Party Talk

Parker's 2nd Birthday: A Polar Express Party

2010-01-02T20:05:00.000-08:00

Can't believe that my baby, Parker P is two. When I started thining about the theme for his second birthday I had one in mind at first. I was going to do a Baseball Party because he loves to play with varous balls in the house and throws them. When it began to get around Thanksgiving we started to let the boys watch, The Polar Express. It instantly became Parker's favorite movie and he had to watch it almost every night. All he talked about was the choo-choo. So I decided to give him A Polar Express party. I searched for invitations on ebay and found a seller that sold tickets as invitations and they were only $.80 a piece and she even had return address labels. I knew that there were not any Polar Express paper products out yet so I decided to go to the dollar store and pick up some Snowflake themed plates and napkins. My mother in law drew his birthday banner as well as some signs like, Reindeer Crossing, Welcome to the North Pole and The Polar Express Stops Here. I found foam snowflakes in packs of six and hung them up throughout the garage. I had some snowflake lights left over from Christmas that I hung up as well. For favors, each child received "a sleigh bell" with a tag reading "BELIEVE" attached and a bag of hot chocolate with chocolate chips and marshmellows. We had The Polar Express movie playing in the house and The Polar Express Soundtrack playing in the garage. I had some coloring sheets for the children to color to keep them busy for a little while. The colors we used were white, light blue and royal blue. All the children dressed in their pajamas and had a blast.

Parker's First Birthday

2009-11-01T17:07:00.000-08:00

Parker was born on December 27, 2007. His 1st birthday was hard to plan since it's so close to Christmas. I chose to have his birthday the first Saturday in January so hopefully most people would be finished with the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season. I could not decide what theme to choose because he's was turning 1 and he was not really into anything. He had some blue courderoy pants with trains on them and an off white shirt with a train on it. So I built the birthday theme around the outfit. I found some cute train invitations on Ebay. They had Polka Dots on them and by now you all know that I love Polka Dots. So we decided to also use Polka Dots in the decorations and to tie this all together we used solid colored plates and napkins. I gave my mother in law a copy of the invitation and she made a banner. I gave my cake lady the invitation to use for reference when making the cake. The only thing is that I left the light on in the room where the cake was and the Polka Dots started melting and running a little bit. I cut out various size circles in coordinating colors for confetti.

Owen's 4th Birthday- Pirate Party

2009-10-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

Well, my oldest child Owen is a big fan of pirates and octopuses. He decided that for his 4th birthday this past April that he wanted a pirate party with octopuses tied into it. For his invitations, I checked out the internet and got some great ideas. I decided to get some white cardstock and dip it in tea. When I ran it through the printer it came out looking very old, almost like a map. I wanted to burned the edges but figured that it would too messy. My mother in law drew some octopus and pirate pics for us and also made Owen's banner. I found the napkins and plates at Party City. I always get a pack or two of the theme printed napkins and plates but then I add some solid colors in to save money. Dollar Tree also had a lot of pirate decorations. I bought a fish net at Michael's and we attached some wooden fish and seashells that I had. I took one of the napkins and plates to the lady that was going to make the cake and told her we wanted the cake like the napkins but also to have an orange octopus on it. She definitely delivered, the cake was precious! She's also reasonable. I think I paid $28-$30 for half a sheet cake. We grilled hotdogs and had chips as well as gold fish. I made everyone telescopes out of empty toilet and paper towel rolls. Everyone in my family and even some of my patient's were saving them for me. We painted the toilet paper rolls black and attached a clear piece of plastic wrap with a rubberband on one end. It was a homemade telescope. I wanted everyone to have a bandana but it was too expensive, so I bought some pirate fabric at Walmart and my mother in law cut triangle and sewed the edges. For a game we went on a Treasure Hunt with a couple of clues around the yard. All the children did it as a group. I would read the clue and they would answer the question leading to the next clue. The last clue led them to the party favors- pirate goody bags with gummie fruit and bubbles tied with a tag thanking them for coming to Owen's 4th Birthday Party. The favors were in a little antique chest that I borrow from my parents. It actually looked like a little pirate chest. Owen had a big pirate ship that he got last Christmas so I used it on the gift table as a centerpiece. This was a fun party and everyone had a blast.

Polka Dot Parties

2009-10-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

It's A Girl Baby Shower

I've hosted and helped with lots of baby showers. My favorite theme for a girl is Polka Dots. I found some imprintable invites at Party City with dark pink, light pink and lime green polka dots. They were precious! They also had a Die Cut Girl banner that you could attach to the card if you wanted to. One shower I chose just to decorate on the table with the die cut rather than attach it to the invitation. I found lots of websites with ideas for polka themes parties/showers. I had two different size circle scrapbook punches so I found some coordinating card stock that was the same colors as the polka dots on the invitation and cut out small and medium sized circles to use as confetti on the table. I also cut out some circles on the dark pink, light pink and lime green card stock by tracing some various round objects and hung them from the light fixture. For one shower we found someone to make the cake coordinating witht the invitation and the other shower we had petit fores made coordinating the invitation and spelling out "It's A Girl!". One shower had a baby carriage fruit basket and the other had fruit kabobs with polka dots on the end of the skewer. I love to make candy molds so I had some circle candy molds and used food color to make mints in the shapes of circles. I always like to make a clothesline on the fireplace using rope and then adding baby items to it and using ribbon for decoration. For favors ,I used Christmas Cookie Cutters and tied the Recipe for Motherhood to it.

Recipe for Motherhood

Ingredients Needed

1 Heart Full of Love

1 Head Full of Understanding

2 Eyes in the Back of YOur Head

3 Heaping Cups of Patience

1 Gallon of Generosity

1 Barrel of Laughter

Mix well. Sprinkle with kindness, add plenty of faith.

Heat with sunshine and spread generously over a lifetime for a

plateful of joy and a cup of warm memories.

Owen's First Birthday

2009-10-09T13:13:00.000-07:00

Well, Owen was getting ready to turn one and I could not decide what to do for his birthday finally decided to have a John Deere Tractor and Farm Party. I really did not want to spend a lot of money on the invitations so I decided to make my own. I found a picture of a tractor and enlarged it and made copies of it on green card stock. I then talked to my mother in law who is very talented and can draw very well. She found some cardboard boxes and made a miniature farm with crops and animals.We place hay bales in the yard. She also got a refrigerator box and made a tractor for a photo op. We had little green tractors hanging in the garage and all over the walls. Wal-Mart had the cutest John Deere fabric which we use for the cake table and my mother in law sewed a little banner to go on his high chair. I found a lady to make a cake that in the shape of a tractor and then it looked like a field of hay for the second cake. He also had a smash cake with a John Deere miniature tractor on it. My mother in law also painted a banner to hang on the front of the garage. All of our paper products were yellow and green. For favors everyone received a shovel and bucket and some bubblies with a little green tractor tied to it saying "Thank you for celebrating Owen's First Birthday with us! April 22, 2006".

Intro

2009-10-08T18:03:00.000-07:00

Here I go! I can't believe I am actually starting a blog. I have always loved to socialize. I love people! I love to entertain and I love to see my guests reactions when I host parties, etc. I love parties but I especially love how all the right touches can tie everything together. So I decided to start a blog to share my love for entertaining and planning parties, etc as well as hopefully giving some of you some ideas for your next party or get together.