Hagan's Fake Birthday: Part II

In case you didn't see or read Part I (the making of party decor), you can find it here!  How cute is this first pic?  Sarah B.'s daughter, Sophia (the other fake birthday girl), wanted to help set up the party, so we sent her outside to take pictures of the dino and kitty tracks!

The party!  Sarah B. has an awesome backyard, it's HUGE!  Perfect for a large birthday party!  The downside?  We had a monsoon the night before, this after a week of almost non-stop rain, did not make for a pretty yard, but a drenched, water-logged yard.  Thank goodness Sarah B. had lots of tarps!

The food table!  We offered little snacks since our party was from 10am-noon.  We wanted the party to be over before the heat REALLY set in!  Donuts, fruit, veggies and chips were just enough!  See the tablecloth?  Sarah B. made that with two vinyl tablecloths and the original use was going to be an awning over the food table.  Time and logistics kicked our butt on that one!  We ran out of time, so we decided to use it as a tablecloth.  Adorable!

 The drink and dessert table.  I loved our cupcake toppers and cake bunting! 

We each made our kid their own "smash" cake (even though they were fakingly turning 5) since we served cupcakes.  When do you stop making an individual cake for your child?  I still like the idea just because when they blow out the candles, they are not spitting all over the entire cake for everyone!!  Am I, right???  Think back on the birthday parties you've gone to and imagine how many little pieces of spittle you have consumed.  Ew.  I just gagged myself....

Moving on ;)  Check out how we kept the cupcake wrappers and toppers matching, but they each have their own theme.....We used scalloped edges on Sophia's stuff and a zig zag edge on Hagan's.

The gift table.  Sarah B. came up with the brillant idea of providing envelopes and asking each guests to fill it out with name and address.  She made a cute sign and I put it in my adorable frame from Ikea.

Dinosaur Hagan with one of the photo props!  The kids love putting on the props for pictures!

It is hard to see the actual banners, but for the joint "happy birthday," we combined scalloped and zig zag circles and used all the colors of the party.

For the individual name banners we used zig zag edges on Hagan's with the colors aqua, lime green and red.

 Sophia's banner was scalloped edges with aqua, lime green and hot pink.

Our photobooth sign that we got from here.  Sarah B. had this old trunk that we filled with dress up items that we already had or bought from the Dollar Tree.  The kids really loved this.  I'll be honest though, even though we set up a camera on a tripod, it was hard to remember to take pics....we should have delegated that out to another parent!

This is the pinata made from stone and unbreakable.  Not really, but after 30 minutes of the kids trying to break it open, that's what it seemed like!  Finally, we just let an older boy go to town on it until it was "leaking" {haha}, then let Hagan have the final swing.

 See?  Just a pizza and Bud Light box....pretty damn sturdy!  {AND super easy to make!}

Hagan with some of his guests.  It was so hot that day and especially hot in the bounce house.  All the kids look like they jumped into a pool, they were so soaked!  And this was WAY before noon!  They had so much fun and I'm loving all the Kool-aid smiles!!

I'm now finished sharing Hagan's fake birthday....after all, his REAL birthday is coming up in 24 days...but who's counting?  If you would like any other party details, or if you would like to order a party kit, contact me!

Hagan's Fake Birthday: Part I

I think this is my favorite picture from Hagan's fake birthday!  How adorable is that Kool-aid grin?  BTW, my son will turn five in August and on this day was his first time to ever have Kool-aid!  I think he drank the entire gallon!

My awesome, sweet, other half of my brain friend, Sarah B., and I planned a "fake" birthday party for my son, Hagan, and her daughter, Sophia (whose real birthdays are Aug. 16th and 17th) so that they could celebrate with all their preschool friends.  Sadly, Sarah B. and family are moving at the end of this month (but I don't want to talk about it :( ) and she wanted all of Sophia's friends together one last time before the move. 

We planned the party together and made the decorations together. Even though Hagan wanted dinos and Sophie wanted Hello Kitty, I think we did a fabulous job of coordinating the two themes! I don't have many pictures of all the stuff we made, but I have a few to share.

The cute dino-culars were made from toilet paper rolls, scrapbook paper and ribbon.  I got the idea from them here.  They were super easy and cost me NOTHING!!

The next giftbag item we made were dino eggs.  Sarah B. found the idea on the internet, but now I can not find the exact one we used, but basically it was a playdough recipe that we added washed coffee grounds and paint to create an egg like color.  (Check out Lisa's dinosaur fossils/eggs from Creative Raisins.  I LOVE the color of her eggs much better!)  These are the little guys buried inside the eggs.  I purchased them from the Dollar Tree.

Sarah B. made the bag labels for me and I think they look so cool in their packages!  The kids loved cracking open the eggs!

Sorry for this blurry picture, but this was the making of Hagan's pinata.  In tomorrow's post, you will be able to see the inside of the pinata.  It's made from pizza and beer boxes.  I came up with the idea to ruffle the crepe paper around the edges and center.  Sarah B. is the master pinata maker, so I was pretty happy to contribute my idea :)

 Burning my fingers for the love of my son and his pinata!  Hahahaha!

The finished pinata!  Sophie's was exactly the same, but with a Hello Kitty head in the middle.  So easy to make your own pinatas....I hope I'll be able to make more in the future without Sarah B. here to do it for me!

Inside the pinata are more small dinos (like the ones in the eggs), small cars and lots of candy.  Everything was bought at the Dollar Tree.

For the giftbags I included, the dino eggs, bubbles, a dinosaur, pencils, a stick on mustache (because I'm still obssessed with those!) and some excavation tools.  I bought Dollar Tree paintbrushes and foldable toothbrushes that I painted and bound together with ribbon and a tag.  I got the idea for the tools here.

The finished gift bag!  I loved that the dino-culars hung from the side of the bag.  I think the kids loved our giftbags.  Sarah B.'s giftbags included Hello Kitty chapstick, bubbles and a super cute headband with kitty ears (made with Dollar Tree headbands and an old jacket!  I love her creativity!)  Luckily, I had a few extra giftbags because one of the girls at the party wanted a dino bag (and the Hello Kitty bag)!  Love that!

Well, that's all for today folks! I don't want to bore you with a ton of pictures all in one day :) The dino-culars and excavation tool links can also be found on my Pinterest board titled "Hagan's 5th Birthday." There are so many cute ideas for dino birthdays, take a look at my board and see if it inspires you to have a dino party!



Farmer's Market and My Nightmare

I had a really bad nightmare last night.  To keep it short; I set up my booth at a craft fair, eventually being summoned by five women to an apartment up grimy, scary stairs, where they all proceeded to yell at me.  I was told I could only sell paper items if I made the paper by hand.....then some other stuff happened and eventually the nightmare ending with me trying to swim away in a river, carrying a pair of Carhart pants full of rocks.  I'm still stumped by that part.....Anyway, during the dream I was outraged that I had to make my own paper!  What about the woman who sold quilts?  Did she have to make her own material???  I was very angry in my dream :)  This reminded me to tell you about my Farmer's Market experience.  Here's my booth, I thought it was set up pretty cute.

This is a picture of where and how I displayed my party kits.  I set up a mini party table that was adorable with popsical themed party kit.

 I ended up selling only one chicken wire frame.  The white one in the picture below.  I did give out lots of business cards!  Was it a failure?  I don't think so.  I learned that I need to focus on one "area," which will be my party kits and that I need to work on my people skills.  I'm not a pushy person (or one who likes to talk to strangers), so for me to approach potential clients, it took all my guts.  I was sick to death that morning with anxiety!

 However; after I had people coming down to look at the "Pinterest" booth, I kinda got a chip on my shoulder.  AND it was another booth holder, who I had purchased items from several times, that was calling my booth that!  I was into crafts and reusing items WAY before Pinterest was even around...I started this blog before I had even heard of Pinterest!  It kind of hurt my feelings, like they were saying, "She got all her ideas off Pinterest and anyone can do that."  No.  Not true.  Not everyone can create, recreate, dream, construct, what they see.  Right?? 

                                      Would that have bothered you? 

Life and the Beach

We finally got all moved into our house!  It was an exhausting week, but I managed to get everything unpacked and put away before my oldest daughter, Heather, came to visit with her fiance, Jesse, and my G-baby, Kayden!  We were all super excited for the visit, especially because it included four nights at the beach!  We had a great time....I don't have many pictures, but I can assure you, EVERYONE knew our son, Hagan, before our visit was over and we got to have our great friends, Sarah and Steve B., visit with their kid crew!  So much fun!

Look really, really close and you can see the Hubster, Jesse and Steve B. holding down our tent during a lightening storm with high winds.  The only smart people on the beach {that folks, is straight up sarcasm!} ! All of us girls and kids were safely in the hotel room!  Duh.

My youngest girl, Hana, a.k.a. Nene, and I on the beach at sunset.  I think this is the only picture I have of myself with one of my kiddos!  Bad Mommy!

Please ignore the jacked up toenails and missing polish!  I can assure you that my toes did not look like that on the first day of the beach vacay!  Let's focus on the injury.  Yup, I managed to slice open the TOP of my toe while walking on the beach.  Almost tasted sand too, but recovered my fall.  However, I couldn't recover my fall when Nene and I walked to the rocks at 11pm on our last night.  I can't post pics of those injuries because then I'd have to expose you to my cellulite and upper thigh, but let me assure you.....it HURT and stung and I had to walk about four blocks back to the room.  Actually, we laughed all the way home because that's just me being me.  Injuries are inevitable. 

Post falling on the rocks, we all went to Hooters to enjoy some wings.  This is Hagan with some of the Hooters girls.  He insisted his picture be hung on the wall along with everyone elses.  He didn't realize that they are famous people in the photos, but then, in his head, he IS famous! 

Prepare yourself for gorgeous, G-Baby photos!!!  This is my Kaydie Bug :)  She's adorable, smart and hilarious.  I admit, I'm biased!  Heather bought Kayden an outfit {a lace, ruffled romper} from zulily.com specifically for a beach photo shoot.  We had so much fun!  These are just some photos I snapped on my phone, the ones Heather took with her awesome camera are WAY better!

                  Just look at that happy baby!!  She's such a sweetheart!

She was more interested in picking up shells and getting in the water than posing, but I love all her expressions!

My fave picture!  Gpa {the Hubster} is holding her.  She loves him a lot.  It makes me a little jelly.  Oh well, she's all mine today!  Her 'rents went to Universal, the Hubster went to work and I'm taking her and Hagan swimming :)  Have a great day!