lego "everything" party

owen is 6! and he is quite the LEGO fanatic. he likes it all- lego star wars, lego ninjago, lego batman- and couldn't pick just one lego theme for his party. so, he decided he wanted a "LEGO everything" party :)

ninjago pinata made from a gift bag- spray painted black, yellow paper eyes, filled with candy and stapled shut. the easiest pinata ever! the backdrop is a $2.50 pack of wrapping paper from the LEGO store along with a homemade birthday banner.

since the party was in the backyard, instead of having everyone come through the house, my sister made this sign for the front door to let them know where to go. 

the "lego brick road" was just construction paper legos in a path to the back gate.

lego star wars light sabers- cut pool noodles in half & covered one end with shiny silver duck tape. the boys loved these! each party guest took one home as part of their party favors.

i only planned one game which worked out great because the kids really just wanted to play with the light sabers! for this game, "mr. freeze" froze batman & robin in ice. the boys had to use water guns to melt the ice away and free the toys. there were 2 blocks of ice, one with batman & one with robin frozen inside. we had 2 waterguns & 2 teams relaying to try to free their toy the fastest.

pinata time! they took one whack at the pinata with their light saber then the next time around they used a real pinata stick. we knew that light saber wasn't going to do the trick but this way ensured everyone at least one turn!

the favor bags doubled as sacks for the pinata candy. favors were the pinata candy, the light saber, a lego club magazine (free at our lego store) and chocolate lego brick candy.

cake time! owen told me what he wanted his cake to look like. it's a little hard to tell from the pictures but lego minifigures are holding the happy birthday candles. and luke skywalker, his favorite, got to hold the important # 6 :)

the cupcakes were decorated with chocolate lego pieces that i made from a candy mold.

mmm... cake! levi & logan approve!

SIX!!

 happy birthday sweet boy!

kate's pink & purple princess party!

i am {obviously!}so behind on blogging. kate turned 3 last november & requested a princess party. lots of our family made the 3 hour trip to kc to come celebrate with us which was so special! kate had a few of her little friends at the party too.

party prep...

decorating princess crowns

she loved her ladybug sleeping bag!

happy 3rd birthday, kate!!

baseball birthday party

the day of the party it rained and rained - and rained- but finally stopped about 3:30 and the sun shone for the rest of the day!  the ball field was too muddy to use, but the kids were still able to get in a game of baseball in the grass. we had a great time celebrating owen with some of our good friends. here are some pictures from the happy day!

the banner was re-purposed from the cars movie party. i just cut off oliver's name & switched out 

the checkered flag pennants for blue felt with baseball stickers.

the menu was simple ball park food- hot dogs, chips, watermelon & pop. i hoped to do fruit kabobs but was short on time and settled for watermelon slices instead. eating out of hamburger baskets (target dollar spot) added some fun! 

the birthday boy!

party favors in brown paper sacks: 

a box of cracker jacks, mini frisbee, hostess baseball cake, baseball tattoo, a squishy baseball

baseball party inspiration

somehow in the blink of an eye

this sweet {little} boy:

became this sweet {big} boy:

happy 4th birthday, owen!

he plans to spend the day with a visit to the pool, lots of time playing his new diego wii game, and dinner at t-rex cafe. sounds like the perfect way to spend #4 to me!

last weekend was a family party in wichita but this saturday is a party with friends in our hometown near kansas city. owen requested a baseball birthday party & i've had a great time planning. i've gathered lots of ideas and thought i would share some of my favorites with you:

baseball cake balls: creative party place, cotton candy cones: amy atlas,  hostess baseball cupcakes, 

baseball invitation: etsy, table scape: swanky tables, ball park menu: britssy, cake: 2bluedogs,

goodie bags: inchmark, baseball party: the sweetest occasion, party decor: couture parties

first pitch is at 5:30 on saturday. i'll be sure to share the highlights with you when the game is over! :)

cars movie birthday party

last weekend was our annual celebration of owen & oliver on their birthday! {you can see birthday #3 here.} this year both of the boys are really into characters from the disney cars movie: tow mater for oliver & dinoco for owen. we didn't want to get too crazy with the cars theme so my sister-in-law alli & i mostly played off of the colors of the cars movie characters & a sandy color for radiator springs- a town in the desert where most of the movie takes place. 

we went with an evite again this year. i added a recent pic of the two boys and little pictures of mater & dinoco to tie in the theme.

trying to get away from the usual hot dog/hamburger routine at an outdoor party, alli came up with a great idea for a gourmet taco bar. we served flour tortillas & corn taco shells, shredded chicken & carne asada with the usual fixings of shredded cheese, diced tomato, shredded lettuce and sour cream. also on the menu were black beans, refried beans, chips, salsa, guacamole & fruit cups. 

the birthday banner was made with an iron-on letter set & pennants cut from felt sheets {all from hobby lobby}. line up the pennants & put them thru the sewing machine. easy breezy! 

the real star of the show though was the birthday cake! {inspired by this cake} alli made an amazing 3 layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting tinted to look like sand. mater, dinoco and the cactus were made from royal icing using a royal icing transfer technique. milk chocolate rocks added the perfect touch! 

man, it's hard to get a good picture of these 2 monkeys! their shirts were made with felt, wonder under & coordinating shirts from wal-mart.  i opened up a word document and printed a "4" in all-star font, size 550. used it as my pattern to cut out 4's from the leftover banner felt. i used the red & blue felt 4's as my guideline to cut numbers out of checkered flag felt about a quarter or half inch bigger all the way around. i sewed the two 4's together then used wonder under to attach them to the shirts.

happy 4th birthday to two of my favorite little people!

princess castle cake

this sweet little friend turned 3 on saturday and we celebrated with princess party!

all the little princes & princesses {and some queen mommas too} feasted on this pretty cake that i made.

cake cones covered in strawberry frosting
upside down sugar cones frosted & rolled in pink sugar
pink mini-marshmallow castle details
chocolate frosting door
pink strawberry frosting heart windows
a sweet little J flag in honor of the birthday girl

no more foil covered cake boards. use a fun wrapping paper instead!

margarita cake

we celebrated the birthday of a sweet friend last weekend with margaritas & a margarita cake. even though it didn't rise much, this 2-layer cake was still so moist and delish.  i added some green colored sugar and limes to make it extra pretty! {if you don't have colored sugar on hand just make your own... it's super easy. put 1 cup of sugar in a tupperware or jar with a tight lid. add 2 drops food coloring and shake it up like crazy for a minute. add more drops if the color is too light.}

margarita cake

1 box white cake mix

4 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

10 oz can margarita mix, thawed

1 tsp lime zest

mix all ingredients together. bake in 9 inch cake pans at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes. 

a cupcake party

i saw this super cute idea for a cupcake party (also for a little girl named kate) and knew that that should be the theme for my little kate's party! i found a fabulous roll of black & white damask wrapping paper in the christmas gift wrap section of hobby lobby. i paired the b/w damask with splashes of hot pink and glitter for a fun girly first birthday party.

invite: with envelope made from wrapping paper.(totally copied the wording from the other kate's birthday invites. it was just too cute.)

high chair banner: letters cut from a sheet of pink glittered foam & hot glued to black felt triangles. strung on hot pink cording.

picture banner: pictures of kate from 1 day to 12 months hung on hot pink beaded garland (found in target's christmas section).

smash cake: a large chocolate cupcake frosted with hot pink icing {using a 1M cake tip} on a gorgeous little silver dish i found in my grandma's things earlier in the day. it made a perfect little cupcake stand.

cake table: the birthday cake was made from wilton's giant cupcake pan using this recipe for the frosting (my favorite- tastes great & pipes beautifully!) and this technique for the base of the cake. the cupcake pops are via bakerella (this time i used a oreo/cream cheese mixture instead of cake/frosting) displayed in cute little buckets i found at hobby lobby. somehow i missed getting a picture of the finished table but at party time the punch bowl was filled with a raspberry sherbet & sprite for a pink drink. in the very corner of the picture you can catch a glimpse of the hot pink dinner plates & damask cake plates.

here are some more pictures of our day. it was a sweet little celebration of our sweet baby kate!