Car Themed 1st Birthday Party

Birthday parties don't come around too often at our house.  We always do something small with the family, but usually I barely even decorate for those.  So, when I have the opportunity to decorate for a "real" party, I get so excited!  I get to add decorator, baker, caterer, and designer to the usual hats that all moms wear on an everyday bases.  Thank goodness it's only for a little while, because I'm busy enough!  I sure love it though.  

My son recently just turned one, and I'm pretty sure this party was more for me then it was for him.  What one year old actually cares about decorations?  Am I right?  Regardless, I love how everything turned out, and I wanted to share it with you!

You can't have a party without cute labeled food!  Ok, maybe not, but it sure adds a cute little touch.

Now, before you look at this next picture, I need to add a little disclaimer: I am NOT a baker.  I like to pretend sometimes, but usually my creations look better in my head then when I actually try to execute them.  That being said, here is the car smash cake that I made.  For some reason the buttercream frosting separated, and I didn't have time/the ingredients to make it again.  So, I had to use what I had.  Lamo-o...  Anyway, here is the completed car.  Honestly, I think it looks like one of those "Pinterest Fail" photos.   I almost cry laugh every time I look at the one I attempted.  Oh well.  You can't win 'em all, right? 

(If anyone has an amazing fool proof buttercream frosting recipe, please send it my way)

Here's what I was going for... 

For some reason, it is absolutely impossible to find checkered paper!  I don't know why I had such a difficult time, but not a single store had anything even remotely checkered.  What's a girl to do?!  I ended up just finding a checkered background and printed my own paper :).  These flags were made with toothpicks and the folded over paper.  Super easy, and much cheaper then buying them from a specialty party store.

This kid had no problem digging into his cake.  I sure love him to pieces!

(Please be careful when putting a Bumbo on a chair like this!  They are not very stable, so please stay close to your kiddos while they sit in them!)

The table cloth was super easy!  All it was was a black $0.97 table cloth, which I then taped yellow paper to to make it look like a road.  You could use yellow duct tape too!

This was my favorite decoration!  It was fun to see the month to month growth progression.

I don't know when my next party will be, but I'm already looking forward to planning it!

Thanks for stopping by!

(You can find this invite or request your own custom design at Puddle Design on Etsy)

30th Birthday Celebration

The hubs just recently turned the big 3-0!!  I can't believe it!  Sometimes I still feel like we should still be in high school, but then I actually see high school kids, and I realize how incredibly loud and obnoxious many of them are.  Was I ever like that?  Maybe I am getting old...

With this being such a big birthday, I decided it would be fun to throw him a surprise birthday party.  I secretly love planning parties, so I figured this one would be no big deal.  Oh, boy was I wrong!  Throwing a surprise party for someone that you tell everything to, and spend all of your spare time with, is tough!!!  Geeze!  I had no idea what I got myself into.

Lucky for me, my parents were in town that same week, so they were able to babysit, or help decorate, or let me use their car, etc.  I wouldn't have been able to pull it off if they hadn't have been in town!  Thanks mom and dad for visiting!  The timing couldn't have been better!

I could go into detail about how I was able to keep everything a secret, and all the running around I did the day of the party (stress!!!), but I won't bore you with the details.  So, here are some pictures of the festivities instead :-).  Maybe they can help inspire you for your party planning!

Happy 30th Birthday!!

There were three tables set up, and on each of them was a vase full of one of my husband's favorite candies (Reeses, Kisses, and Peanut Butter M & M's -- he's kinda a chocolate guy).

In addition, there was a picture frame with a photo from his growing up years, and a 1984 random trivia sheet that I put together.  Did you know that in 1984 (the year he was born) the fastest street legal car was only tested at 144mph?  And that the cost of a postage stamp was $0.20?  Random... 

I had this awesome idea to have an original Nintendo set up on one side of the gym, and a current game system set up on the other, but the hubs showed up to the party almost an hour later then expected (a lot of hair pulling was happening on my part while we waited...), so we didn't really have time to play many games.  But it was a good idea, right?

We also had giant Jenga, just because it's fun.  I mean look at that!  How can you not have fun while you play!? 

This was one of my favorite decorations.  I would have wanted to put more pictures up to make the numbers thicker, but we didn't have time (that's a whole story in and of itself.  Lot's of things didn't go as planned.  Have I mentioned that I was super stressed the day of the party...?)

And of course we had to have the hub's favorite food group: PIZZA!

The diabetic coma inducing-peanut butter-chocolate-cake that I made for dessert.  This thing was ridiculously delicious, but also ridiculously rich!  You needed a gallon of milk with each bite.  My peanut butter and chocolate loving husband sure loved it though!

(For the cake, I followed this recipe from the amazing blog Kevin & Amanda.  It's seriously one of the best blogs!  You should check it out.)

I also made a Boston Cream Pie from scratch, but it wasn't even worth taking a picture of... I probably will never make another Boston Cream Pie again.  Just sayin'.  

See what I mean by rich?!  That's a chocolate cake, with chocolate chips inside the cake.  Then topped with a peanut butter butter cream frosting, all covered in Reese's Peanut Butter cups.  Phew!  You can almost get diabetes just looking at the picture!

Yeah, trying to plan and execute this was pretty stressful at times, but seeing the smile on the hub's face when he walked into the room full of his family and friends made it all worth it!  He is the most amazing husband (and 30 year old!), and I only wish that I could have done more!

Happy Birthday, babe!  I love you!!

Need a special invite for your party?  Check out Puddle Design on Etsy!

Minnie Mouse Party

My little munchkin recently turned one, and she is totally obsessed with Mickey and Minnie Mouse.  So naturally we had to have a Minnie Mouse themed party for her.  It was fun letting the inner party planner in me come out and go wild!  

I made all of the cakes, cupcakes, and decorations by hand, in order to keep cost down as much as possible.  My inner baker was able to come out and play too :-). 

All of the bows were made out of homemade fondant.  All it was was marshmallows and powdered sugar!  So easy, and tasted way better than the regular plastic flavored fondant.

These designs and more are available at Puddle Design on Etsy!