Another Take on an Elephant Birthday

I don't want to believe it, but our baby turned one recently.

You may recall that I helped my cousin create a fun little elephant birthday for my God Son awhile back.

 

 

I wasn't planning on turning out the same type of party for my little guy, but about 11 months ago when I settled down to take his first monthly photo, I happened to grab a stuffed elephant we had on hand to use in the photo, and it stuck...

With all those great photos on hand for decor, I decided to go with an elephant theme again.  I'm not going to lie, it helped that I already had some decor items designed, so this time all I did was change up the colors a bit.

I created this invite and had it printed at a local print shop.  Simple and sweet.

Ryder insists that a party just isn't a party without "those triangle things', so we whipped up some fun ones for Bo that I just printed on card stock and hung via ribbon.  (I've created a party-planning monster!)

 

The cake might have been my favorite part.  I'm fully aware that this is a category that I go way overboard.  Trust me, I know I'm crazy.  But I actually really like making these homemade cakes for my boys, and if they look back at photos and see the elaborate cakes that Mom always made for them special on their birthdays, well, there are a lot worse things they could remember about me.  I give myself a lot of time, make the cakes early in the week and freeze them, make the fondant early in the week and let it set, and then ultimately have a little wine and put the whole thing together the night before.   Every time I try I get a little better with fondant, it's basically adult Playdoh.  Besides cutting out my little elephant, this time I attempted to get fancy and make the "1" cake topper.  I just formed it the night before so it had plenty of time to set up and I used a wooden skewer to hold it up tall and firmly to the cake.

The decor was pretty simple, but it took me no time to print out a few elephant circles to place on the bowls and vases.  Simple, folded menu cards let our guests know what they were grabbing before they man-handled it.

I've also learned through the years that for me, a key to a good party is making it pretty turn key.  I've made a lot of mistakes along the way.  But now I know that I don't want to spend time grilling hamburgers or refilling hot hors dourves, I want to spend it talking with friends and cuddling my birthday boy, so we make the menu simple.  I had some elephant/circus themed treats- (peanuts, popcorn, animal crackers) as well as pizza.  Because everybody loves pizza.

All in, it was one of our best parties yet.  It was small, manageable and full of the important stuff- like spending time with our little monster.  Who is now ONE... It's just too much guys.  I'm going to go cry into my coffee.

Pirate Birthday Party

I neglected to mention to you all last week during our marathon step rebuild process that one of the reasons that we were in such a hurry to finish up those steps was the upcoming birthday of our crazy little 4 year old and the little party that we had planned.  I wasn't so concerned about the steps being finished in time so that they would look nice for the big day (while that would be nice, our family & friends have gotten used to seeing our house in various states of disrepair over the past year, so a little stair construction wouldn't have phased them.)  The concern was that once some of that wood started to go down on the steps, we wanted to have it stained and polyed before we had dozens of people walking on them and potentially staining or damaging the wood.  So I worked my little preggo booty off and finished up on Sunday night, which gave me approximately 5 days (evenings after work and bedtime) to put together a little pirate birthday worthy of our first mate.  

I couldn't have done it without Pinterest and the community of extremely talented bloggers out there who provide free printables and ideas to use.  I'm not embarrassed to say that I didn't use a single original idea or design this party, I just borrowed from blogs like Poofy Cheeks, Cottage Industrialists and Paging Supermom by printing out a bunch of different free printables they provided and cutting and assembling them in the evenings while chillin with the Hubs and watching a little TV. A huge thank you to these blogs for making our little man's party look pretty with very little effort!

 

I've learned from past birthdays and kept the menu really simple with "Yo-Ho-Hogies" (french bread sandwiches with assorted meat and cheese that guests could apply their own condiments and toppings to), "Island Fruit Salad" and an assortment of pirate themed snacks like Chips Ahoy, Swedish Fish, Goldfish and Pirates Booty.  Using Cottage Industrialist's pirate ship sail cupcake toppers on the sandwiches made a simple, and easy to prepare menu item look fun and right on theme.

 

I loved this bunting template from Poofy Cheeks, and so did Ry who insisted that his birthday include "those triangles you hang."  (I've created a monster.)  We've found that big jugs of water (which I added cucumbers and lemons too) as well as Strawberry Lemonade with cups guests can write on and reuse really help reduce the amount of waste at a party.  (No more house full of dozens of half empty water bottles.)

By far the most fun piece of eatable decor was the cake though.  I used this cake image I found on Pinterest as the guide for my cake, which I made on Saturday night before the party. For those who haven't used fondant before, or are frightened of it, I swear by this recipe and instructions from The Cook Duke.  I whipped up the fondant on Friday night, which gave it 24 hours to sit before decorating on Saturday night, and it was pretty easy to work with. 

The best part of this party- by planning an easy menu in advance, I could set everything out on the table just before and barely think about it during the party, giving me plenty of time to hang out with my little man and all our guests to enjoy the day.  That is, when I could catch him.

Did I mention that he totally loved his cake?

Happy Birthday to my energetic and zany little 4 year old! 

Elephant Birthday Party!

Fortunately, time does not stand still for projects like bathroom renovations.  During the last three weeks between bathroom projects, we've had a lot of other stuff to do too.  My favorite thing was helping my cousin plan and create the first birthday party of her son, and my Godson, Beckett. 

This awesome little man spent his first 52 weeks posing with an elephant, so it was only fitting that we top the year off with an elephant party. 

This elephant punch from Martha Stewart's line at Michael's made all the difference!

Morgan (Beckett's Mommy) came over one evening and we let our boys sleep while we got our craft on.  Yes, this party did include pizza and some beers- it's not your mother's crafting party!

I created these menu cards by making the elephant design in illustrator, and putting it all together in InDesign.  Printed out on cardstock, all I had to do was cut them out individually and fold in the middle. 

 

And those big letter circles were also just printed out on card stock:

...and attached with these adorable mini clothes pins Morgan had:

...to some card stock triangles we cut out to make this awesome pennant. That was Morgan's genius idea- see why I love the girl?

I also designed 2 different stickers that I printed on name badge stickers.  We attached them to these cute little paper sacks to make personal popcorn bags. 

My favorite thing were these adorable cupcake toppers we put together.  The easiest way to decorate a cupcake that I know of!

Peanuts and animal crackers made the perfect simple and yummy snacks for this party theme.

 

 

The party was totally adorable and a huge success!  But the best part was the smile on this little guy's face. 

Come on Mom- enough with the pictures already! :)

 

 Happy first birthday Beckett!  We love you!

UPDATE:  Here's the link to create your own menu cards if it helps! 

 

It's Party Time- Pinterest Style

Some of my favorite bloggers over at YHL and BowerPower are hosting a little Pinterest Challenge today, so I wanted to join in on the fun and give you the low down on the Pinterest inspired birthday party we hosted for our little man this weekend!

We have a ton of projects left to do in the house, and truth be told I would have loved to have gotten more done before we had a bunch of family and friends over, but the bottom line is that this party was about our amazing little Super Ry, and celebrating his 3 super powered years on this planet.  So I took my mind off building furniture for the bedroom or bathroom tile swatches, and spent my time planning a party that he would love and remember.  We were on track and our priorities were in order, up until the Dining Room sprung a leak and looked like this just 18 hours before the party.  Luckily our Bath Crashers contractor made quick work of the clean up, and you’d never know the room was a lake just the day before.

Yes, there is a man in there.  A contractor-tastic man.

  For the party theme,  Ryder had originally requested either a Spider Man party or a Thomas the Train party.  Even though I should have just kept it simple and given the little dude exactly what he wanted, I can’t lie, I vomited a little at the thought of a commercialized birthday celebrating television characters.  I mean sure, it would have been easy to find plates and décor, but where’s the imagination in that?  Then Pinterest came to my rescue with lots of great ideas on how to take Spider Man to a more generic, and much cooler Super Hero theme.  This vintage pop art superhero birthday party from Hostess with the Mostess took the cake so to speak, and my head was spinning with ideas.

My favorite part of the party was the super hero capes I made for Ryder and his friends.  I spent less than $10 on 11 capes, thanks to some cheap fabric deals and a lot of left over fabric scraps.  I originally planned to make Ryder’s with an R like the Pinterest inspiration I tagged, but Ry told me, “I want a 3 on my cape, not an R because I am turning 3 not R.”  Which is good logic actually, can’t disagree with a guy on that one. Watching Ry race through the house, followed by his cape wearing, super hero buddies is now one of my top 10 favorite lifetime memories.  He was so incredibly happy, which is what it’s all about as a Mom.  Isn’t it?

My cousin Morgan, Ryder’s Godmother, photographer, baker and crafter extraordinare, (with a new fancy website to boot!) made Ryder these shoe wings for his chucks.  (Another Pinterest find.)  Aren’t they amazing?   Ryder loved them, and has insisted on wearing them every day since.  Plus- she sewed them with glow in the dark thread so they glow at night.  No joke.  In the words of super blogger Perez Hilton- they’re Amazeballs.

 

 

The goal with the food was to try to make it easy for us, so that we could spend the day doing what really mattered, hanging with the Lil’ Man.  So we whipped up a bunch of food that could be made in advance and didn’t need to stay warm.  Ry’d favorite food is popcorn, so that had to be included, along with some fruit (with a fun twist thanks to Pinterest) for a healthy option. The food must have been good because we ran out fast and we had to order a bunch of pizzas, (which I’m pretty sure is a sign of a good party).

Even though I did go a bit overboard (which is to say I went Erin), I did give myself a little break when it came to the cake.  In the past I’ve sort of gone all out with his cakes:

Ryder's 1st Birthday Cake

Ryder's 1st Birthday Smash Cake- made by Super Morgan.  (Are you guys catching a theme here?)

Ryder's 2nd Birthday Cake

This year for time sake, I thought that cupcakes would not only be easier to create, but easier for people to grab and enjoy at their leisure. (Which is to say, I was lazy.)  I didn’t completely slack though, and made these fun cup cake toppers to bring the super hero theme together.   

 

Unfortunately, it turned out to be the one bummer of the party, since Ry kept asking me where his big cake was (tear).  I’ve learned my lesson and will create a masterpiece next year.  At least the spoiled little monkey enjoyed his cupcakes.  

Plus, Super Morgan also made cake pops, which were a huge hit!

In the end it was an amazing day, thanks to our party animal family and friends.  It was obvious that Ry was having the time of his little life.  And that's what it's all about. 

 

 

Photography copyright One Project at a Time, Morgan Klinnert Photography and Dave Swartz Photography.