Rocket Birthday Party

3... 2... 1... Blast Off to Finley & Grayson's Birthday Party! Oh man, was this a FUN party to plan! My sweet Finley Jack is turning 5 on Sunday and his cousin turned 2 last week, so we joined their party together, for the second year in a row, to celebrate these out-of-this-world little guys! {Be warned... this post is photo overload!}

I started dreaming up this party theme when I saw these sweet jet packs on Pinterest! {I can admit when I copy am inspired!} I showed them to Finley and the rest was history! I asked my go-to DIYer and avid Diet-Coke-drinking mama to "whip up" 10 jet packs as party favors and away she went! She took her job very seriously and held fittings on Finley with different prototypes. Her final version had a walkie-talkie attached and everything! These were legit, people.

Lime green polka dots and Blue stripes/chevron were the back drop for the party designs and decorations. I thought they were the perfect colors for a boy themed party! A simple sketch of outer space on a chalkboard contrasted the busy pattern nicely.

A sugary green kool-aid and tasty blue lemonade looked matchy-matchy and fun on display at the drinks station, uh, I mean, Rocket Fueling station!

I worked with a friend to create this amazing cake and cupcakes. So yummy! The cupcakes were spruced up with printable toppers and wraps.

Rocket ships and stars cookies, in green and blue, were also on display on the sweets table... I made these with Finley, and I think I should stick to the computer designs, as I'm not as gifted in the kitchen! :)

I created a fun centerpiece at our dining room table using hanging inflatable planets, a globe and yummy space-themed-treats!

Jet packs, a rocket pinata, astronaut helmets and outer-space-character suckers all tied this rocket theme party together perfectly!

It was fun and easy to make space-themed food to go with the party. A bag of cheese puffs makes for great "asteroids", home-made puppy chow is perfect as "moon rocks" and fruit kabobs shaped like rockets were fun and healthy {why were those not gobbled up as quickly as the other treats?}!

I called the dining room "mission control"...

Simple items at the party were tied into the party by adding a matching printable tag, label or sign...

My friend creates these fantastic material banners, so I had to have one for each window in our main party room! You can order you own, in any color combo, to match your party too!

I found these fun planet party blowers at a local party store and the kids went right to town on choosing their planet and making some noise!

How cute is that sweet almost-5-year-old of mine! I found his astronaut suit online. He wore it for a solid 3 days before the party and was truly upset when I told him he couldn't wear it to school. I wasn't going to go "all out" for this party, but it is because of this boys precious innocence and wonder that makes it still fun for me to spoil him in this way! He told me he wants to be a party planner when he grows up.

Milky way candy bars were, by far, the simplest theme-matching treat, dressed up in a large mason jar and printable tag ...

This was our first year having a pinata at our party. I think it might have to be a new tradition. What a blast to watch these kids try to bust this thing open! It took one of the "big cousins' {uh hum, in his 20's} to finally smash it open!

I used large 8x10 signs in matching colors, with fun expressions on them, to decorate throughout...

My sis-in-law, who teaches kindergarten, borrowed us {lended us? I know all my grammar readers gasp at my horrible writing skills} this rocket ship tent, from her classroom, for the party! Perfection.

We had such a BLAST celebrating Finley & Grayson's birthdays. All of the little cousins sure got their sugar fix at this party!

When hosting a family party, you never know what cooks might show up! ...

It was such a gorgeous fall day, we couldn't pass up a photo-op moment on the green green grass with a pumpkin prop! And, whew, if you made it this far in the post, good for you! I'm sorry for photo overload, but this was too fun of a party and too special of a day, not to gush about!

Create your own out-of-this-world Rocket Party, using my printable invitations and decorations, from my etsy shop ...

Fridays with Fin :: Vintage Train Birthday Party

Like most 3 year old boys, Fin is obsessed with trains! I knew I was going to have a train themed party during Fin's 2nd birthday party when the obsession became most obvious {while opening his gifts and saying "coo coo" over and over!}. The boy loves his "coo coos" {still doesn't have that cha sound down!} So, what's a mama to do! Yeah yeah, he loves his Thomas, like the rest of 'em, but he really loves any locomotive that makes a chugga chugga sound! So, I came up with a vintage train themed party. Starting with the invites...

Each guest received a Ticket to ride the Finley Express! With spaces to punch the month and day, each guest found when the Train was boarding, err, the party was starting! An interactive Ticket made guest's excited for a fun and nostalgic Train party experience! Check out the printable Vintage Train Party Ticket Invite, with matching envelope wrap, in my etsy shop!

Let the party begin! Take a look at the fun entrance that awaited guests! A set of train tracks leading up to the front door, with kid-size Railroad Crossing signs was a sure hit! A Printable Banner on the door helped tie in all the matching decorations that awaited guests inside.

Here's my little birthday boy seeing the tracks for the first time! Pure joy! And, check out his custom designed t-shirt, that I had printed... I designed the front and back to match all the other party designs. How cute is Fin with his Railroad Engineer's Handkerchief! Each little guest got their very own in their favor bag!

Red balloons, red & white polkadot paper, red bandanas and train tracks dressed up our house nicely for this train themed party...

Each lil' Finley-Express-Passenger received a mini kraft bag filled with Railroad Essentials... a red bandana, wooden train whistle and a custom-wrapped box of crayons. Each bag was labeled with a personalized name tag, and sat nicely in front of a personalized printable banner!

Delicious, individually packaged and custom-labeled train cookies were the perfect party favor for guests both young and old! Fin's grandma {my mama} was the master behind these fabulous, and perfectly matching, "coo coo" cookies!

Every detail, down to the water and juice boxes, tied into the look of the party! With custom-designed paper wraps, I was able to spice up something simple, like a bottle of water, and make it just a little more! And yes, the water did need to be labeled with a food label tent card! One might not know its water! ;) {I think every guest made a joke about that!}

We had a delicious cake with a frosting-painted locomotive on top! A mini-pennant banner topped it off...

Aren't these printable mini-flags fun, wrapped around nostalgic red & white striped straws! Just another easy, DIY detail!

Here's a final look at the "Hydration Station"! Printable party tags, signs, wraps & labels tie in all the details.

Food label tent cards are a great way of bringing the theme of the party throughout, down to the food! I had so much fun coming up with fun, train-themed lingo for each label... Pumping Pistons Popcorn, Fizzling Fireboxes Fruit, Bubbling Boilers Boilers Birthday cake, to name a few!

Here's my cutie and his side kick {and cousin}, Landon! They had SO much fun playing with the train set that dressed up the party table!

This birthday boy had such a special weekend filled with TWO parties! Here he is blowing out the candles on two separate cakes!

And here is our happy Choo Choo Partied-out family! Navy soaked up every minute of her big brother's BIG day!

Here's the party in action!

And I think its tradition, now, to end a Fridays with Fin with a snap of Fin's cutie sister, Navy! She was all dolled up and was, by far, the cutest passenger aboard the Finley Express!

Create your own Vintage Train Themed Birthday Party! Start with these printable Train Ticket Invitations...

Decorate for the party with these matching Vintage Train Party Printables...

Fridays with Fin :: Fall Fun!

We have been up to lots of fall-y things lately, so I'm going to do a big ol' fin-foto-fest! Here we are at a fun family farm...

 On a hayride... with his ladies :)

Feeding the animals...

We recently visited my parent's... and yes, this is how we roll at Gma & Gpa V's... dunking for apples!

Pumpkin carving & decorating fun with the big cousins!

During our visit to Grandma & Grandpa's, we hit up the new Children's Museum! I knew I was in "geebs" when the first exhibit was a mini-tailgating experience! Fin loved it.

He loved everything about the Children's Museum, but especially the big boat!

He took his job as a Fireman very seriously...

After spending pretty much most of his time at that boat, we quickly ran through the rest of the exhibits and got a quick dose of everything! We can't wait to go back!

Another fun fall activity was meeting Fin's new cousin, Grayson! Congrats to Aunt Lora, Uncle John, and cousin's Landon and Porter on your new arrival!

Fin has been LOVING school! Yay! You never know how a 2 year old mama's boy is going to handle such a big new experience, and I'm proud to say, he's doing great! Here's a snapshot of a Finley original painting...

And we can't forget about Fin's fresh-faced-fabulous little sister... Miss Navy. Chillest girl in town.

Happy Fall everyone!