Baby Shower Invitations For Twins.

We threw an intimate baby shower for our dear friend who was pregnant with not just one baby, but two! Oh, baby baby! Twins are on the way. For our shower invitations, we immediately went to Etsy in search of the perfect invite that would capture the essence of our event. We purchased these cute invitations from {My Confetti Printables}. We loved that not only the invite was part of the package, but also two card inserts to encourage guests to bring books and diapers to the shower. A thank you card in the same design was included as well for the mother to be to use to thank all of the guests who gave gifts. Sound like a big package? It didn't stop there. There was also printables for envelopes as well. Just wanted to give My Confetti Printables a huge shout out for providing such a beautiful package. Be sure to check out their other designs as well. 

The Empire Strikes Back - Thank You Favors.

Since the kids that attended the party were going bowling, we gave each of them a package of glow in the dark candy light sabers that we purchased from Target's dollar section. We also wrapped up a one hundred piece puzzle that had a Star Wars theme on it. As a general rule of thumb, I tend to not invest too much into party favors. As a mom myself, I find that party favors tend to break easily and usually end up in the rubbish bin the same day of the party! 

The Empire Strikes Back - Party Food.

Since our party color scheme was primarily black, grey, and white, we tried to coordinate accordingly with the food. We purchased iconic NYC Black & White cookies from the Fresh Market here in Myrtle Beach. The cookies come to the grocery store frozen, so we were given a package of frozen cookies to keep in our freezer until the date of our party.

Williams Sonoma had their Heroes & Villains cookie cutter on sale, which was perfect for us! We used a cookie recipe which comes from Bake at 350 to get the dark color for our Darth Vader cookies. For the other shapes, we used our favorite sugar cookie recipe. To get the green color for Yoda, we used green food coloring.

We also made Oreo Truffles and used black and white paper straws as sticks to make them easier for guests to grab and eat. Small white sprinkles finished off the look.We printed off the little "May The Force Be With You" tags that we glued to the end of each paper straws.

We like purchasing a couple food items to cut down on some of the work we have to do to put the whole table together. As an homage to Princess Leia's famous hairstyle, we served Little Debbie Swiss Rolls.

Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla butter cream icing were the perfect finish to the dessert table. The birthday boy had his own small chocolate cake to eat. To create our cupcake tower, we wrapped boxes with paper we purchased from Home Goods {we had the added bonus of it being on sale for just a dollar!}. We instantly fell in love with the geometric pattern of the design on the paper and the colors worked perfectly with our theme.

The Empire Strikes Back.

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, we designed a Star Wars themed bowling party for a boy turning seven. We stuck with the colors black, grey, and white as our primary color scheme.

The focal point of our dessert table was the Star Wars themed Imperial bowling set we purchased off of Amazon. I love that the bowling balls were the Death Star and the Thermal Detonator. We chose to create our own bowling lane using wrapping paper we picked up from Target.

I love using sheets as tablecloths and in this particular dessert table we also used a sheet as our backdrop. We drew out the sign onto white poster board that we used as part of the backdrop. Over the past couple of months we've picked up some great Star Wars props. Williams Sonoma provided the adorable cupcake toppers. We even picked them up on sale for just a couple dollars!

One of my favorite things about designing any event is the hunt. Picking items up at random places. Seeing something and knowing right away you're going to use it. That's how I felt when I came across the baking cups we used to hold chocolate whoppers. I immediately knew the design on the cups would be perfect for this galactic party.

When we saw the Darth Vader candle holder on Amazon, we knew it would be the perfect cake topper for the birthday boy. We loved the light saber birthday candle. The large Darth Vader was purchased from Target for what we thought was too good a price to pass up.

The Red Balloon Party - Details.

We kept the decorations simple for The Red Balloon Party that we styled. We made a string of tassels out of tissue paper that we hung above the kid table. White spray paint was our best friend for this event. We purchased black letters at Hobby Lobby to spell out the birthday girl's name and then spray painted them white to coordinate with our color scheme.

We served our guests a drink made out of fresh strawberries, a simple sugar syrup, and ginger ale. Belinda, from The Party Garden supplied us with paper straws and wooden forks, that we covered with scrapbook paper.

Party crafts for the kids included making a balloon face and also creating a stained glass balloon out of red construction paper, clear contact paper, and tissue paper. Having a Silhouette Cameo came in handy, and made cutting out faces and balloon shapes quick work.

Even though we had a couple organized activities for the kids to do, they had the most fun running around with their own balloon playing catch. We heard a lot of popping balloons throughout the party from different children!

 

The Red Balloon Party - Kid Table.

 

 

I love parties that are set in the middle of a bunch of trees. Not only does it provide the necessary shade for an outside party this time of year here in Myrtle Beach, but it is just such a fun setting for a little girl's birthday party. For each place setting, we set down white paper doilies. Packaged red gum balls were party favors for each child. A red bottle of bubbles with a red paper balloon also went home with each kid.

We purchased the paper straws and the wooden forks from The Party Garden on Etsy. Belinda was wonderful to work with (again), and customized our order to fit our needs. I love that personal touch when you work with individuals.

The Red Balloon Party - Cake Table.

My two children (as well as my husband and I) are avid fans of the 1956 Oscar winning French film, "The Red Balloon" which was directed by Albert Lamorisse. Last year for her birthday, my daughter's only request was a big red balloon and a red velvet cake. She still really enjoys the movie, so we thought this year we'd celebrate her turning four with a Red Balloon party.

We served two different cakes for the party. One was a bare four layered red velvet cake with fresh flowers as decoration. The other cake was a labor of love. I saw this beautiful crepe cake on the internet, and I knew it would be perfect for a French inspired party. Heather gives wonderful and easy to follow directions on her blog for how to make and assemble the cake. After a quick trip to World Market, I was introduced to my new favorite product - Lotus Biscoff Spread (I love the texture of the crunchy version).

While I was browsing my local Home Goods store, I came across this bright green Eiffel Tower that I knew had to come home with me. A can of white spray paint, and it was ready for our cake display. I tried to pull in elements from the movie, onto the display table, so I took a plastic horse and painted it white as well. I purchased the large red balloon online from GroopDealz.

 

Dino-Mite Party - The Cake.

I have a confession. We didn't make the cake. We made a cake... we actually made two cakes and could never quite get the layers to stand without looking like the leaning tower of Pisa. So after a lot of fussing with the cake, adding layer of icing on top of layers of existing icing in the hopes that it would stand up straight and proud, I finally gave up and sent my two personal assistants to the grocery store at 11:30 the night before the party. And there they picked out this fabulous cake which was perfectly iced and standing up beautifully. A quick transfer of the purchased cake to our green cake stand, and it was looking delicious.

To add a personal touch to our grocery store purchased cake, I created the word "six" in letters which our Cameo Silhouette cut out for me. Then I glued the letters to wooden picks that we also used for the cupcakes. We did make and ice the cupcakes. Those don't seem to lean as easily as a multiple layered cake does!

Custom cupcake holders and cupcake toppers were made with the Cameo Silhouette. If you can't already tell, we love using our Silhouette. Makes event design so much quicker.

To create a more rustic and rugged feel to our dinosaur dessert table, we reused the tree trunks from our fairy butterfly party as our cupcake stands. The brown grass strategically placed around the base of the trunks completes the look we were trying to achieve.

Dino-Mite Birthday Boy.

We thought we'd include a photo of the dinosaur birthday boy sporting a dinosaur shirt from Gymboree and wearing a goofy dinosaur head hat from the Dollar Tree. I love this little dinosaur boy... especially since he's my own little dinosaur boy!

Dino-Mite Party - Kid Friendly Activities.

For the six year old dinosaur party, we planned out several organized activities for the kids to do. The first activity included making dinosaur fossils out of coffee play-dough that we stored in glass jars for the kids. The kids chose a jar, rolled out their coffee play-dough, and pressed small plastic dinosaurs into the the dough which we then baked during the duration of the party.

Another dinosaur activity we had the kids do was to make a stegosaurus using their hand print. Using their hand, their thumb was the head, their palm the body, and their fingers the four legs of the stegosaurus. We cut triangles out of card stock before the party that the kids could easily glue to the bodies of the hand print stegosaurus. Plastic googly eyes completed their dinosaur. 

Fun boxes made using designs from our Cameo Silhouette held various crafting supplies. The kids were read the book "Dinosaur Roar" by Paul and Henrietta Stickland. They also participated in a dinosaur dance, where they would dance like various dinosaurs. 

And as wonderful as organized activities are for birthday parties, the kids always seem to enjoy free play on the playground equipment the best!

Dino-Mite Party - Drinks

For our drink station, we kept everything simple by serving sweet tea and bottled water. In keeping with the green and brown party color scheme, we sliced up limes and put them in our sweet tea. Custom drink tags made on our Cameo Silhouette, added a festive touch to the tea glasses.

A super easy and affordable way to dress up any party is to personalize water bottles by simply removing the existing label and putting your own on. It's the little touches that add so much to any event.