Paper Plane Party

I know today is supposed to be guest blogger Friday, but I've been absent for about a month so I thought I would do it this week. Sorry if you were looking forward to a guest blogger, I'll have one again next month for you.

Since last year, Elijah has been asking for an airplane party for his birthday. I had the theme picked out for the year but I didn't plan too much just in case he wanted to change his mind, which every three turning four year old does at some point. But the airplane idea stuck, so after Chloe's birthday I started to plan out his party. I have to say this was easier to plan since plane parties are so common. I had a lot of fun with it too. It reminded me of being back in grade school folding airplanes and using poster board. I do have to admit while this was the most cost effective party I've done so far, it probably was the most time consuming. It took me about a solid week of non stop working to do everything for his party. (I really need to learn not to procrastinate!) I got pretty much everything that I wanted to do for this party (which is a first) so was really happy how everything turned out.

I wanted to make his party a little different than all of the ones I've seen, so I made his theme a paper plane pilot program. My sister in law, Bonnie, is incredible and ridiculously talented with graphic designs and she made me invitations for the party. I wanted the pilot to look like Elijah, which he was really excited about. He also chose to have Elijah Airlines and wanted everything to be blue. I also used the graphics from the invite throughout the rest of the party decorations.

 I made a poster to greet everyone at the front door.

 For decorations, I made {paper plane garlands} and strung them up to go into a point over the tables. I also strung a few planes up throughout the house. 

I really wanted to have airline posters of different destinations for the party, and luckily I have family members that travel. A HUGE thank you really goes to my sister in law, Annie, since I used most of her pictures of Europe and Costa Rica and Alaska to make the posters. My other sister in law, Kayla, contributed Hawaii for me and I had the rest of them. I put up the posters around the house.

 Sadly I couldn't find a good picture from Japan except for these two

I also made cloud and planes mobiles to hang up in his room, where we had all of the games in. 

For the games, I wanted them to go along with learning to be a pilot, so for the first game we played red light green light to "learn how to take directions" and earn their compasses. The kids had a blast with it. Each round they had to do something different to get to the "air traffic controller" and the first person to get to them got the next turn of raising the flags. 

(this was the kids doing the kangaroo hop)

The next game we played was "learning to navigate a plane on the ground" so they had to go through an obstacle course riding little airplanes and they were able to earn their survival toy which was a paratrooper. The kids had fun going through the obstacle course, but I think they had more fun playing with the paratroopers which they had races throwing them down the stairs. 

 (Jed showed the kids how to do the obstacle course)

Our last game, they had to check their "flight skills" and make their own paper airplane and do a plane toss. The little kids got to stand on a stool and even Chloe was able to get hers to fly through the holes. 

After the last game, the kids earned their wings and their pilot licenses.

For this party I made the food table really simple. 

Over the table, I made a "Happy Birthday Elijah" garland using the same technique as the paper plane garland.

I decided to do "pilot pop" for drinks and found {this tutorial} for the pilot hats ( I was planning on making a hat for Elijah too, but ran out of time). I also made labels for all of the drinks using the same graphics from the invitation.

 Elijah had been asking me for rice krispie treats so I made them for his party and covered them in melted vanilla. I tried to make them look like paper planes. I did the cake for his party and have to admit that this might be my favorite looking cake that I've done so far. I made fondant cutouts of clouds and paper planes and even made one of the little pilot in the paper plane then piped on dashes after the planes to show their flight patterns. His cake was dark chocolate filled with blackberry jam and cookies and cream buttercream and covered in blackberry chocolate ganash. 

Since I had an extra 15 minutes before the party I quickly sewed on a paper plane to a shirt for Elijah. (I like when even their outfits fit the theme, I know I'm ridiculous) It was a really good thing I made the shirt for him too, because he pretty much ruined it with stains and it was only $3 for the the shirt so I'm okay with it. :)

For party favors, I made little " pilot suitcases" out of cereal boxes with each child's name. I filled them with "an advanced flight manual" which was a booklet of how to make complex paper planes. (You can find directions all over the internet for them) and I did a "complimentary of Elijah Airlines" bags of homemade cinnamon and sugar pretzels and honey roasted peanuts.

I also wanted to add another thank you for everyone who helped me with this party and all who came!

Flower Party

This year for Chloe's birthday party, I went a little simple. Not by choice but mainly because I've been a bit under the weather (or like my husband likes to say the weather's been on top of me) so I originally had a huge over the top party planned, but I think this one still turned out really cute.

The colors I chose were yellow, pink and white. I did a combination of fabric and paper flowers for decorations. I only spent about two days on the party too so it really wasn't time consuming at all. I also kept changing my mind and tried to simplify what I wanted to do. Everyone seemed to like the party and Chloe had a blast and in the end that's all that mattered.

For the invitations I made fabric flowers in yellow, white and pink and wrote the party info on leaves.
Sorry this is such a horrible picture these did turned out really cute though.

For decorations I made flower pom poms. I know I use these at a lot of my parties, but this time I tried to make them look more like flowers. You can grab the tutorial for them on {this earlier post}. The only thing I did different was for the centers I used a napkin that was smaller than the tissue paper so they looked more like stamens. I put these up over the dessert table. I also strung them up with paper lanterns I had from Chloe's party last year.

 

For the dessert table I decided to do a small 6 inch cake along with cupcakes. I know this is just my obsessive compulsion but I wanted the food to match the color scheme too.

 I made a white cake filled with lemon curd, strawberry cream cheese and fresh strawberries and I frosted the cake with white chocolate whipped cream. I added a pink fondant flower mainly because my husband made a comment to me the night before how my flowers were really simple for the party favors. I wasn't sure how I wanted to decorate the cake and I did the desserts the morning of, so I just threw it together last minute. To get the tutorial for the ruffle look go to {this link} and you can watch {this video} for the fondant flower. Since I did the flower the morning of the party, I shaped the petals in an empty egg carton and covered them and let them set up in the fridge so they could harden.

I made cupcakes just in case some of the kids didn't like lemon curd so I just filled theirs with fresh strawberries instead. I made five sets of fabric and paper flowers in the three different colors for the cupcake toppers. Also, I was planning on adding leaves and I think it would've looked a little bit better, but I was simplifying.

For the backdrop of the food table, I made wall flowers out of napkins using the same technique as the pom poms but you can check out {this tutorial} from Made. I combined the wall flowers with a few paper pinwheels (get the tutorial from my {robot party} link) and a couple of fabric flowers.

For the food, I kept it really simple and served brunch this time. My father in law made cinnamon rolls and I made a few quiches. My family came into town for Chloe's party and they helped prep yogurt berry parfaits  (topped with corn flakes which is the Japanese way) and fruit kebabs for me.

I had my mom cut out different melons and pineapple in different flower shapes and attached grapes to look like leaves. For the containers for the fruit, I recycled a few large soup cans and wrapped them in fabric and attached a flower onto them.

I served lemonade for drinks. I bought some really cute pint size canning jars from Walmart and printed out some labels. I also bought pink striped paper straws from Little Yume on Etsy to go with the drinks. My husband was really against me getting the jars and straws since they cost a little extra, but they were a huge hit, and after the party he admitted that it was a good idea (plus I can reuse the jars as gifts or to actually can with later). The grandparents were nostalgic over the paper straws and everyone loved the cute jars.

I did take pictures of the rest of the party decor and party favors but I think they got erased because I can't find them anymore. Oh well. For the rest of the decorations I just hung balloons upside down along with the left over paper lanterns. For party favors, I made lemon ricotta cookies (my family's favorite) and added a small pink fondant flower.

You can check out these different link for different flowers I used for the party.
Organza Flowers by Little Birdie Secret
Lace Flower by See It Again Saturday
T Shirt Flower by A Bit Of Sunshine
Star Flower by The Letter 4
Peony by Ruffles and Stuff
Fabric Flower by Simply Vintagegirl

This was a fun party and it was great to spend time with family to celebrate Chloe turning two.

Ice Cream Party

Since we went back to California to visit, I decided to throw a little ice cream party for Elijah and a few of his friends. I thought it would be a fun way to get together for a nice hot summer play date. I also think I just wanted any excuse to be able to throw a little party and I had so much fun decorating and finding fun things for it. I didn't get to decorate everything that I wanted to but I got the food done, so that was really what counts!

I only used two flavors of ice cream: chocolate and vanilla but added some fun garnishes.

I also made some fruit sauces to go with the ice cream. I got the idea from BHG and used some of their recipes too. They featured a lovely spread for a pie-a-la-mode ice cream social. Additionally, I added pie crust cookies and just rolled them in cinnamon and sugar to go with the fruit sauces.

The Gummy Bears and Sprinkles were a big hit with all of the kids.

 You can get the peach recipe here and the chocolate-cherry recipe here.

Not that we needed any more sweets, but I've been wanting to make these all summer, so I also made rootbeer float cupcake ice cream cones. For the step by step how to and free printables go here and for cupcake recipes go here and here. (I really wasn't a big fan of the rootbeer buttercream recipe, so I'll use a different recipe next time)

It was also a water party so I had the backyard sprinklers going and bought spray bottles and bubbles for the kids to play with and to send home as party favors. They had a blast with them!  

It was so much fun getting Elijah's friends together and just watching them have so much fun and to just enjoy the day (and of course some yummy ice cream). I also wanted to add a special thank you to my friend, Ashley of Yve Louden Photography for taking pictures of the party!

1920's Black and White Party

My hubby turned 30 this year and so I decided to throw him a 1920's Black and White party to say goodbye to his 20's.It was so much fun finding things for this party. I was going between having a vintage feel or just doing black and white and finally decided on the latter, just so it'd be easier to get people to dress up.

For decorations, I did all black and white. I made black and white tissue flower pompoms using this tutorial from Martha Stewart Weddings. I hung them up around the apartment. To get in the 20's vibe, I also rented a Charlie Chaplin silent movie to project onto the wall and had jazz music playing.

I really wanted to have a "photo booth" for the party since everyone was dressing up. So I just made a curtain out of some cloth and strung it between my hallway. I bought some fun props too. You can find other fun ways (and some more hi tech ways) to set up a photo booth here. But I think the photo booth was a huge hit with everyone.

For the food table I made a fabric backdrop and then used a black table cloth with a white table skirt. I then embellished with white food trays. For the dessert table I made a serving dish from a mirror and glass vases and used glass cake stands to arrange the rest of the desserts on.

For the appetizers I wanted to do a modern take on 1920's food. Everything I looked up for this just said Italian food, so I did Italian appetizers: prociutto wrapped melon balls, mushroom and cheese crostinis, mozzarella and basil stuffed tomatoes, salmon lox, and chicken Parmesan meatballs. I made them small since we also had a dessert bar.

 Sorry, this was the only picture taken of the food... they went fast

For the dessert bar, I made all of the food black and white. The dessert bar consisted of white cupcakes filled with raspberry buttercream and frosted with white chocolate cream cheese whipped cream, rum chocolate and pineapple buttercream chocolate cupcakes, and brownies pops dips in powdered sugar.

 We also had a "Prohibition Bar." I even hired a bartender for the night to make the 'mocktails'. It was so much fun. I ritzed up the martini glasses with little black ribbon tied into bows. I also made up names for the drinks using 20's slang phrases. Guests were able to order their drinks: straight up, neat or on the rocks. Jed really went all out and took control of the "bar". He even made up his own signature drink for the night.

Dip the Bill: Have a Drink

Everyone had fun and it was a fun night just to dress up. We did have a costume contest and everyone was able to strut their stuff down the catwalk. That was one of the best things... everyone has some great catwalks!

This was a really fun night and a great way to say goodbye to Jed's 20's