I’m so excited to be the guest hostess today (and next Friday too)! My name is Kim Byers and I’m the owner/creative director/blogger over at The Celebration Shoppe. When Shannon first asked me to be a guest I thought of a million things I could share and honestly I thought of my youngest son’s wild west birthday party until Shannon reminded me it’s already been featured here. {wink} So then I finally settled on the deep blue sea birthday bash I threw for my oldest son at the local splash pad.

Let’s start with the invitation (I love the little wide eyed crab!) and placesetting. I used blue crepe placemats and cut them out in the shape of a simple fish. The placecards are just wooden crafts from the craft store (pre-painted). I picked them up for about $.59 each and wrote each child’s name in the center with a Sharpie. Do you like the fish tank centerpieces? I promise no fish were harmed in the hosting of this party. {wink}

I got the idea for these shark cupcakes from the Hello! Cupcake book (with a few modifications).

My youngest has severe milk allergies so I like to make non-dairy goodies and my old standby is the rice crispy treat (made with Smart Balance Vegan butter). We made flip flops with the number 5 (instructions) for all his little friends to take home as favors along with personalized beach towels.

The flip flop pops were displayed in sand pails and

the chips (lunch was served) were displayed in a little beach wagon.

Here’s a shot of the beach towel favors we worked up. I have the benefit of a very talented mom.

And last but not least, I enlisted my wonderful hubby to create this toss game. If you have a willing handyman around, or you can sling a hammer yourself, here’s a list of materials and step-by-step instructions.

Hope you enjoyed our splish splash birthday bash! See you next Friday.

Hey Ya’ll!  I’m taking a vacation for a couple weeks. (YAY ME!)  In my absense I’ve lined up several guest posters to keep the party going.  Guest posts start tomorrow and you’ve got a lot of really great posts coming your way.  I’m super excited that all these women decided to share with you.  Please be kind to them and leave nice comments!

Party on Girlfriends!

This Incredibles Birthday Party was originally posted by Kathryn and Ashleigh from Bee in Our Bonnet.

——

I’m totally in love with the invitations.  What a great idea to make it like a newspaper and deliver them like that.  So clever!  I also love how they made their own t-shirt.  Oh and the cake totally rocks!  Thanks for listing your party girls!

Enjoy this incredible birthday….

My son is obsessed with the Incredibles movie,
which made it really easy to decide on this as his party theme.
I wanted to share some of the things I did to TRY to make the party as Incredible as Justin is.
Lots of it can be adapted to other party themes.

I started by making this invitation in photoshop.

Then, we wrapped it up with a newspaper and hand-delivered most of them like this.

I didn’t want to buy a whole costume, so I made this little T-shirt for him.
I just cut out pieces, put interfacing on the back and sewed them on to a 5 dollar tee from Target.
Then I stuffed batting into his shirt for a few muscles.
He had no problem acting the part when I took pictures for the invitation.

I did a few homemade decorations. These pinwheel things are so fun.

First, I used cardstock and hot-glue to make these.

Then I printed images from the internet and put the characters in the center.
I hung them from the chandelier.

Another thing that was semi-homemade was the pinata.

I wanted them to beat-up on a syndrome pinata, but couldn’t buy one, so I improvised.
I got this little cheapie from the grocery store and turned the happy sun into a nasty villain.

Again, I just printed off the internet and mounted them on paper.

Here is the run-down of what we did:
Keep in mind, the kids are 3, so things were pretty simple.
Also keep in mind that the 70 degree weather I was wanting came two days too late.
There was such a chili wind we had to do all of the activities inside.

When they arrived we watched a little bit of the movie to refresh their memories.

Then we had a healthy snack.
I told them that superheroes need to eat healthy food to be strong.
The one who needed this lecture the most was my own picky-eater!
Anyway, we had to fuel up before our training started.

We started training with weights to be strong like Mr. Incredible.
We started with 2 pounders and then they tried harder weights- up to 10 pounds.
They were so cute as they tried. And these were some buffed 3 year olds.

Then we practiced running fast like Dash.
They all ran a different, haphazard route around the cones,
but were so excited to get to the finishing point.

Then we skipped the obstacle course I planned because it couldn’t be done inside.
But now that we were in superhero shape, we were ready to practice fighting Syndrome.
We just needed superhero masks first. (I made cut these out of foam and tied on elastic.

So we did the pinata… inside… totally weird…. I know.
Three year-olds swinging a bat in your home isn’t usually a thing I would suggest,
but the kids still loved it and all the decor and electronics survived.

And the final event… a battle with the “real” Syndrome.
Now that they had trained and practiced, they were prepared to battle the enemy.
Syndrome came out and there were 2 boys who immediately jumped on him to wrestle.
They got the idea perfectly after Justin started beating on his Dad. Others were just watching in amazement.
Two little girls were hiding behind my back getting more frightened by the minute.
So the battle was short-lived so as not to leave permanent emotional scars.
I have checked in with their parents and the girls both had positive things to say about the party.
The battle segment didn’t ruin their fun.

My husband isn’t known to do these kinds of things, and he really didn’t want to do the red hair.
But he did. And I was pleasantly surprised. And I told him he deserved “father of the year.”
Three year olds beating on you doesn’t hurt that bad, but he does have a broken arm (that he hasn’t casted yet)!
True dedication to the party, I say!

After all of this insanity we settled in to presents and cake and ice cream.
It cracked me up that so many of them were so excited about the gifts
they had gotten him, they began opening their own and yelling out what it was. So cute.
Good times.

Here is the cake. It was my first time with fondant, and it wasn’t near as hard as I thought it would be.
I guess all my practice with play-dough came in handy.

Justin was more excited about his star candles than the cake. One never knows how to please a 3 year old.

And last but not least… these are the goodie bags.
I was quite good at making the Incredibles symbol by the end of this.
Or so I thought until I realized I did them all the opposite way. Oh well.

Inside I had a bunch of fun Incredibles stuff that I scored from the dollar spot at Target.
I bought all of this months ago. I loaded up with all they had, not really having any plans yet.

But, it all came together nicely, considering I did 95 % of this 2 days before.
I always have plans in my head, but don’t really pull them off until the last minute!
It was a great, small birthday party that was suited just for my incredible boy.

I did some more cruisin’ around blogland and found some more fun ideas for you to add a little LUCK to your life this St. Patrick’s Day.

Over at  Make and Takes I found this Pot of Gold craft project.  I thought it would make a super cute place card for your table setting.  You could just write your guests name on the pot.  You could even use black chalboard paint instead of regular black paint.  That way you could write the names in chalk so you can reuse them.

Head on over to Make and Takes for more detailed pics and instructions.

What’s a party without a game? I found a link to a St. Patrick’s Day Printable Word Search from kids.creativity-portal.com

Even if all you are doing is a family dinner this would still be a fun activity to do at the dinner table.

To top things off I thought I would just show you some fabulous cakes that I came across.
Check out this Leprechaun Hat cake that I found over at One of a Kind Art.

Love this rainbow cake that I found over at seriouseats.com

Photograph from franjmc on Flickr

Easter is only a few weeks away, so I thought I’d throw some inspiration your way to help you dress up your Easter table.

Start your easter table off with a fun centerpiece that you can get your kids to help you with!  These candy topiaries that I found over at Porter House Designs are sure to be eye candy for your easter guests. (She’s got other easter centerpiece ideas too!)

I’ve personally made the topiary that uses suckers (for a baby shower). It’s easy and the kids were totally able to help me. I actually also added fabric within the suckers to add even more color and dimension. I just used a pencil to push the fabric into the styrofoam ball.

I found this super cute napkin idea over at MarthaStewart.com

She’s got detailed instructions with pictures on her blog…but here is the cliff’s notes version:
1. Fold starched napkin into thirds.

2. Crease in half to create a center line for reference; fold top corners down along this line.

3. Fold up from bottom corners along dotted lines.

4. Bring left and right edges together on center line.

5. Flip upside down and over. Turn up bottom point.

6. To fasten: Fold left and right corners back; tuck one corner into the
pocket of the other. Pull out bunny ears first; open up base.

I’ve been looking around for some St. Patty’s day inspiration for ya’ll and I think I’ve found some fun stuff.

This rainbow cupcake would bring a smile to just about anybody’s face. You can find the recipe over at FamilyFun.go.com

Check out these bright, fun cookies that I found over at iVillage.com

While I was visiting iVillage I also found this lovely Spring Green floral arrangement. Perfect for a centerpiece or just that little touch of green around the home to make it festive.

Over at About.com in their Family Crafts section I found a free printable item that I thought ya’ll might like.

It’s a Pot of Gold printable box

This Sweet Soire Dinner Party was originally hosted by Stefanie at Richterology.
——
Every once in awhile ladies you’ve got to step away from the parties for the kids, invite your friends over and have a dinner party! I’m talking about some girl time. Stefanie took the time to do it and I’m guessing all her friends felt very blessed. Thanks for listing your dinner party Stefanie.

Enjoy the party….

I invited a few of my girl friends over for a little dinner party this evening. I hope to make this dinner an annual February event. I had a great time planning everything and look forward to the next Sweet Soiree!

Thanks to etsy shops: Tomkatstudio & Posh Pixels

This Vintage Toys Baby Shower was originally hosted over at Party Love by Jessica.

——
I love that Jessica took the time to think outside of the box and come up with a theme that was unique. Vintage Classic Toys…what a great idea. And how fun for all those guests to see those toys. I’m sure there were major flashbacks going on! Thanks for listing your baby shower Jessica.

Enjoy this vintage baby shower…..

this past weekend my friend, rachelle, and i threw a baby shower for our friend, debran.  she did all the food..i did all of the decor.  worked out perfectly.  i wanted to do a theme that i haven’t seen..or isn’t super popular right now.  then i started thinking about vintage/classic toys.  i loved the idea..especially since there were so many different ways you could go with it.  i have been planning for months now, during which i found out i am pregnant and am having a boy too!  i have been so inspired by the theme that i actually think i am going to do the baby’s nursery in it!  i have a vision, and i am really excited about it.  ok, back to the shower..haha.  congratulations debran!  i loved planning this for you!

m&m’s anyone?

my first diaper cake.

i created a clothesline…i had found this collection at crazy 8 months ago.  i thought a slinky would make for a more appropriate clothesline. haha.

the cupcakes

rachelle preparing the food

present time

the guest of honor and myself

we are both on our third baby and have been pregnant every single time together (we didn’t know each other yet with the first one) but our girls are a couple weeks apart, our boys are also about 6 weeks apart, and then again our boys will be a couple months apart.  how funny, huh?  how often does that happen?  debran is also entertaining the idea of a vintage toy nursery now too!  it’s definitely a fun and happy theme!  i can’t wait to bounce ideas off of each other!

Have you taken the time to look at all the party listing categories? They are on the left sidebar of this site. Just to highlight a couple…

As of right now there are 45 + parties listed under “Parties for Girls.” Have you looked at them? There are so many fun and delightful parties for your viewing pleasure. Art parties, butterfly parties, sweet shop parties, horses, under the sea, cinderella, superhero….the list goes on. So take a look at all the fabulous “Parties for Girls!”

After you do that….head on over to the “Parties for Boys” page. There you will find 50+ parties to inspire you. Racecars, superheros, firetrucks, dinosaurs, construction, Elmo, Mario, surfing, monsters and so much more! You know you wanna go look!

What about you? Do you have a party to list?

This Neopolitan Ice Cream 1st Birthday Party was originally hosted by Danielle atBelleza e Luce.
——

What a fun way to do an Ice Cream Party!  Such a creative use of flower to tie the whole theme together.  Thanks for listing your party Danielle!

Enjoy this yummy party…

It’s hard to believe that she is an almost 3 1/2 year old … how time flies!  She has become a party planner herself, informing me of her 4th birthday party theme only 3 days after her Aurora Princess Party.  Yes, I have already begun working on her invitations!  The theme, you ask?  Well, it’s going to be a Jolly Holiday!