Shunky Monkey 1st Birthday Party!

Our little guy turned one last Saturday and we had a small family birthday party for him - "monkey" style.

It included paper decorations - paper monstera leaves, kraft paper vines, handmade party hats - thrifted monkeys (washed, of course) and banana desserts. A couple of cards/gifts, some songs and laughter, and our boy was ready for his afternoon nap. :-)

Birthday hat template, monkey face, monstera leaf silhouette, monkeys: thrifted, vine inspiration: this pin

Golden Birthday (party)

Our girl turned FIVE last fall and I'm finally able to share a few details from her sweet and special birthday party - her first party with friends! It was her golden birthday (five on the 5th) so we celebrated with all things gold and sparkly. We kept it pretty simple. Friends were invited to wear something gold or sparkly to paint pumpkins, take pictures, have faces and fingernails painted and, of course, eat cake. Strawberry and buttercream with gold sprinkles, of course! Each girl took home a helium balloon with several gold gumballs as a weight and a handmade golden/pearl tiara.

I originally wanted all things champagne gold (prettiest gold, in my opinion) but it was quite difficult to find and I was limited in my ability to find them both because of new baby at home and budget. So I compromised and there were several shades of gold - and no one cared. It was beautiful! And fun.

* tutorial for super fun, easy and super cheap photo backdrop found here.
* I made a glitter paper (glitter cardstock from local hobby store) Happy Birthday banner inspired by Miss Mustard Seed's Merry and Bright banners
* my attempt at tulle covered balloons failed, so we used the tulle on the chairs instead.
* Parties don't have to be expensive to be fun and special! I did this party really cheaply, except for the cake. Normally I would've made it myself, but I needed to give myself a break - like I mentioned before, new baby home - and didn't want the stress of baking/decorating a cake so we paid a friend with a small cake business to do it. That was the most expensive part! And completely worth it, it was so pretty! And tasty too. (Support small business!)

Superhero Birthday Party

My sister is a great party thrower - it helps she is awesome with a budget AND that my brother-in-law is an artist. :-) In August, they threw a super fun superhero party for their newly turned three year old complete with custom photo background, games, party decor, costumes, superhero food and a Spiderman cake.

Here are some ideas: (credit for photos, hard work and ideas all goes to them.)

 

Happy birthday sweet boy!

cat in the hat inspired PARTY IN A BOX

Party in a box inspired by these shoes...

And my sister. Happy Birthday Jenn!

***everything except the striped napkins (Target) came from Hobby Lobby and my stash.

thirty

I turned 30 on Thanksgiving Day (Nov 28 for all my non-American friends)!

I've been looking forward to starting a new decade and growing into my new-found smile wrinkles. And what better way to celebrate than with flowers, Izze, cheesecake and family??!

please note the girl's contribution to the gift on the right ... i love her thoughtfulness! :-)

My thirtieth year of life has been one of the more stable ones ... so thankful to have my sweet girl, my husband, his much happier job, a few fun side "jobs" on the side of my full-time one (she's cute, isn't she?), and a warm place to live in ... and decorate.

Thanks for celebrating with me!!

{small} star wars themed gift: death star krispies!

I have 5 piano students these days and I try to celebrate holidays and birthdays with fun little gifts/treats. Asher is the lone boy, and I admit to having issues trying to make piano interesting to an 8-year old boy. I'm not super high-energy or competitive or just amazing with boys in general.

Regardless, he loves a couple of things (Legos, soccer and Star Wars) so, his 8th birthday came last week and I looked up some Star Wars themed party ideas on Pinterest. Some were way too involved (I wasn't throwing a party), and others were just too much.

Finally, I came across "Death Star Krispies"! I actually took that idea and combined it with a silver colored cake pop idea because I couldn't find black food coloring. They were simple, fun and yet personal to him. 

DIY - make a rice krispy treat recipe (crispies, marshmellows and butter), while warm roll death star spheres with wet, not sopping, hands and then roll them in silver cupcake sprinkles to channel "death star" vibes.

Serve on black galaxy plate with a personalized Star Wars perspective text card (Photoshop tutorial HERE).

Ninjago Birthday Card DIY

One of my piano students shares a birthday with my mom (Happy Birthday Mom!) so I celebrated with an awesome card and some of her favorite candy.

She is also a tomboy, hates pretty much everything girly and loves the color green. For her birthday party she went to a "ninja place" - and her favorite show to watch is Ninjago.

RIGHT. Like this mother-of-a-2-year-old knows anything about Ninjago. (I do Baby Einstein, ABCs and Twinkle, Twinkle, not school or Legos or haute kid TV shows.) 

But I digress. So Google was my friend and there was an easy peasy Ninjago idea for multiple things - perfect for an easy card.

I printed off a sample birthday invitation with a good facing photo and printed it off at about 50% of its original size to fit a card. Then I cut the main shape out for a template.

I was going to use black cardstock for the eyes/brows but I had no black cardstock! So I went to plan b and sketched the eyes/brows directly on the yellow cardstock piece cut from the template and then filled it in with a permanent marker.

Perfect! Glue yellow piece on green (her favorite color), cut out a matching piece for writing ease inside and glue.

Pretty impressive for this non-Ninjago Mama, huh? :-)

Except then she told me her favorite Ninjago ninja was blue... ha! Can't get everything right.

a birthday pie - and a recipe!

A certain hubby of mine had a birthday last week. He turned the exciting 3-2 and we went to Ohio to celebrate. That's pretty much his gift, but I wanted to surprise him with an apple pie.

And, boy, it was YUMMY served warm a la mode!

Here's my scrumptious flaky apple pie recipe:

Crust: Martha Stewart's Pate Brisee 

Filling: 6 large granny smith apples, peeled and sliced
a few tsp of cinnamon (or to taste)
a few Tblsp white sugar (depending on how sweet you like your pie)
a splash of lemon juice (or juice of one medium lemon)

Mix together, spoon into bottom pie crust. Slice several pieces of butter on top, close with second pie crust. Brush crust lightly with beaten egg and sprinkle a little white sugar on top to make it pretty.

Bake at 375*F for 1 hour until bubbly and brown.

Cool for awhile and then enjoy!!

:-)

Happy Birthday Love!