A Shopkins Birthday Party

Well the Shopkins craze hit our household last year and of course Morgan requested a Shopkins party! Shopkins are just the cutest little things. They are tiny collectible toys based on grocery store items and they have the cutest little faces and unique names. I would have totally collected these as a kid!

Rainbow Loom Birthday Party

Morgan Paige is 7 years old!  

I.CANNOT.TAKE.IT!  

Someone please STOP this crazy train!  

Six was so fun, so I can’t wait to see what seven has in store.  

This time last year, Morgan was obsessed with two things:

1. Stuffed Animals

and

2. Rainbow Loom.  

A Teddy Bear’s Picnic

I can’t believe my Morgan is 6!  Where does the time go?  She is super into stuffed animals right now and plays with them a lot.  Any time I take her to the toy store, she usually chooses a new stuffed friend.  She just loves them.

Lalaloopsy Tea Party

I’m so excited to post about Morgan’s Lalaloopsy Tea Party.  She has loved Lalaloopsy for two years now and wanted a Lalaloopsy party for her 5th Birthday.  We decided that Jewel Sparkles was the perfect Lalaloopsy to base her party on since, according to Lalaloopsy Legend, Jewel Sparkles is made from remnants of a real princess’ dress, is very graceful, a little bit bossy, and loves to dance and wear sparkly clothes…sounds just like my little Morgan. This is the invitation I had created by Nancy at N’s Little Shop on Etsy and sent out to all 15 party guests.

I wanted to have the party at home but needed to find entertainment for the little guests.  We thought combining the Lalaloopsy Princess theme with a tea party would be fun, so I enlisted the help of Eileen Phelan of Princess Tea Parties to help.  I already knew she was fabulous as we used her for Madison’s 5th Birthday Party as well.  She wasn’t familiar with Lalaloopsy dolls, but reassured me she’d research and learn about them before the party.  After securing Eileen two months in advance (she is very busy and you need to book early), I began gathering inspiration for the party on Pinterest.  There are so many inspiring photos out there and I used many of them in creating the decor for this party.  I knew Eileen would be creating a beautiful tea party table complete with lace table cloths, flowers in french lemonade bottles, crystal plates and cups, silverware, trays of finger sandwiches, and tea pots, so I concentrated on transforming my dining and living room into a Lalaloopsy Land fit for a princess. 

All Lalaloopsies have buttons for eyes, so I went with that detail and created large buttons from paper plates and strung them together.  I hung these on my sliding doors in the dining area.  I filled in the spaces in between with pink, green and white ribbon.  It made a lovely backdrop and helped set the mood for the party.  I also hung large tissue paper pom poms by Martha Stewart down the center of the room.

My girls have a large collection of Lalaloopsy Dolls, so I incorporated them throughout the house.  The leftover doll stands from Madison’s Barbie Party really came in handy.

The colors I used throughout the party were pink and green.  I used pink and green streamers for the backdrop for the dessert table.  My mom helped me by stapling the streamers to a string and then we hung the string in the corner of the room behind the table.  I hung a fabric garland on the front of the table.  The garland was designed by Whimsically Detailed, a great site for custom party decor.

Included on the dessert table were these adorable cookies by Carrie Budke, a Rye local.  The cookies look like Crumbs Sugar Cookie, another Lalaloopsy.  Carrie makes fabulous cookies and made these with two days notice.  Thanks, Carrie! 

I ordered these gorgeous fondant cupcake toppers from Top Cake Decors on Etsy.  I had 350 Classic Bakeshop, a local bakery, bake mini cupcakes and place the toppers on them.  They came out great.  How cute is the Jewel Sparkles topper?

I made little fruit cups that I called “Lalafruitsy.”  I ordered the green polka-dot cups from The TomKat Studio and they were perfect for mini-fruit cups.  I loved that they are lined with wax, so they didn’t get wet and soggy from the fruit. I found the cutest glitterized forks from Whimsically Detailed to use to eat the fruit and cake.

We always have so much cake leftover so I went with a 7-inch round cake from Cornerstone (the smallest they make) and we still had leftovers!   I got a plain white cake so I could decorate it.  I topped it with a Lalaloopsy Tea Party set featuring Jewel Sparkles and Crumbs Sugar Cookie.  I made the banner topper using scrapbook paper, bakers twine, and paper straws.

I was up late the night before decorating and setting up, and then Eileen comes 20 minutes before the guests arrived and turned this…

into this. She is AMAZING!

A welcome sign hung on the front door…I made a number 5 out of buttons.

Morgan wore a custom shirt designed by Rowan May Fairs on Etsy that I paired with a green tulle skirt from Gap Kids and a Jewel Sparkles chunky necklace from Etsy shop, Twincess Inspirations.  Her Jewel Sparkles hair clip is from Tutus and MudPies.  

As the guests arrived, they chose princess costumes from Mrs. Phelan’s dress-up rack to wear to the tea party.  I also put several Lalaloopsy costumes on the rack for the girls to wear.

Here’s my little Molly wearing Jewel Sparkles….

The girls also chose tiaras, bracelets, and necklaces to adorn themselves.

Morgan decided to wear the Lalaloopsy, Scarlett Red Riding Hood’s costume.

That’s Morgan’s teacher, Mrs. Cheyne.  She is friends with Eileen and came along to help.  She surprised Morgan and all of her friends…many of whom are in her class.  How cool to have your teacher at your birthday party!

After getting their nails and makeup done, the girls sat down and the tea party began.  Eileen told the kids that she was serving magic tea and this tea will make you act like a real princess or prince (there was one little boy) and it tastes just like pink lemonade! The kids ate mini turkey and cheese sandwiches, heart-shaped strawberry jam sandwiches, and bagels with cream cheese or butter. Many girls brought a Lalaloopsy doll to the party and I gave them a doll stand so their doll could join them for tea. The kids were so good, they stayed in their seats, raised their hands for more food, and when they wanted more tea they said, “More tea, please!” with a princess voice.

\

After lunch, they played freeze dance, hot potato, and limbo. It was so cute seeing the kids dance in their ensembles.

After playing games, the kids sat again for a sticker craft.  They decorated little pink canvas bags with foam stickers.

After the craft, it was time to sing Happy Birthday and enjoy cake, cupcake and cookies.  This is the only picture I have of Morgan with her cake.  I wish I could recreate it and take more pictures. 

It was a great party.  The kids seemed to have a great time and Morgan loved having all of her friends around to celebrate with her.  I was so glad I could create a party for her that includes some of her favorite things at this age.  Happy 5th Birthday Morgan Paige, you are the sweetest, most special girl in the whole world.  I love you with all my heart.

XOXO,

Mommy

P.S.  If you would like to have a Tea Party Birthday Party, call Eileen Phelan at 203-532-0547. The price is very reasonable and she is willing to work with you to give you the tea party you envision.

I also wanted to share a tip I found very helpful.  I had thank-you cards printed in advance and as Morgan opened her gifts, I filled in the blanks on the card with the gift and Morgan signed her name.  I never did it this way before, but it went so smoothly and allowed her to slow down and appreciate the gift one at a time.  I had Nancy at N’s Little Shop on Etsy create Fill-in-the-Blank Thank You’s that matched the invitation.

I hope you enjoyed the details that went into this party.  Thanks for visiting the blog!

Care Bears and Rainbows: Morgan’s 4th Birthday Party

My little Morgan just turned 4 and she decided shortly after her 3rd birthday that she wanted a Care Bear party next.  I’m not a huge fan of all out character parties but can’t deny my children their wishes so I usually choose a color or two that has to do with the character and most of the decor is designed around the colors rather than the character itself.  For this party, I chose rainbow colors since Care Bears live in the clouds and play on rainbows.

This is the dessert table I designed with lots of rainbow colors and desserts.

I created a rainbow banner to hang above the table.

The cake was homemade this year…you’ll see why.  I had ordered Morgan a rainbow shirt and tutu on Etsy but the tutu didn’t fit her.  It fit the cake stand perfectly and really made the table pop.  The colored M&M’s brought in a lot of color as well.

The adorable cake topper was from Creating from the Heart on Etsy.  This little cake topper is so well made and the details are amazing.  She even looks a little like Morgan.

I used the same Starbucks Frap bottles from Madison’s Princess Tea Party to serve a rainbow of drinks.  I used Gatorade since it comes in so many bright colors.

Along with the cake, I served a rainbow of fruit.

These Chocolate Covered Oreos from Sweeties by Kim were delicious and pretty!

I got these yummy mini-cupcakes from Baked by Melissa in NYC!

The rainbow party hats were found at Target.  I added a little pizzazz to them by trimming them with feather boa.  I put a sparkly “M” on Morgan’s hat to personalize it.

The party favors were Care Bear DVD’s.  I put them in slim jewel case and lined them with colorful scrapbook paper and tied them with a matching ribbon.

Morgan’s Care Bear collection made for a great display and photo opp spot.

Care Bear coloring sheets and crayons sorted by color in matching cups awaited the party guests.

Everyone enjoyed coloring while waiting for the guests to arrive.

The girls were so surprised when a giant Care Bear joined us.

They played parachute, freeze dance, limbo, had a magic show and scavenger hunt with the Care Bear from Dave’s Cast of Characters.

After an hour of fun and games, we sang happy birthday and enjoyed pizza and cake.

The kids were so surprised when I cut the cake and revealed this rainbow inside!

This was one of the most fun parties we’ve had.  Morgan had a blast!

Happy 4th Birthday, Morgan Paige.  I hope your Care Bear cheer is always here.

XOXO!

Mommy

Olivia The Pig Party

Morgan really loves Olivia the Pig (books by Ian Falconer and Nick Jr. Cartoon) so for her 3rd birthday we decided to throw an Olivia the Pig Party for her and 10 of her closest girlfriends.  I always said I would never do character parties but this is the 2nd year in a row for her…last year was Abby Cadabby.  I like to create the party decor rather than purchase the character supplies at the party store.  I usually choose two or three colors that match the character and go from there.  We went with black, red and white for Olivia the Pig.  The Olivia the Pig V-Day party on HWTM was a huge inspiration for this party.

I love creating a sweets or dessert table, although I’m not sure why I do it…I know the parents of the little guests don’t like all the sweets for their kiddos. I just think they are so beautiful and a great way to add flare to a party.  I am going to have to start thinking of some healthier foods for the next round of parties…I’m afraid people are going to stop coming with all the cupcakes, cookies, cake pops, candy, etc. that are served.

The party was in March and still cold outside.  I have an empty room in my basement (just haven’t gotten around to furnishing yet) so I decided to hold the party in there.  It was a little small but worked out well.  I planned a two hour party with a craft activity, a game and also a bounce house in the back yard.  We also had lunch and cake and desserts.  It was fun, but exhausting entertaining 10 little girls under the age of 5.

Here are the details…

The Party Room

The Cake Table

My favorite local bakery, Cornerstone Caterers, made the cake.

The topper was purchased on Amazon and is actually a bobble head doll.

I made the water bottle labels.  The water bottles were served with lunch.  I think it is always fun for the kids and the birthday girl to have customized water bottles.  It is also a great way to highlight the party theme.  I love the twist top water bottles from Poland Springs.  They are perfect for little kids and spill proof because the actual cap cannot be removed.  I take off the labels and replace with my own using scotch tape…super quick and easy.

I used red lunch bags that I found at Target to pack each guest a little lunch.  This made passing out lunch to each child super easy.  I served macaroni and cheese in individual containers.  I used ziploc containers from the supermarket.  I created a round label which fit perfectly on the top to tie in the theme.  The small red bags were leftover from V-Day treats and I used them to hold chicken nuggets.  Each lunch bag also had a small red apple as well but it didn’t make it into the picture.  The label on the bag said “Dinner with Morgan” after the book, Dinner with Olivia, which I read to the girls just before serving lunch.

I tried to serve treats that also coordinated with the party colors.  I included M&Ms in red, black and white, red strawberries, red heart peeps (from Valentine’s Day), and Red Twizzlers, cupcakes and custom cookies.  I designed the toppers for the cupcakes and the party circles used to dress up the jars I used to hold the treats.

Yummy #3 Cookies from Andrea’s Goodies on Etsy.

I made this feather boa wreath which I hung above the dessert table.  I used this tutorial on Heavenly Blooms to make the wreath.  It was super easy…but not super inexpensive.

This cluster of honeycomb balls and daisys hung on one wall in the party room.  I used party circles on the centers of the daisys.

I had a large Olivia the Pig in the corner of the room to serve double duty as a photo prop and for Pin the Bows on Olivia.  I bought the Olivia Giant Wall Decals from Birthday Express and put the large one on a large cardboard box.  I then cut around the decal with an exacto knife.  It worked out great and the kids loved posing with it.

I decorated the TV we have mounted in the room to resemble a theater and had Olivia playing throughout the party. 

I made party hats using heavy scrapbook paper and ribbon. I embellished the birthday girl’s party hat with red feather boa.

I set up a table in our living room as well and the kids colored Olivia coloring sheets that I printed off of the Nick Jr. Website as we waited for everyone to arrive.

Once everyone arrived, I read the book, Olivia by Ian Falconer, to the group. 

There is a part in the book where Olivia paints Picasso style on the wall using black and red paint.  For the craft, I bought a small canvas for each guest and gave them 5 minutes to paint Picasso style as Oliva did.  It was a very messy craft!

While a cleaned up the craft the kids went outside to jump in the bounce house and play for a bit.  Then it was back inside for Pin the Bows on Olivia.  I attached double stick craft dots to small red ribbons and let the kids try to pin the bows on Olivia’s ears.

After the game, I read another book Dinner With Olivia, before serving lunch with Morgan.

After lunch it was time for cake.  We sung Happy Birthday to the birthday girl!

When the party was over, each guest went home with an Olivia Activity Book and a Crayon Roll made using Olivia Fabric.  I got them custom made from My Kids Boutique on Etsy.  I placed both in a large celophane and tied it up with ribbon and a black and white swirl Lollipop.

The party was a success and Morgan had a blast.  She still talks about her Olivia party almost daily and it has been 4 months.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY BIG 3 YEAR OLD SWEETHEART!

MOMMY LOVES YOU!

XOXO

P.S. Morgan’s Outfit was a Custom Pillow Case Dress with fabric featuring images from vintage Olivia books.  It was made by Wonderfully Made on Etsy.  I paired it with black crop leggings and red Converse sneakers.  Super cute!

Abby Cadabby Birthday Party

Morgan LOVED Sesame Street so for her 2nd birthday I wanted to throw a Sesame Street party, but of course wanted it to be all girly girl.  She liked the character Abby Cadabby- a cute little fairy- and I thought she was the perfect character to base the party around.  The colors we chose for the party were purple, pink and turquoise to match Abby of course.  Here are some of the details…

 

The birthday girl all dressed and ready to go to her party.

The party was held in a rec room…rather large but worked out well as it allowed plenty of space for the kids to run around with Abby Cadabby herself!

 I made up some wand centerpieces for the kids’ tables.

The dessert table held the cake and lots of yummy sweets and treats.   

The cake was made by my usual bakery…Cornerstone Caterers.

Guests were invited to fill up a treat bag with candy from the candy buffet.

Purple and pink lollipops from Birthday Express.  These were a hit, I just didn’t like that the wrappers were not clear unlike the picture on the website I ordered from.

The cupcakes were a huge hit too.

A close up of the favor boxes, cupcake toppers and water bottle labels.

As the guests arrived, they made a pit stop at the craft table to make fairy wands and get Abby Cadabby tattoos. 

You can’t see in the picture, but water and star shaped sponges were in the tattoo tub so the tattoos could be applied.

The favor boxes were displayed for the guests to take home.  I went with the boxes and favors from Birthday Express to make these easier for me.  They came with crayons, activity book, Abby Cadabby stickers, a stuffed wand and a lollipop

The highlight of the party was when Abby Cadabby arrived and danced, sang and played games with the kiddos.

I found an Abby Cadabby pull strign pinata at Party City and stuffed it with lots of goodies.

Happy Birthday my sweet Morgan Paige.  I hope it was a FAIRY MAGICAL day!

XOXO,

Mommy

Pinkalicious Valentine’s Day Party

I love having a blog now so I can post all of the parties I’ve done in the past.  Today I am going to post the PINKALICIOUS Valentine’s Party I threw for Valentine’s Day 2010.  My girls loved the Pinkalicious books and I thought that V-Day would be a perfect way to incorporate the character and the book.  We had a small party in our tiny condo.  I let each daughter invite 3 friends.  The kids had a blast!  Here are some of the details.

A scrapbook paper banner hanging in the window…heart lollipop centerpieces…cupcake apron chair covers…

We served pink lemonade in these pink sugar coated cups with YUM stir sticks courtesy of  Style Circle and heart shaped ice cubes.

I served tons of sweets at this party.  This was around the time I started seeing “sweets” tables popping up everywhere.  While I think they are beautiful, I don’t think the parents of the little ones appreciate the creativity when it comes to their kids and sweets.  I did try to incorporate fruit and also served Strawberry Cream Cheese sandwiches…in heart shapes of course.  A pink feather boa and pink lanterns hung above the food table.

 

Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry icing and cute Pinkalicious cupcake toppers was the centerpiece of the dessert table.

I had a last minute menu change and forgot to switch the sign for these.  These are Hostess Brand strawberry mini cakes that I put on a lollipop stick and topped with a red m&m….cute for last minute huh?  I’m talking 5 min. before guests arrived last minute.

Pink chocolate coated popcorn served in cones that sat on a bed of pink m&m’s.  Wish I had more time to dress up the cones a little, but time ran short.  They were still a hit!

I made heart shaped rice krispie treats that I tinted pink with red food coloring.

I dipped pretzel rods into white chocolate and pink candy sprinkles.  YUM!

Pink marshmallows dipped in white chocolate and pink sugar.

I included an assortment of red fruits for the kiddos along with PB and Raspberry J and Strawberry Cream Cheese Sandwiches.

All of the guests wen home with pink bubble bath along with the aprons and heart lollipops.

Activities for the party included Guess How Many jellybeans in the jar, coloring Pinklicious coloring sheets, a read-aloud of the book, hershey kiss hunt and find, and decorating PINK cupcakes with sprinkles and candies.

This was a fun party to host.  I LOVE Valentine’s Day!

Little Cupcake Theme Party

I wasn’t going to have a party for my daughter, Morgan’s 1st birthday.  Since her birthday is in March and it is still cold in NY I couldn’t have it at a park or playground and the condo I was living in was too small to host a birthday party so I was going to skip it all together…I mean she is one and won’t remember and she is my 2nd child so it wasn’t my first year to celebrate parenthood.  I was okay with my decision until 2 weeks before her birthday and then I started feeling really, really guilty about not planning anything for her. 

I woke up in the middle of the night sort of panicked and guilt ridden and just started planning a party.  I needed something in a hurry since her birthday was in two short weeks.  I found a theme on Birthday Express that I thought was cute and for the next two weeks I became obsessed with all things CUPCAKE!  I designed the invitiation, researched a place to hold the party and had everything in place before dawn.

I called the venue, Little Scoops, first thing the next morning and secured the date and I was set!  I mailed out the invitations by the afternoon.

I’m documenting some of the party ideas below but this party took place two years ago, before I was party obsessed, so I didn’t get great pictures of every little detail (who knew that was important!  LOL!) and it was before I was into making my own decorations.  I did however love a gorgeous cake!

The cake was beautifully done with a cupcake on top and mini cupcakes around the base by Corner Stone Caterers, my local bakery.

Little Scoops had party coordinators that ran the activities so I didn’t have to do much in that area.  One of the activites I brought in was Pin the Candle on the Cupcake . The owner ended up buying it from me after the party…she loved it so much!

I don’t have a great picture but you can see the aprons and cupcake boxes in this picture.  The kids decorated yummy cupcakes from Crumbs Bake Shop (a local gourmet cupcake company) and put them in Wilton Snappy Stripe Cupcake Boxes to take home.  I loved that I found boxes to coordinate with the colors of the party- Purple and Pink! I designed a round sticker that said “Thanks for coming to my party!” for the top of the boxes.  I bought plain white aprons for each guest and painted their names on them.  I also ironed on some cupcake appliques.  They wore the aprons while decorating and took those home as well.

And here is the cutie patootie birthday girl with mommy and daddy.  I bought her a dress with cupcakes smocked on it to wear to the party. 

Here she is eating her first cupcake.

Morgan is three now!  I can’t believe how big she has gotten.  She is still my little CUPCAKE and I’ll never forget her 1st birthday!  Mommy loves you, Morgan Paige!  XOXO!