Bird Birthday Bash

I have a SIX year old. What?! And my 6 year old is obsessed with birds and nature. What's a party-designing-mama to do... Create an Audubon themed birthday party, that's what!

Every year Finley celebrates his birthday with his cousin, Grayson, for a family celebration. This year I was a little nervous asking my sister-in-law if she was "cool" with a bird theme! Are birds all the rave with boys... because Lora said Grayson loves him some birds too! ;) The bird theme was a GO!


The hunt for Bird and Nature themed ideas began! Green grass table runners, a tree trunk charger/platter, branches, rocks and pine cones helped decorate each table. I found small realistic birds and nests at the dollar store {score!} and we gifted Finley with a few plush birds that I used as decor for the party.

Each little Bird Watcher received a hand-made vest {made by my amazing mama, "grandma barbara" ... the grandma that made the jet packs, tutus and felt pizzas!} adorned with an owl patch and "official bird expert" sticker! Grandma Barbara spoiled the kiddos with plenty of outdoor necessities to top of each Bird Watching outfit... Mini flashlights, mini compasses, binoculars and safari hats! SO fun!

 We sent the kids out on a Nature Scavenger Hunt! They needed to collect elements from nature and look for certain Wisconsin Backyard Birds! Thank goodness for a beautiful autumn day in Wisconsin!

Each Bird Fanatic left with their own bird feeder, so they can continue to watch birds from home!

It was fun and MESSY making our home-made, pine cone bird feeders!

Each "Early Bird" got their own baggie of gummy worms to snack on after the scavenger hunt! Yum Yum!

I had fun making sweets for the outdoors theme with chocolate acorns {made from chocolate kisses, mini nutter butters and chocolate chips!} and dirt dessert!

We called out party location the "Leis Audubon Center", as it was transformed into a Bird Watchers dream!

Here's my favorite Bird Watcher, Finley, accommodating me with a pose in all his gear! He LOVES to draw birds, so we had to use his art as decoration throughout the party too...

Happy Birthday to these two cuties!

I had a blast creating a unique and specialized theme for two special and unique boys! When Fin said he wanted a "bird party", I admit, I was a little nervous. But once I got going, I couldn't stop and found this theme to be my favorite so far!

And, by gosh by golly, my shop is officially OPEN again for business! I have stretched my maternity leave as far as I could. This whole mama of three business is NO JOKE and has taken me longer than I expected to get back into the swing of things! Click HERE to peruse my shop and HERE to order the printable designs to create your own BIRD THEME party!

Tutus & Ties Birthday Party

My sweet Navy Rose is turning THREE in a few weeks, and so we already celebrated with our traditional big family joint-cousin birthday party! She celebrates her birthday with 4 other cousins {all born in March and April}, three girls and two boys total. We wanted to have a gender neutral theme, so this year we chose "tutus and ties"...

I chose the colors navy blue {surprise surprise! My daughter's name *is* Navy!}, green and pink for the color palette and decided on a handful of fun, preppy patterns to make this party a less princess/tutu-y and more preppy "little ladies and gentlemen"...

I created mini tutus and mini ties to attach to mason jars as table top decorations and vases for flowers...

A fun, and very simple sweet treat to match the party theme, were these marshmallow tutu pops! I dipped the marshmallows in pink sprinkles, put them on a lollipop stick and pushed a pink cupcake liner, upside down, through the stick, underneath the marshmallow! {totally copied this idea from Pinterest, I take NO credit of my own!}

My mom and I made each little lady and gentlemen their own tutu or tie, as their take-home favor! For the tutus, we chose fushia tulle and followed simple instructions we found on Pinterest {of course!} for the tutus. We added green polka dot ribbon bows and hung them on display by mini clothes pins in our windows! For the ties, we chose a 3" wide navy chevron ribbon. Again, I followed instructions I found online to make ties that could easily be put on and taken off with a piece of velcro in the back!

Here's a close up of my cutie wearing her tutu proudly!

We had a delicious two-tiered birthday cake made {by a friend of mine} to match the party's preppy patterns!

All in all, this was a successful birthday party to celebrate 5 amazing kiddos! The theme was so fun to accommodate little boys and little girls on their special day!

Want to make your own Tutus and Ties birthday party? Start with these printable invitations...

And decorate with these adorable printable party decorations!

Ballerina Birthday Party

Every now and then I have the pleasure of working with repeat customers. This was the case with this adorable and sweet Ballerina Birthday Party. I received an email from an existing customer, Bethany, asking to design her oldest daughter's 4th birthday party invitation and decorations. She {and her daughter!} had a pretty good idea in mind of the direction she wanted me to go in {so helpful!} with describing words like girly, classy, pink & gold, stripes & dots, ballet slippers, tutus and more. I was able to create soft and sweet party designs for her! Take a peek...

I started with these sweet and playful party invitations. I hit all of my marks with pink, gold, stripes, polka dots, and ballet shoes! Bethany printed my designs and embellished the front of the invite by adding gold glitter to her daughter's name! SO cute. She used bright pink envelopes and attached my printable envelope address wraps to the outside.

Bethany also added a touch of gold to the outside of the envelope, too, by putting a piece of gold washi tape to the back flap. Glitzy and glamorous!

I just love the framed "keep calm and dance on" printable 8x10 sign, framed and on display. And, aren't those juice bottles adorable with their very own "tutus" wrapped around each?

A simple way to spruce up a table, and make a big statement, is to spell out the guest of honor's name in large, glittery-gold letters!

I can not get enough of this little cutie birthday girl! The tight bun, the pink from head to toe, the tutu. Perfection.

I just love to see how a customer pulls all of my printable designs together! It is so soft and sweet how the printable pennant banner is hung with sheer pink tulle in front of a layered pink curtain!

Is it just me, or is it every little girls dream to run up to a rack full of pink fluffy tutus and pick one out for themselves! This is my favorite part of this party!

Ella's 4th birthday party took place at a dance studio and was a "mommy and me" class! Such a cute idea for 4 year old's and their mom's to remember!

Great job Bethany on throwing a beautiful birthday party to celebrate your tiny twirler!

Check out Bethany's blog post, for more details, here!

Feeling inspired to host your own little ballerina party! Start off with these printable party invitations, with matching envelope wraps...

 And complete every detail with these matching printable party decorations!

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 ...