balloon birthday!

Scarlet turned one! We celebrated with a Balloon Birthday Bash. 

When planning, I tried to think of something Scarlet loves, besides food and her blanket I wasn't coming up with much. Then I remembered that my mom had gotten her some balloons while we were at her house this summer and Scarlet loved them. An idea was born and with the help of pinterest (seriously.. what did we do in the days before pinterest?) a balloon birthday party was in order.

It started with an invitation downloaded from here and then tweaked in photoshop to be the colors I wanted.

The entry way table.

Candy and balloons.. what more could you want?

My sad attempt at the dream cake I wanted. I had a someone set and willing to do it, but we figured out that she was going to be out of town... and so I attempted it myself. I won't be quitting my day job anytime soon, but it worked. In a moment of desperation, I emailed my super talented cousin and after reading her long and detailed email with tips on how to make it out of fondant, I realized I didn't have the time to make the balloon a week ahead... and I improvised with... airheads. They worked okay and Scarlet will never know her cake wasn't a work of art.

The beginning stages of the dessert table. An idea also seen on pinterest.

 I've been wanting to have an italian soda bar at something I put together. Somehow it never ends up happening, so this was a perfect time to throw one together. It was a total hit with the kids and adults.

Pictures of Scarlet's first year in a lopsided #1 :)

 Lion House rolls with meat and cheese

 fruit, dip, veggies and chips to go along with the sandwiches. Not my finest menu, but it worked.

Ryan also made homemade ice cream. Cookies and Cream and it was delicious!

A slide show of Scarly bug and lots of balloons everywhere.

 I think this was my favorite part of the night. We don't have any family around, so I thought it would be fun to invite some of our friends that had babies around Scarlet's age. It was her birthday after all, why not invite her friends. We lined them up to take pictures with the balloons. It would have been far more entertaining in video form, but I still think they turned out really cute.

 I think Sam and Scarlet are making a love connection

Cute babies. I love these pictures!

We gave her a cupcake instead of cake.

She loved it.

Happy Birthday Scarlet! We sure do love you.

Book Theme Shower.

From the day I met Lauren, I knew I had to throw her a book-themed shower. She's in the process of trying to publish her first novel, and has had multiple pieces published in magazines and on websites. She's a beautiful writer and there is no one more fitting than Lauren to have a shower centered around books!

Before moving to Denver I co-hosted a similar shower but seeing as it wasn't hosted at my home, and not wanting to poke holes in someone else's ceiling, my flying book idea fell short. I was happy to sacrifice my own ceiling to have my dream of flying books become a reality :)

Stacks of cloth bound books and framed quotes from children's books were all over the house. We got The Little Prince for everyone to sign and send home for the baby. We thought it was fitting since it's a boy coming in after three girls!

 Papers for BOY book suggestions to help build a library for a little boy.

I found an Alternative Name game for children's books on pinterest. Things like 

Fedora wearing Feline

Evening Salutations to the Celestial Orb

were translated by guests into Cat in the Hat and Goodnight Moon.

Blank board books and sharpies were turned into personalized books for baby Gillespie. 

I think the final versions included

"Why the Y" (as in BYU)

"What Little Boys are Made Of"

"ABC's"

"Little Boy Advice"

"Feelings"

"What to Expect with Older Sisters"

The shower was in the morning so we had brunch type food. Each food had a book that matched..

The Stinky Cheeseman (Thanks Jenn!)

Pumpkin and Blueberry Muffins

 

Mini stacks of pancakes (If You Give a Pig a Pancake) were the cutest thing ever with Orange, Buttermilk and Strawberry Syrup

Mini Quiches - Green Eggs and Ham

Tomato Basil Tart.. SO amazing!

Fruit and doughnut hole skewers

yogurt parfaits - Fancy Nancy

lemon bites - Lemon the Duck

The cutlery

Instructions on the chalkboard

Pretty Flowers

[Bookmark idea seen here]

Finally we had bookmarks hanging by the door for guests to take on their way out.

It was a fun shower, and I'm so thankful to all the people who helped out with food and lending books, etc. We couldn't have done it without them!

Now to sit back and wait to meet this sweet baby Boy. We can't wait!!

Hello Kitty Party!

At days end of Stella's 5th birthday party she announced that her 6th birthday party would be a Hello Kitty party. She never wavered over the year and so Hello Kitty it was.

I used freezer paper and fabric paint to make these shirts for all the girls.
[idea/tutorial seen here]

 

We blew up and hung over 50 balloons above the food table. I stuck to a light pink, dark pink and red color scheme.

The birthday dessert choice. Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry frosting and a gumball on top.

We made Hello Kitty pizza's and also had fruit with dip, veggies with ranch and pink lemonade for dinner. All choices of the birthday girl.

Stella's guest list was rather large this year. I kept trying to cut it down, but there was just no way to do it. So we had 16 girls total. I knew there had to be a way to manage all those girls and keep it under control and I think I came up with a pretty successful plan of action. We had 4 stations. We divided them into 4 groups of 4 girls each and rotated them through.

 We had the necklace/bracelet making table. With my good friend Linda manning the table.

We had pin the bow on Hello Kitty and making Duct Tape Hello Kitty bows (I forgot to take a picture) at the next station.

  

I found Hello Kitty slippers on clearance at Wal Mart for $1.00. We bought four pairs and wrapped them up over and over. Then we gave the girls cooking utensils and they each had 30 seconds to try to unwrap them before they had to pass to the next person. Whoever was the one to officially unwrap them all the way got to keep them. It was a hit!

Grandpa was in charge of the outside obstacle coarse. From what I hear it was the hit of the party. He had them crawling through tunnels, racing down the slide, throwing hula hoops over helium filled balloons, kicking soccer balls and who knows what else.

Finally after each group had rotated through the stations and eaten their dinner, we brought out Stella's cupcakes. Look at that face! I LOVE that Ryan captured how excited she was.

That's my Stella... so full of personality. What would we do without her?