A Robot Birthday Party

My sweet, adorable, funny little guy turned 4 this month.  He's at the age where the anticipation of a birthday party has been building for months, and he wanted a robot birthday party.  No problem!  I love throwing parties, and nothing more than a kid's party.  Going all out with every little detail is loads of fun for me, and even though I know he doesn't notice the half of it, I love doing it.  So here it is, and thanks for looking!

I made the welcome sign using a presentation board from Target.  They also have these awesome black letters to use for school presentations that made my life easier since I usually cut everything out from a stencil.  Note to husband: would love Cricut for next birthday.

I made this birthday banner, I used a salad plate as the template for the circles and one of the scrapbook paper packs from Michaels so everything would match:

 

I made these cute party hats by covering plain party hats with coordinating scrapbook paper (just take apart one hat and use as a template to cut out the paper, then cover using a glue gun).  I found the robot stickers at Michaels months ago, they had a ton of robot themed stuff in their $1 section, so if you're looking for party theme ideas it's a good place to check.  I had a lot of paper scraps so I made napkin rings (yes I'm crazy).

The treat table:

I was so happy with how his cake turned out.  He wanted a small cake with cupcakes.  The cake was chocolate and vanilla layers, with toasted marshmallow frosting in between and chocolate malt frosting underneath the fondant.  I used Duff's Cake Graffiti in silver to color the entire cake and make the stars.

I was a little nervous since I read mostly awful reviews, but this stuff is all kinds of awesome.  Once it dried it gave super even coverage and had a great sparkly metallic color.  I also used it for some of the cupcake toppers, which were white cake with chocolate malt frosting.  

Robot cookies:

These were little jello jars.  I found the spoons on Etsy, and added a little star stamp using food coloring (did I mention I was a little crazy?), and then tied them onto the jars with baker's twine.  

"Assorted parts" fruit skewers:

"Computer Chips" and "Nuts and Bolts":

I love the look of milk bottles, so rather than spend upwards of $3 per bottle, I bought Starbucks Frappacinos from the grocery store, peeled off the wrappers, and voila.  I am also obsessed with striped straws, these ones (grey and white) are from Etsy.  They are made of paper and while they hold up to normal drinking if you have a kid who loves to chew on straws (like my daughter) they turned in to a mushy mess quickly.

 

These water bottle labels were easy to make, just peel off the existing (I used Archer Farms brand from Target) and measure to cut out new ones from whatever paper you like.  Then affix with a glue gun. 

This birthday was especially fun since the kids were totally into party games and activities.

My husband made this awesome robot costume for the kids to wear for photo ops, I thought he did a great job!:

The kids played "pin the part on the robot":

And "robot arm" with a bin full of prizes and one of those mechanical arms you can get from Target or the dollar store:

And finally we had a robot pinata (from Party City) filled with with treats.  The kids loved it!

A Pink and Green Owl Birthday

My darling little girl is two!  How did that happen??  It seems like only yesterday I was holding her in my arms for the first time.  Now she is a walking, talking, gorgeous little thing full of opinions and ideas about how the world should work.  She is full of life, love, and I adore her.

I thew her a small birthday party with an owl theme in mind.  Everything came together and she had a wonderful time.   I bought one of those paper packs from Michaels that has coordinating sheets (I think about 120?) and it made all the crafting super easy.  Here are the details, thanks for looking!

The dessert table:

 

Strawberry Marshmallow mousse cups (I bought the cute little jars from World Market and the taster spoons from Etsy):

 Strawberry and Pistachio Macarons:

 Owl Cookies: 

The cake (vanilla and chocolate layers, strawberry mousse filling, chocolate buttercream frosting, and covered in marshmallow fondant):

 

I also made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with chocolate and vanilla frosting:

 

I decorated with coordinating lanterns:

I covered plain party hats with pretty paper and added a fringe made with crepe paper streamers:

These pinwheels were super easy to make, but not exactly something you would want kids playing with.  The pins came out really easily so I just put a few in the ground outside and the rest in a vase on the dessert table.

I made these water bottle labels with paper and an owl stamp, just cut to fit and attach with a glue gun:

I decorated with these paper fans:

The party favors were little mylar kites, all wrapped up:

Me and my birthday girl:

A Sweet Little Bird Baby Shower

My dear friend Jessica is expecting her second little boy any day now, and my friend Helen and I recently threw her an intimate baby shower in my backyard.  I LOVE throwing any kind of party, and Jessica kindly agreed to let me share the details with you.  :)

We made the invitations, nothing fancy, but cute:

Plenty of sweet treats of course:

Brioche Recipe

Recipe coming soon

I made the cupcake wrappers, they're super easy and it makes it easy to coordinate your party.  Find the instructions here.

The Wishing Tree: guests could leave wishes for the new baby

We invited guests to decorate a onsie for the new baby:

Me and the glowing mama-to-be:

Congrats Jessica!!!