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!

cheesecake strawberries

a friend brought these to a get together last summer and i thought they were delish!

she shared the recipe with me and now i am sharing it with you:

strawberries

 & this goodness:

hull the strawberries & slice an X in the top so that the strawberry opens just a bit 

add the filling to a piping bag (i used a 21 cake tip) and fill up those berries!

{i've also substituted a brick of softened cream cheese mixed with cool-whip in place of the ready-to-eat filling}

enjoy!

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!

 

 

 

 

gender neutral baby shower: owl theme

my sweet sis-in-law is pregnant with baby unruh... coming late november! alli and i hosted a baby shower for april with an owl theme.

pictures of max and april in felt owl frames ($2 martha stewart kit at big lots)

along with the cake our brunch menu was fruit salad, mini muffins, sausage breakfast casserole, and little smokies wrapped in crescent roll

instead of a game we did custom iron-on onesies for the baby. this picture is a little blurry but it says "MAX + APRIL = me". we also had everyone add a little heart iron-on on the bum and write their name on the heart so that when mom and dad are dressing the baby in these cute things, they will know who created each one.(this one is from april's sister... soon to be aunt karen)

onesies and iron-on's can get expensive- especially since we were planning for about 25 shower guests. a couple of months before, i started collecting packages of onesies at joanns and michaels with my weekly 50% off coupons. i also used a coupon at michaels and bought package of iron-on transfer paper for $6. i searched  google images to find fun gender-neutral pictures to decorate the onesies. some, like the one here, are just text that i typed in a word document. i suggest using fun & unique fonts. i love collecting fonts and there are some great available online. my favorite fonts always come from dafont.com  i printed the images from my home printer onto the special paper and cut them out for shower guests to choose their favorite!

racecar party

we took a road trip to florida to help caden celebrate his THIRD birthday. it was tons of fun (minus the 16 hours in the car-- each way. just ask kate.)

the birthday boy:

 i made his shirt using fabric & wonder under. just iron your fabric to one side of the wonder under. cut out the shape. peel the backing off the other side. iron the shape to your shirt. stitch around the shape and you have a super cute, custom piece!

the details:

a racing pennant from ebay with some letters (all star font) printed off the computer, cut out and taped to the pennant for a birthday banner.

erin picked up some disney cars movie party blowers from walmart. she created her own "happy birthday caden" labels and stuck them over the cars decoration. we peeled high school musical stickers off cheer megaphones from the dollar tree for instant traffic cones.

 

decorate your own pinata bags-- stickers from oriental trading co

the eats:

my sister made this awesome race track cake. the race track and checkerboard pattern on the side are fondant. the grass is a delicious buttercream frosting tinted green and piped with a grass cake tip.

                  

stop light jell-o jigglers - chocolate car pretzel rods - street scene table scape

happy birthday sweet caden!