Candyland Theme Birthday Party

Party time at That Village House!!

Today I'm sharing some photos from my twins' birthday party.  We had a lot of fun with the Candyland theme. 
I created these invitations after seeing something similar on the internet. God gave me the ability to "do" but not really the ability to "create" on my own.

Yes this party was in FEBRUARY OF 2012.... you could say I've been a bit behind in maintaining this blog.

I was inspired completely for this idea by this post on Pinterest from Parents Magazine. 

Isn't this so cute??  So, I took it and did the best I could in a very short period of time.  On a sidenote... why do birthdays always sneak up on me??

I created this banner using the same pattern from the invitation.  I made the lollipops from Dollar Store wrapping paper tubes spraypainted white, balloons, saran wrap and ribbon. {The lollipops stood up by tying a baggie full of coins to the balloon and dropping that down the wrapping paper tube.  I suggest using Helium filled balloons... this will make it work} 

 Candy bars are almost my favorite things at parties so I was excited to do this for this party.  Keep in mind that candy is not cheap.... So, my dream candy bar remained just that, a dream!

 

 We played pin the candy on the house which was a simple game I made using brown Kraft Paper.  I drew a horrible simple Gingerbread house on it and Googled candy images and cut them out for the kids to "pin" on the house.

 

I made a Candy Walk for the kids to play.  I bought 12x12 pieces of Candyland colored scrapbook paper and taped them to the floor in a circle.  The idea was that the kids would walk around the circle and when the music stopped we would draw a color and if that was their color they would win a prize.  I never got around to making or buying prizes so when they "won" they got a turn at the candy bar.  That helped limit the number of kids swarming around the table and gave the adults helping a little more control guidance with managing the candy quantity!

The candy bar included lots of fun candy, fruit snacks & so parents didn't hate me to sweeten the deal for the parents I bought a bunch of toothbrushes from SmileMakers so each child could take one of those home too!

Lastly, we had the kids make fruit loop necklaces.  I needed an activity to keep them occupied and entertained for a while since the whole party was to be inside (remember... February).  Unfortunately, I didn't account for the boys who would have NO interest or the other kids who were just not interested.  So, that meant that I had a handful of boys and girls running wild until the next "scheduled" activity began.  Nightmare for a "scheduler" like myself.  

Note: make sure your fruit loops aren't the special edition with the red "figure 8" shapes.  

Finally we had cupcakes that we bought from Sams because this Momma was tired of making decorations that nobody only I cared about. :)

Another note: make sure you order your cupcakes ahead of time.  Sams doesn't always have plain white icing cupcakes ready for pick up.  I only had a major slight meltdown when my hubby came home with Spiderman cupcakes and these with the sprinkles.  THANK goodness the sprinkles worked.  I really would have had a royal fit had my inlaws not been there to witness it!

All in all, it's ONLY a party... Nobody really cares but the mom giving the party.  Everyone else just wants to have a good time.  I have to admit I've had party envy over some of the fantastic set ups that some of you mom's throw.  I have to remember that it's not a time to shine and make myself look good (or fail miserably at trying). 

It's about celebrating these little ones who are growing up TOO fast!

Now only a little over a month until their 5th birthday.  Maybe it won't take me a year to blog about that one! :)

Linked here:

House of Hepworths

The Shabby Nest

Whipperberry

Little Man Party

Our little guy just turned ONE! 

We threw him a manly birthday bash full of ties and mustaches. 

I used my silhouette machine and cute cardstock to create some simple decorations.

My sweet friend Monica made these ADORABLE tie cookies!

They not only looked perfect, but tasted delicious!

I set out some snacks.

And added some mustaches to the juice boxes.

I set out nose glasses & dress up hats for the kids to play with. Along with these lips and mustaches that my daughter helped me make. So fun!

The kids also played Pin the Stache on Davis. I made the big kids go blindfolded of course!

While the kids were entertained, the adults played Name that Stache. 

I printed out pictures of celebrities from the nose down (some easy, some hard), held each up for a few seconds and had everyone write down who it was. Our very own, Lindsay Jacobus was the grand prize winner! That People magazine subscription is paying off :)

Each of the kids went home with a goodie bag full of toy cars and lollipops with, you guessed it, mustaches on them.

It was a fun, EASY party that I think everyone enjoyed, 

including the man-of-the-hour, my sweet Davis.

Party table

I recently found this party idea on Pinterest! Super cute, right?! You just paint a scene and incorporate snacks and goodies within the picture.

The possibilities are endless...birthday parties, baby showers, a kid's table at Thanksgiving. If your kids are old enough, they could even help you paint it!

We used the concept for our Junior League's September general membership meeting. Our local chapter's signature project is Stuff the Bus, so we had a schoolhouse and big yellow bus full of sweet tasting things. The trick is finding plates and bowls that are the right size and shape.

So choose your serving pieces before you start drawing.

We had backpacks full of chips.

And displayed school supplies in the lemonade pitchers.

As a side note, the pitchers are from Walmart and were only $10.

I love how versatile they are!

I took out the spouts and used them like this for my daughters' birthday party.

All the more reason to celebrate.

Noah's Ark Birthday Party

So this weekend was my daughter's 2nd birthday & we had so much fun celebrating with friends and family!! It was Noah's Ark themed so everything was based around animals & rainbows.

These balloons greeted our guests at the door. An inspiration from Martha Stewart. I cut the ears, mane & noses out of tissue paper & used a permanent marker for the eyes. Thank you Merideth, for helping with these cute guys!!

For the snacks table, I tried my best to coordinate each animal with a treat. There were cheetos, zebra cakes, goldfish, popcorn and bananas (my daughter's favorite).

I also made fruit kabobs in rainbow colors.

It may have been the first time my girls had tried kiwi, but they loved it :)

For an activity, we made rainbows out of skittles. Each child had an empty water bottle with their name on it & could fill it with whatever color skittles they wanted. It was a GREAT activity that kept their attention!!

Thanks Lauren, for making the sign!

I found rainbow party circles here and added them to each name tag.

Here's the birthday girl, very focused on which color goes next!

My mom made an INCREDIBLE rainbow cake!!

We got the idea here and kind of made it our own. I love the plain, unassuming white frosting that when cut reveals all of the colored layers!

It took 3 cake mixes & 3 cans a frosting & was wonderfully delicious!!

Thanks again mom!

And thanks to Lindsay who made these adorable invitations!

I love how they turned out :)

Thanks to everyone who came to the party, jumped on the trampoline, helped sweep up skittles, push kids on the swing set, clean up the playroom & pass out cake! It was a wonderful party & we're so glad you could celebrate with us :)

Luau Party

Well, my oldest child just turned five (GULP!, how does this go so fast?!!). Since moving to our new house we've been doing a TON of work and her party kind of slipped to the back burner. However, thankfully we literally have built in entertainment in our back yard with a swimming pool. So, we decided to do a pool party with a Luau theme.


As always, I have huge aspirations and gain tons of inspirations around the web, but time got the best of me and a lot of what I did was very last minute. Maybe I should start planning for our twins 4th birthday now (it's in February!! :)). But, humor me as I show you how it turned out.


I made these cupcake toppers to go on the homemade cupcakes. I had a slight problem with my measurements - but like I said - time got the best of me so I just went with it instead of fixing them.


I saw an idea on Pinterest of a birthday mantle and knew it was perfect for this party since I had so many framed pictures of Brooke (remember she was our first! ha).

These greeted guests at the front door.

Homemade cupcakes...every bit of this was her choosing. The 5 candle, the type of cupcakes and the colors of the icing.

I want to kick myself for not taking a photo of the party favors all lined up for the guests. URGH...literally I could kick myself! But, I got these totes from the Dollar Spot at Target and filled them with ice pops, goldfish, bubble wands, popcorn, pixie sticks and flip flop shaped suckers I got at Dollar Tree. Each tag had the last name of the family who would receive the bag.

I made this wreath out of drink umbrellas and thought it was a cute addition to the fireplace area where all the gifts were left.

We had tiki torches all along the pool area (however the party was late afternoon and were never lit). I guess now we can have the island feel for a little while longer so we can use up the oil inside.

Our backyard has this great cabana area that we figured was cliche enough for the luau themed party so we just dressed it up with hanging lights and luau skirt decoration. What party is complete without a pinata? We found this cute flip flop online and the kids had a blast beating it up.

So, it won't win any awards, and I wish I'd had a more relaxed week to think things through, but the kids had a blast and that's all that matters!