A Berry Sweet 1st Birthday Party

Molly turned 1 at the end of May and we celebrated with a Berry Sweet Strawberry themed birthday party.  This theme came to me when I saw this outfit at Gymboree and just knew it had to be her birthday dress.



I decided to go with the colors in the dress for the decor....light blue and red.  Since Molly's birthday was Memorial Day weekend we decided to go with a pool party barbecue.  We held the party at Ryan's aunt's house on Long Island.  She has a great pool and beautiful setting for a party.

I made most of the decorations myself.  Here are some of the details...

Everything on the cake/dessert table was either blue, red, white or strawberry flavored. We had white chocolate covered strawberries, strawberry licorice, jellybeans, m&ms, gumballs, cupcakes, and strawberry cookies.

The cake was from our favorite local bakery, Cornerstone Caterers.  They never disappoint!

I used these old-fashioned jars for some of the sweets...gumballs, m&ms and strawberry jellybeans.

Gotta have cupcakes...these were strawberry flavor.

Beverages...Skinny Girl Margarita with fresh strawberries for the adults and strawberry lemonade for the kiddos.

I wrapped the water bottles again!

Can't have a Strawberry themed party without a  Make Your Own Strawberry Shortcake Bar!  Yum!

We served hamburgers, hotdogs, jambalaya, sausage, and strawberry salad.  I even jazzed up the condiments with themed labels.

I had strawberry cookies and strawberry cake pops as favors.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the cakepops, but they were adorable!  Sorry about the shadow.  I really need to learn how to use my camera.

My cousin Lindsey helped make these edible strawberry topiaries which were centerpieces for the tables.  Thanks, Linds!

Even the big sisters coordinated with the party!

I didn't get a picture of Molly in her swimsuit, but she changed into this cute strawberry swimsuit from Gymboree when she went swimming.  A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E is all I can say.

And here is the birthday girl eating a strawberry...love her!

I hope your 1st Birthday was BERRY SWEET- just like you, Molly Kate!

Love,

Mommy

XOXO

A Nightmare Before Christmas Party

I threw this party for my nephew when he was turning 4.  When he told me he wanted a Nightmare Before Christmas party, I was stumped.  I had never seen a party with this theme on any of the blogs I read and I had never seen the movie, so I had no clue how I was going to pull it off.  But I wanted to make him happy so I set off to research A Nightmare Before Christmas.  I chose the main character, Jack Skellington as the focal point and the colors black, white and orange.  Now, this party was in May...springtime...so not much out there that time of year to do with skeltons and pumpkins.  Come to think of it, this would make a great theme for a Halloween Party as well.  I found a few things on ebay and created most of the party decorations myself.  Here is how it all turned out.

The invitation.

The sign welcoming guests to the party. 

I put some decorations in the plant next to the door.

The main attraction...the dessert table.  All of the treats were either black, white or orange to match the theme.

The dessert table included...

 Cupcakes

Clementines, Orange Twizzlers, and Mini Oreos

Apricots, mini-marshmallows and black M&Ms

Airheads (because skeletons have nothing but air up there) wrapped to match the decor.

I made cones to hold popcorn.  The kids loved these, when they were empty the would re-fill them with other treats from the table.

And last but not least an ice cream cake from Carvel (nephew's request) that my husband decorated to look like Jack Skellington.  I think he did a great job!  Thanks babe!

Hanging above the dessert table were three white paper party lanterns from Party City that I decorated with black scrapbook paper and double sided tape to look like Jack Skellington's head.

Favors for the guests were black and white cookies...from the Italian bakery in town.

Digging in...

Drinks were black and orange too...rootbeer and orange cream soda.  I also had orange mango fruit juice for the kids.

The table centerpieces...

I won an 8 pack Nightmare Before Christmas party set on Ebay.  These were perfect for the kid's table.

The adult table place settings...

Everything gets decorated...even the utensils.

Blowing out his candles.

The birthday boy on his special day.  I hope you had a wonderful 4th birthday, Julian.

XOXO,

Aunt Shannon

A PEEPS Party (for Easter)

I've always loved celebrating Easter with Easter Egg hunts.  As a Kindergarten Teacher in a Catholic School, the Easter Egg Hunt I planned for my students was my all time favorite activity.  When I moved to NY and began teaching in a public school, I was very sad that this practice was frowned upon.  I really think those kiddos are missing out (Catholic or not) on a beloved Springtime event.  To satisfy my Egg Hunt urge, I would plan an egg hunt for 5 of our little cousins that live on Long Island.  We celebrated Easter with them three years in a row and they loved the Egg Hunts.  Once I had my own children and those 5 cousins got older and busier I started planning small egg hunts for my kids and their younger cousins.  I've always longed to throw a larger Easter Party and Egg Hunt and this year was the year!  The idea began with a playdate with friends and turned into a festive soiree.  I chose a PEEPS theme for the party since I love those little marshmallow delights. I was inspired by these Ideas for a Peeps Party I found on Celebrations at Home blog.

I made iron-on transfers to match the theme for my girls to wear to the party.   I found free printables here.

I love this play on words...PEEPS = FRIENDS :-). 

I created these signs for the patio doors.

The party took place outside.   It was a beautiful spring afternoon.  A little chilly but not too bad.  I set the main table up on our deck.  I wish there wasn't a shadow when I took the pictures. The party was after lunch so I served some sweet treats and light snacks to go with the Easter theme.  Food included Peeps (of course), cupcakes, cookies, Annie's Cheddar bunnies and baby carrots.

I made regular cupcakes and topped them with PEEPS.

Another cupcake tower was used to display the leftover PEEPS.  I bought way too many packages of these.

 My friend Kristina made these yummy Easter Egg cookies for the party. 

I found free water bottle labels here .  I had no time to create my own for this party. 

I kind of threw together this PEEPS Garden Centerpiece.  I put the peeps on lollipop sticks and stuck them into styrofoam inside the basket.

I served Pink Champagne for the mommies and it was yummy with the Peeps garnish. 

Pink Lemonade for the kiddos with a floating Peep just for fun. 

I created the banner for the front of the table using scrapbook paper and ribbon. 

In addition to the egg hunt, the kids dyed Easter Eggs.  

I also created Coloring Sheets for the kids to color.

The main event was the Egg Hunt and the kids had a blast!  Each guest brought 12 eggs filled with surprises and the mommies hid them around the yard.  I told each guest to find 12 eggs and then they could open them.  What fun!

Since I had so many peeps leftover, each guest went home with a little Peeps treat.  This was super easy to make and super last minute.  I used ziplock bags I already had on hand and these toppers I found for free here... 

This was such a fun day and I loved celebrating my favorite season with friends and making it special for my girls.

XOXO!