasn’t into the ice cream at all.  Every time I’d try to give her a bite, she’d spit it back out.

So, we just stuck to birthday cake instead!

Happy birthday, Tacy Mae.  We love you!

Lindsey

Lucy’s Cupcake Party

This year Lucy had no problem deciding what theme she wanted for her birthday party.

Cupcakes!

I guess she got the idea after she received her very own mini cupcake maker for Christmas last year.

After we installed our swimming pool this summer, Lucy’s birthday plans expanded into a cupcake/swimming party.  That’s a lot of activity for only a couple of hours, but, hey, there’s no easier way to entertain a bunch of kids than to throw them into a pool!

There’s one thing I’ve learned from planning birthday parties over the past 10 years.  You can’t possibly schedule a party at a time when everyone can attend.  This party was no exception.  Many of Lucy’s friends and family were out of town, so this party turned out to be an intimate event.  But that was totally OK.  It turned out to be a fun day (although it was 97 degrees out), and the kids had fun splashing in the pool and pigging out on pizza.

Maybe I’m getting old.  Maybe I’m getting lazy.  Maybe it’s the fact that I have three kids sucking the energy out of me (literally), but I feel I really dropped the ball with this party.  I had such high aspirations for food and décor.  I’ve been pinning party ideas on Pinterest for months.  But when it came down to it, I cut so many corners it’s a wonder I even got a tablecloth on the table.  Ugh!  I hate it when I do that.

How about I show you what I did manage to eek out?

Let’s start with the birthday cake.  Lucy wanted a giant cupcake.  Sounded good to me!  I don’t think I could have handled an elaborately sculpted princess or sugar tiara this year.  I used three 6” round cakes to carve out this colossal cupcake.  It was easy-peasy to decorate, and I think it is absolutely adorable.  (Not to mention yummy!)

This next treat was a Pinterest find – strawberry wafer cookies, dipped in white chocolate, and sprinkled with…sprinkles!  I got the monkeys to help me out with these.  Even though the cookies were easy to assemble, they certainly did make a big, visual impact.

In keeping with the sprinkle theme, I mixed up a creamy, vanilla dip, topped it with more sprinkles, and served it with pretzels, butter cookies, and apple slices.  (There was certainly no shortage of sugar on this party buffet.)  I also set out a couple of bowls of pink and white iced animal crackers.  You know, the ones covered with sprinkles?

Like I said, other than the food table, I didn’t manage to get much decorating done.  I only threw up a couple of garlands.

I made these with scrapbooking paper, cupcake liners, and twinkle lights…

And this simple swag of twisted tissue paper dressed the back door.

We let the kids go swimming first.  Like I said, it was hot!

And humid.

Don’t forget humid.  Gotta love Louisiana!

Our little family of geese observed from a safe distance.

Once we coaxed the kiddos out of the pool, we got down to the business of cutting cake and opening presents.  Everyone wanted a picture with the birthday girl.

How about that birthday hat?  Lucy remembered I made her a hat for her third birthday, and she asked me to make her another one this year.  So one afternoon Lucy and I pulled out the poster board, hot glue gun, fabric scraps, and ribbons, and we designed this cute party topper.

Lucy got all kinds of fun gifts for her birthday.  My Little Ponies, a Rapunzel doll, various coloring books, Leapfrog DVD’s, a tea set, rubber stamps and markers, manicure supplies, and this super cool, girly long bow.  It’s the perfect weapon for shooting that annoying, big brother!

Truth be told, considering this was supposed to be a “cupcake” party, not a lot of time was actually spent on cupcakes.  But Lucy and her friend Cassie did have fun decorating a few.  I never knew how much candy and sprinkles would fit on a mini cupcake until I saw Cassie decorate one.  She could really pile them on!

I don’t think the boys ever slowed down long enough to decorate a cupcake, but I did see them sneaking candy every time they made a pass by the table.

Ordinarily, my birthday party duties would be over for the year, but no more!  Miss Tacy Mae will be celebrating her big one in only a couple of months.  I already have her theme picked out (my little secret for now), and I’m making party plans in my head.  Maybe if I start working today I will have everything ready for her party.

Maybe…

Lindsey