Hello Kitty Birthday Party

Say HELLO to Little Miss Molly. She recently turned 3 and we celebrated with a Hello Kitty party. Molly LOVES Hello Kitty, so when she told me she wanted a Hello Kitty party I was happy to oblige. Hello Kitty is such an adorable character and I was excited to plan and create this party.

Molly attended preschool this year, so she made some sweet friends. We invited the nine boys and girls in her class along with her Godparents and their four children and, of course, her sisters. We sent these adorable invitations from Funtastic Parties on Etsy to her little friends.

I found some rolls of Hello Kitty coloring sheets a while back at Michael's. Initially, I bought them to put into party favor bags, but the night before the party I decided to use them as decor. I unrolled them and taped them to craft board for the backdrop of the dessert table and also covered an entire wall in the entry way with them.

The dessert table was a sweet display of fruit, cookies, brownies, lollipops and milk. Edible Arrangements had a fruit arrangement in a Hello Kitty vase available so I ordered the fruit from them. I love how easy it is to serve and no prepping on my part. Easy peasy!

I got my favorite chocolate covered Oreos by Sweeties by Kim.

Store bought brownies were prettied up with fondant bow toppers from Shop Cupcake Central.

Bow shaped sugar cookies were made by my favorite cookie lady, Carrie Budke of Angel Cakes in Rye, NY.

I found these adorable plastic milk containers on Etsy. The lid unscrews and it has a hole in the top perfect for paper straws. One word to the wise...DO NOT place them in the dishwasher. Mine melted, even on the top rack. I'm very sad about it, but will order more for sure. I found the milk bottles and yellow paper straws on Etsy at Cute Kids Food Box. They have the most adorable party items available. I'll be visiting them very often, I'm sure. To add more Hello Kitty detail, I found a bow image online which I printed and cut out. I used glue dots to adhere them to the paper straws.

Molly wanted me to be sure to have lollipops (her favorite treat), so I found these Hello Kitty ones at Candied Cakes on Etsy. They come in many flavors and colors and were yummy!

My friend, Daryl, started a cake business called Frosted by Daryl. She makes gorgeous and delicious cakes and made this one for Molly's party. It was so cute and YUMMY!

I was set to have the party outside in our backyard, however the weather forced us indoors. I switched gears at the last minute, cleared furniture from my living and dining area and decorated inside. Here is how the kids' tables looked in our dining area.

I used fresh flowers as centerpieces, tied Hello Kitty ribbon around the vase, and put a print out of Hello Kitty on a skewer to bring a touch of Hello Kitty to the tables.

As Molly's guests arrived she took a picture with each of them. The entryway wall covered in Hello Kitty coloring pages made for the perfect backdrop for photos. I may use these in the thank you cards.

The kiddos were very excited to see Hello Kitty walk down the stairs. They enjoyed games and songs with Hello Kitty and the MC.

After songs and games, we sat down for lunch. I put together little lunch boxes for each kiddo. I packed strawberry cream cheese sandwiches (I used a bow shaped cookie cutter to cut it), a package of organic apple slices, and a tube of organic strawberry yogurt. I tied a Hello Kitty ring on the box with baker's twine. The kids loved having their own individual lunch kit and prize. A healthy HAPPY MEAL!

After lunch, it was time to sing happy birthday. It took Molly three times to blow out her candles. She was surprisingly shy being the center of attention.

Hello Kitty stuck around after cake to take pictures with Molly and her friends.

After Hello Kitty left and pictures were done, I let the kids have at it with the wall and some crayons. It ended up being great entertainment while the adults chatted. I'll definitely use this idea in the future.

I bought TY Beanie Babies for party favors. Each little girl went home with a plush Hello Kitty. The boys got Hello Kitty's friend, Keroppi the Frog.

Molly loves balloons and this one is one of my favorite balloons ever. This thing was huge! It was still inflated 4 days after the party.

Molly had a blast at her party and loved celebrating with her friends and Hello Kitty.

I love you with all my heart sweet girl. I am happy I could make your 3rd birthday so special. 

XOXO,

Mommy

Lemonade and Lollipops

My sweet, sweet Molly just turned 2, and her lemonade and lollipops birthday party was this past weekend. I had so much fun designing and planning the decor. Everything turned out really sweet and I think everyone had a great time!

A few weeks before the party I asked Molly what kind of party she wanted and she said, "Lollipops!" Since Madison had a Candy theme party a few years ago and I didn't want a rerun, I pressed her further. "What else do you like?" I asked her. She said, "Lemonade!" And that is how the theme was born. I combined lollipops and lemonade and ran with it. I chose pink and yellow as the colors since those are the colors I think of when I think of lemonade.

We chose the same location as her Strawberry 1st Birthday Party...Aunt Bonnie's pool. I started with these invitations I found from Hello Love Boutique on Etsy.

They were super cute and fit the theme perfectly.

After the invites were ordered and mailed, I went on Pinterest for a little inspiration and put a little board together with everything lemonade and lollipop that I could find. I also spent one day running around to Party City, Michael's, and Target looking for all the cute little pink and yellow details I could find.

I bought some hanging lanterns from Party City.  Instead of hanging them, I cut off the tops and hot glued them to a craft board. It made the perfect backdrop for the dessert table.

I opted for small for this year's dessert table. I've found that people are shying away from sweets for themselves and their kids, so a table full of sweets isn't as big of a hit as many party blogs make them seem. Colorful desserts are beautiful and look great on a table, but what good are they if no one is eating them?

I found some lemon shaped lollipops at Party City which worked perfectly in a tall vase since the sticks on them are extra long. I went back to my childhood when I spotted Lemonheads at Michael's. How perfect for this theme!

I used sweet little pink frames from the baby shower department at Michael's and embellished them with lemon scrapbooking stickers and used them to label the food and drinks.

I ordered some really cute mini lemon shaped cookies from Sweet Art Sweets on Etsy too. I only ordered two dozen, but should have ordered many more. They were delicious and went so quickly. The perfect size cookie for little ones though.

I chose a lemon curd filling for the cake from our favorite bakery...Cornerstone Caterers in Rye, NY. While picking up the cake I spotted lemon bars in the dessert case and figured it was meant to be and picked up some of those too. Now I had the makings for a perfectly small and lemony dessert table. How cute is the "Keep Calm and Drink Lemonade" print!

I think the folks at Cornerstone were a little in shock when I ordered a plain white (on the outside) cake. They are normally in for a little more time-consuming arts and crafts projects with my cakes, but I had other plans this year. I've been eyeing those pennant banner cake toppers flying around Pinterest and blog world and decided that would be the perfect topper for a lemonade party since it reminded me of a lemonade stand. I constructed mine using pink and yellow patterned scrapbook paper, some pink baker's twine and two striped paper straws. Super easy and super cute! Cornerstone gave me their signature "Happy Birthday" fondant banner that I just leaned against the straws. I like that the cake is a little plain so the emphasis is on the cute little topper. It literally took no more than 5 minutes to whip up this adorable topper.

For favors, I found a cute idea on Pinterest that linked to this site with a free printable for a "make your own" lemonade stand bucket.

I thought it was adorable and the perfect favors for a lemonade party. I found small Mason jars at Michael's and filled them with some store-bought lemonade mix. I also found the buckets at Michael's and spent a few extra minutes switching out the shovels on the yellow buckets with pink ones...it's all gotta match, right? I got some pink letter stickers while I was there to spell out "Lemonade 25c" on the buckets. In each bucket I placed ten pink cups, napkins, and fancy paper straws. I also rolled up a sheet of paper, tied it with ribbon and tucked in a pink and a green crayon so the kids could make a sign for their lemonade stand. Here's a good to know tip...you can order a box of crayons on Crayolastore.com and customize it with any colors you choose. I was able to order a pack with just pink and green crayons. The lemonade kits turned out super cute. I embellished the jars with some ribbon and wrapped them in scrapbook paper with a lemon on the front. The kids were super excited to get them. They couldn't wait to get home and set up a lemonade stand of their own!

What lemonade party would be complete without a lemonade stand? Now we don't own a lemonade stand, but I figured I'd try my hand at making one. Now I don't know how to use saws and power tools, so the lemonade stand I would make would have to be super-duper easy and could not require sawing and painting or anything super time-consuming. While at CVS one day I spied a white wooden table that could roll up and fit into a bag. I thought it was really neat but didn't know when I would use it so I walked on. A few weeks later and two nights before the birthday party I was back at CVS buying that table. How perfect for a lemonade stand! Next stop was Home Depot where I picked up a long white piece of wood and had a Home Depot employee saw it in half for me. I picked up a few cable ties and two screws that had a ring on the top and crossed my fingers that I could pull off a lemonade stand. Well it worked! I attached the two pieces of wood on either side of the table and secured them to the table legs with cable ties. The hubs twisted the screws into the tops of the wood. I draped a banner across the top, tying the ends on the circular screws and called it a lemonade stand!

My 6-year-old made a sign for the front and we put a big beverage dispenser of lemonade so the kiddies could help themselves! I also had plenty of Honest Kids pink lemonade juice boxes on hand.

Here's Madison at the lemonade stand. This was her favorite part of the party. She really wanted to collect money for the lemonade!

We grilled steaks, chicken, vegetables, and had a yummy pasta salad for the adults. I made these cute trays for the kiddos with a rainbow of fruit and veges. Another Pinterest find! Mac and Cheese and chicken nuggets rounded out the kiddie menu.

The adult beverages consisted of Skinny Girl Margarita, Sangria, and a yummy vodka lemonade with crushed mint leaves. I used self-service beverage dispensers which made it nice and easy to serve the drinks.

Everyone had a great time swimming and running around. It was a perfectly sunny day in May and the perfect way to spend Memorial Day Weekend and Molly's 2nd birthday.

Happy 2nd birthday my "always sweet and never sour" ;-) baby girl. Mommy loves you very much. I hope you enjoyed your party.

XOXO!

Mommy 

And a few more pics...

I forgot to mention....I whipped up her party hat with left over scrapbook paper and boa trim from Morgan's Care Bear Party and added a pink chipboard M! She decided she didn't want to wear it anymore and tore the M right off. Good thing the party was over!

Thanks for checking us out!

Shannon