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!

Sailor Girl Party :: Navy's 1st Birthday!

Our BABY turned ONE last weekend. I knew I was going to have a nautical themed birthday party for her since she was in the womb. With a name like Navy, it was pretty much her destiny. {P.S... get ready for a photo overload...} Isn't my little sailor darling; Her dress was a vintage Etsy score!

To set the tone for the party, each guest received a simple, preppy invitation in the mail, inside of a 5x7 flat kraft paper bag. I wrapped a {printable} envelope address label around the outside of the kraft bag to personalize them, and secured the "envelope" closed with navy polka dot washi tape! The invites are double sided, with a fun navy polka dot pattern background.

Pink & navy tissue poms made a fun statement as the back drop for the kid's favor table. Each little sailor received their own personalized sailor hat and a box full of "life rings" {aka powdered donuts!}.

The sailor hats were personalized with a printable name tag, attached with staples. A darling, easy and non-permanent way to customize each hat.

Printable "sails" set up at each station let guest's know what was what. We wouldn't want the adults to think those donuts were for them...

The sweets table was filled with delicious treats...

Pink frosted cupcakes and a pink polka dot cake tasted great, as well as matched the theme of the party perfectly!

Mini fruit pizzas were the perfect size for a pop of sweetness!

Printable "sails" attached to masts {lollipop sticks} made for cute cupcake toppers...

Navy's catch of the day {pretzel fishies} spruced up a large wooden boat and made for a tasty take-home treat!

Printable banners, signs and "sails" tied in the decorations in each room... And, how fun is that watermelon boat! I assigned that "pinterest project" to my mama, who happily took on the challenge!

The drink station was a "printable party" dream... with everything labeled, from the water bottles, to juice boxes to flags on each navy striped straw...

Here, the mason jars were tied with a printable tag and life saver and the straws had a printable mini flag attached to each...

I loved the mini water bottles and juice boxes for all the little guest's at the party, and the other stuff for the big kids at the party...

Navy had a {hand-me-down from her brother} sailor hat that I knew she was going to wear for the party, but I wanted each little guest to have one for them self...

Pink tulips, a photo of Navy {from here 1 year photo shoot by the talented Alia Morgan Photography} and DIY paper boats made a charming centerpiece...

Rustic twine and kraft paper off set all the pink & navy sweetness wonderfully...

I had been planning on painting these large letters for Navy's room for, well, a year now, but never got around to it. I was pleasantly surprised when I decided to wrap them in navy polka dot washi tape! So easy, and so cute!

We spruced up Navy's highchair with a printable mini banner, and upgraded a white onesie with an iron-on pink polka dot anchor applique.

Time to blow out the candles! Thank goodness for an older brother and cousin to help...

This little one year old can EAT... she loved every second of her first, and second, piece of cake!

I captured a special moment with grandma and Navy right before the party started and here are some of the happy Crew Mates, sporting their personalized hats...

Navy was spoiled with many new cute outfits, shoes, toys and more... but her favorite part of gift opening was definitely the tissue paper!

We have been BLESSED with an amazing first year with the most chill, "easy", snuggly, quiet, funny, happy baby girl. Happy Birthday Navy Rose. We LOVE you!

Want to create your own Sailor Girl Birthday Party?  Start with these simple and sweet invitations...

Order the printable Sailor Girl Invitation & Envelope Wraps from my Etsy shop...

Make party planning a breeze with these printable Sailor Girl Party Decor designs. Work exclusively with me to customize each piece for YOUR little Sailor Girl!

Fridays with Fin :: "baby fin"

Time is flying! Navy already turned 2 months on Wednesday! We had a fun time capturing that moment...

Can you see that Finley has one of Navy's "onesie stickers" on too! My precious 2.5 year old is doing a little reverting to baby these days and asks to do everything Navy does... He even calls himself "Baby Nin" {'cause he can't quite say Fin}. :)

Speaking of Baby Fin... Here's a comparison of Fin to Navy at 2 months old! We have Navy's 2 month appointment today, and I can't wait to find out how much that girl weighs! Take a look at those thighs. I take bites out of them often. I think Naynay outweighs her bro big time, she did beat him at birth, after all!

It's hard to see how much she's grown in a month, because in her 1 month pic Navy's wearing a 0-3 month onesie, and now she's in a 3-6 month onesie. Yes, my 2 month old is rockin' the 3-6! :P

These two months have been one wild ride! We are ALL growing and learning SO much!

Happy Friday everyone! :)

Fridays with Fin :: Being a Big Bro

We've talked and talked and talked to Finley about how he was going to be a BIG BROTHER soon... we hyped it up to him, got him a doll to "practice" with, talked to the baby in mommy's belly and on and on! And now she's here, in the flesh... and I have to say, some how, some way, it is just working! :) I'm amazed at how much I can love these TWO people equally and immensely at the same time. I'm blown away at how Fin is adjusting to this other person in our lives {oh, don't get me wrong, we've had some real heavy rough patches, but the good is definitely outweighing the bad!}.

I thought I'd share some moments captured from week two with Navy Rose... We started our weekend with our first outing as a family of four to the mall! :) I know, crazy, right? Here's Fin and Navy rocking the sit 'n stand stroller for the first time! Besides running into some an old friend and talking way too long and having to get home as fast as possible in order to feed Navy {nursing mama's know what I'm getting at here}, it went great! First outing = success!

Then came Easter Sunday! We did NOT make it to church {guilty gulp!}, but we DID manage to make it out to grandma & grandpa's for the annual, and oh-so-magical, Leis Family Egg Hunt with all the cousins...

Here's Navy with her two other {and only} girl {Leis} cousins... We had to capture 3 princesses in one place!

And here's some random shots from Easter... Fin playing "coo coo" {you all may remember, this is "Fin" for "choo choo"} with Grandma and Fin relaxing with daddy!

In came Monday morning... our first day without Daddy at home {he worked from home all last week}! We had our first without-daddy-trip to {one of mommy's favorite places in the world} Target! Besides having to have food and drink on hand for Fin at all times, I count this trip as another success! But, we were wiped and ALL napped really well after this big adventure out! ;)

And if you know me... you have GOT to be impressed with all of these outings! I was out of commission when Fin was born for, I swear, three months. Never left the rocking chair in his room. Rarely showered. And had quite a hard time adjusting back to any sort of "normal"! Believe me, I'm giving myself great big fist pumps for how well I'm handling this adjustment in our lives! :P Like I said earlier, some how, some way, its just working!

Anyway! Here's a fun sequence of events involving Fin holding his new baby sis...

Onto another adventure... We made it to our local community center for some indoor playground action. This was the first outing with me rockin' the baby bjorn. I never really used it with Finley {like I said, I basically sat in the rocking chair his entire infancy}, so was really loving the freedom I had holding Navy in it and being able to function normally with my very active boy! {sorry about the hideous double-chin-up-the-nostral shot of me... I know, super flattering!}

And this may be super inappropriate, but here's how Finny keeps busy while Navy's being fed... Oh yeah, he has to be right up there with her, can't miss a beat!

And finally, I leave you with some fun, crazy faces of Navy! Speaking of little Miss Navy... Let's talk about her name... I have had this girl's name picked out since I was 17. To me, "Navy" is a name. To the world, Navy is a color, a bean or a military group! ;P I have no funny story or fascinating event for how her name came to me, or why I was even thinking about my future daughter at the age of 17, I just always knew I was going to have a daughter named Navy... And here she is, in all here glory...

Happy weekend y'all! :)