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.
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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.

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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.
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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!

This Knights & Dragons Birthday party was originally hosted by Dana from Desert Parties.
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Knights…DRAGONS…and Castles! Every little boy dreams of being a knight and slaying the dragon, so I think this is just a great theme! I love the idea of a pinata for this one, because it’s almost like actually slaying the dragon. Too fun! Thanks for listing your party Dana.

Enjoy this Knights and Dragons party…..
This year my little boy turned 4 and the theme for his party was knights and dragons. He’s been pretty set on this theme for awhile – since I work in the party business and he sees a lot of cakes, he loves to discuss the theme for his next party. He hasn’t settled on a theme for his 5th birthday party yet but has discussed already pirates, transformers, monsters and star wars as possible themes – I’m hoping for pirates.

I created the invitations using a digital scrapbook kit and Photoshop and printed them at Costco – its a really easy and affordable way to create custom invitations.

I also used the digital scrapbook kit to also create a welcome sign, decorations for the pinata bags, straws and tags for the marshmallow pops party favors.

We rented a castle bouncer from Mr Bs Moonwalk (our second year with this company and once again great customer service). I ordered a dragon pinata from Arizona Pinatas - they create custom pinatas in any design, color and size (they even ship). I ordered the medium sized pinata and it was huge!

We planned 3 activities for the kids – the bounce house which is always a huge hit with the kids (and according to my son, it was his favorite part), a shield and crown craft project and a treasure hunt.

For the craft project I order shields and crowns from Oriental Trading company and we had jewels, stickers and markers for the kids to use for decorating. The shield shaped plates were scored at Target’s Halloween clearance sale where I also picked up some candy for the pinata (I love to look for party supplies from the Halloween and Christmas clearance sales).

The treasure hunt was a group activity – the reward was the cupcake and candy buffet hidden in the tent.

Treasure hunt clues:

All knights need a quest. The King’s gold has been stolen by the red dragon. He needs your help! Your first clue to find the treasure can be found where the birds build their nests. (clue was hidden in a tree)

You’re one step closer towards reaching your goal. Your next clue is in Sir Brendan’s house (clue hidden in play house)

Find the red dragon to get the treasure map (a treasure map taped to the inflatable red dragon that led them to the sand box where gold coins were hidden)

Once each child found a gold coin they were allowed enjoy their reward – dessert!

The dessert buffet (with everything done in blue, yellow and silver) included:

• Cupcake tower topped with a 3D knights castle. The cupcakes were topped with shields, swords and monogram Bs (Simply Sweets)
• dark and white chocolate dipped pretzels (Simply Sweets)
• milk and white chocolate marshmallow pops (Simply Sweets)
• dark and white chocolate dipped oreos (Simply Sweets)
• milk chocolate dipped rice krispie treats (Simply Sweets)
• milk chocolate castle suckers (Simply Sweets)
• white chocolate dragon suckers (Simply Sweets)
• hershey kisses – silver
• Hershey’s cookies and cream kisses – blue foil
• blue M & Ms

The kids were given knight and dragon tatoos and we also sent them home with Simply Sweets marshmallow pops party favors.

Local Resources:

• Mr B’s Moonwalk
• Arizona Pinatas
• Simply Sweets

Random.org says that the winner is #10 which is Heather S.

Heather S February 26, 2010 at 10:24 am

I adore the ‘Mustache party invitations’!

Heather…please email me to claim your prize! (the email info is on the contact page)

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Sorry ladies, no party post today. I spent the last 2 days in the hospital with my dad and apparently while I was there I came in contact with some icky germs! I’m sick and it was all I could do just to get this winner info posted! I’ll get a party posted on Thursday!

This Under the Sea Birthday party was originally hosted by All About the Tables.
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This party is an underwater wonderland. The table is beautifully decorated and definitely makes you feel like you are actually under the sea. Thanks for listing your party!

Enjoy this Under the Sea Birthday

Isabel is turning 11 tomorrow so soon she won’t be needing a babysitter. We were going to do her birthday table in either Magic or Harry Potter. I had racked my brain for ideas and had some but was having trouble finding the things I needed to make the table look awesome. Harry Potter I know nothing about and after that baby shower I had done I wasn’t feeling very inspired to do this table. When Isabel said “Maybe we could do a beach theme.” I was all over that since I have so many shells and things that I could use. I went with the Under the Sea theme to make it a bit more of a surprise.


Isabel as she walked into her kitchen after school. Surprise! She thought we were celebrating next week instead….which it turns out we should have. She was disappointed that her birthday wasn’t going to last longer because she was celebrating with her dad on this day and her mom on her birthday, Thursday. If I had done the table the next week it would have been like celebrating three birthdays in one. Instead she only got to celebrate two days. Some kids are a little too hard to please. I think I’m about ready to give up trying.

These chair ties are the same blue and green organza fabric runners that I used for a wedding reception a few years ago. I just wrapped them together and tied. I have sure gotten plenty of use out of these things. The same things are hanging in front of the window blinds.
I had this cylinder vase at home already so I bought some goldfish to bring it to life. The kids got to keep these babies but not the vase.

I couldn’t find any flora lights to light up the water so I tried the neon light-up necklaces. Didn’t really work. I tried blue light bulbs in the a couple of the overhead lights but that didn’t do much either.



Goldfish crackers and Goldfish pretzels.

S’mores Goldfish in a golden shell. I had no idea they even made these.

That blue sea-weed is rock candy. The sea urchins are really vanilla meringues that I bought at Trader Joe’s. I think they are so pretty and they taste pretty awesome too. The kids didn’t care so much for them though.



This is my attempt at making coral out of balloons. The little red lobster there sings Hot,Hot,Hot and dances when you press his hand. Another gift for Isabel.


Another gift for Isabel was this beta fish. They are the easiest pet there is to take care of, I think.


The place cards are little porcelain ones that my mom was throwing out awhile back. I glued some shells on them and wrote their names with marker. They could have been prettier if my printer was hooked up. My handwriting is a mess.

Isabel blowing out her candle on her cookie cake that I bought at the last minute. That’s blue ice-cream in the dessert bowl from Meijer Grocery.

Chocolate Shells, Sea Urchin Meringues & Nemo Fruit Snacks.
The aquarium light I had purchased for Isabel’s birthday before I even knew we’d be doing an under the sea table, so that worked out well.

And Rock Candy Sea Weed.

This Backyardigans Birthday Party was originally posted by The Brantingham Fam.
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This cartoon was one of my favorites that my son used to watch. I love how it encourages imagination. This party is quite imaginative as well. I love that it was a party that worked for different ages and genders. Thanks for listing your party Brantingham Fam.

Enjoy the party!

On Saturday we had a BIG birthday party for all 3 kids! I thought the Backyardigans would be a good theme for both boys and girls. This is the invitation that I created. Which will be finding it’s way into my Shop soon! The cupcake toppers and centerpiece decorations will also be coming to my shop!

We had the party at the park. The kids had fun playing and running around. I designed all of the decorations. And I got all of the sand buckets from the Dollar Store and pretty much everything in the favor buckets was from the Dollar Store also. We ate sandwiches, chips, fruit, and vegetables with dip. I also got those new little cans of soda. We had white and chocolate cupcakes with rainbow frosting for dessert!

I got the template for the cones for the chips and Pirate Booty HERE I also made the kids shirts, they will be making their way to my Shop also! I bought the swirl lollipops from Oriental Trading Company.



The favors were small sand buckets, and inside was a bouncy ball, pencil, shovel, bubbles, fruit snacks, stickers, a small Backyardigans frisbee, and a Backyardigans Coloring Book. I will be posting a tutorial on how to make the Coloring books.