McKenzie’s 8th "Party Animal" Theme Birthday Party

Our sweet little animal loving girl turned 8 this month and I can help but feel all the feels about it. On one hand I'm so proud and blessed to be able to watch her grow into such a wonderful and kind person, yet on the other hand its hard on this mama's hear to except that she's no longer our little baby girl. I wouldn't have it any other way though, I think it is ok for mamas to have a little cry over their babies growing up. It just means that they love them that much more!

This year McKenzie wanted to have a wild animal party. Thank goodness for Etsy because I honestly didn't know where to start. I found this adorable "animal party" themed birthday set with all the bright colors that she is loving these days and I was sold! The invites, backdrop, game posters, thank you notes - all had coordinating images that pulled the entire party together. It made for an easy set-up for sure. All I had to do was add balloons and a few other accessories to take it over the top (I tend to do that a lot ;/).

The table cover is actually just fabric I picked up here at hobby lobby. The cake toppers are animal figurines I found at our local dollar tree. I just spray painted them coordinating bright colors  to match the rest of the details.

I went simple on the cake and purchased this one from our local Walmart. They always do a great job and they are delicious!

I was surprised to find the Cheetos brand Cheetah Paws at Walmart, so I of course grabbed those up.

The Zebra tails were my favorite. I found that idea off of Pinterest and had to incorporate. Some little guests were a fan and some weren't but they made for a cute addition to the table ;o)

Each place setting had a goodie bag filled with animal themed toys and a cup full of what was supposed to be frosted animal crackers, however they melted in the car on the way over ;'(

This is where I get into trouble. I saw this idea on Pinterest and had to add it in! I mean how cute are those little safari animals in their carrying cases. Over the top I know but I couldn't help myself and kiddos couldn't wait to pick theirs out. So it was a win-win!

These mask I found on Amazon went perfectly with the theme. Its always fun to have a photo booth or even just props to take party pics with.

These little blow up animals were a sweet little touch. I used the elephant as a centerpiece and it made the perfect statement as our little guests enter the room.

Pin the tail on the zebra was a request from the birthday girl so I can't take credit. Im so grateful for the little shop, Design My Party Studio, on etsy once again for thinking of everything when it comes to party decor! Her cute bday t-shirt is from etsy shop About A Sprout.

We so enjoyed this sweet little party and felt so much love! Thanks to all of the creatives out there that make it so much easier for us mamas to plan the perfect celebration for our little!

 

Haines Disney Pixar Cars Birthday

Technically this is Haine's 4th birthday, however, we've used the same theme for two years in a row. So he is now 5 but I though I would share a quick and easy way to set up a bday display without breaking the bank. This particular year we didn't have a huge party but I still wanted to do something special that made a statement. Banners are the way to go to pull it off. You can purchase on amazon for around $30, sometimes even cheaper and they really to pack a punch. 

I think just purchase coordinating items from Dollar Tree or Walmart to fill in. 

I found orange cones at the Dollar Tree and purchased several of those to display around. The plates, pennant flags and napkins were from the party aisle at Hobby Lobby. 

The cake is from Walmart. They always do a great job and their cakes are pretty delicious!This cars cake even came with a few toy cars to set atop the cake.

I found these streamers on amazon as well. I received a big pack of them pretty cheap too.

I did splurge a little on these custom cookies. I love a good customer cookie, they always add festive fun decor and they are pretty great to eat too!

THe balloons I purchased on amazon as well and had our local grocery store blow them up the day of. He absolutely loved these!

A birthday isn't complete without your own custom bday t shirt. I found this on etsy. He still loves to wear it to this day (and he's now 5 years old lol!) The car drive along came from Walmart online. We got it for a steal (in my opinion) definitely shop around.

 All in all, it was a festive and fun celebration that my son absolutely loved! Who says you have to have a house full of guests to enjoy a bday party with a bang! Lol!

A Girl-Themed Dinosaur Party to Celebrate McKenzie Turning 5

It's hard to believe that I am writing this blog post in regards to our little baby girl turning 5. It feels like yesterday that I wrote  A Love Letter to her when she turned ONE.  My how time flies when you're having fun! Parenting is hard work but I have to admit - It's so much fun! I mean after all the late night feedings during the newborn stage and the tantrums that begin around 2, there are those moments that you see their face light up in awe at you that makes all of the not-so- fun times seem not that terrible. Especially when they hit the age of 5. Their ideas, their dreams and thoughts become much clearer and a lot more loud and clear so when you as a parent can bring those ideas, dreams and thoughts to life - well,  It's Just Fun!

As many of you know, McKenzie didn't quite grow up to be the doll lovin', playing house kind of little girl that most of us were expecting. In fact, her interest are quite the opposite. Her newly found passion are those of the Pre-Historic Time Period - Dinosaurs! When I say "Passion", what I really mean by that is "OBESSION"!  I'm talking full blown obsession - to the point that Ryan and I are learning more from her than she is from us. We literally feel like we are talking to a full grown adult dinosaur specialist, thanks to shows like  Dino Dan, Dino Dana & Dinosaur Train!

So of course this year we went all out for her celebratory class snack birthday party. Because I tend to "over do it" with our kid's birthday celebrations, I compromised with my husband and agreed that we would plan big birthday parties every other year and smaller scale "just family" celebrations for the years in between. Well you can imagine the predicament we were in when she came to us saying how excited she was to have "A DINO BIRTHDAY PARTY" this year.  Since this birthday fell on a "small scale" year (see our Peppa Pig Party last year  here), I decided to use her class birthday snack as a way to kill two birds with one stone. 

Of course I do what I always do best and go to Pinterest for ideas. Since she's not really an All Pink Everything kind of little girl, I went with the more realistic Jurassic look for the decor and threw in a pop of Pink in the cookies and paper plates.  I then created a backdrop using a thick poster board covered with Moss from Michaels. I used Palm Leaves to frame it and other artificial plants I had sitting around the house. I purchased wooden letters that spelled out "Roar" from Hobby Lobby and hung them using twine to set the stage for the rest of the cake table.

I purchased our cake from our local grocery store Publix. They always do such a great job and are reasonably priced. I simply added a number 5 candle and dinosaurs that we had plenty of in every square inch of McKenzie's room.

Since this was just snack time. I offered the kiddos a bucket of Buggles as "Triceratops Claws" , Grapes as "Dinosaur Eggs" & Green Hawaiian Punch as "Prehistoric Punch" as well as mini bottled waters.

 The adorable party printables are from Etsy Shop, "Sweet Papermint". Shop owner, Marsha has the cutest printables in every theme imaginable. She is wonderful to work with and her files are crisp and clear and are so easy to download and print from your home computer.

These sweet Dinosaur sugar cookies are from a local baker here in town called Sweet Addiction's Bakery. They create the most adorable themed cookies for every occasion. See more examples here at our son's 2nd birthday party.

 I set up a long table for the kids to sit at and I simply topped it with kraft wrapping paper along with bright pink paper plates and dinosaur themed cake plates and party blowers. For the centerpiece, I used dino figurines, a large plush dino from home and framed a cute welcome sign from Etsy Shop, Sweet Papermint!

She was amazed when she walked in with her class and could not stop talking about it the rest of the week! It's moments like these that make me step back for a minute and appreciate how much fun mom'ing can be! Happy Birthday To Our Precious Girl!

Cactus Theme Birthday Party: Haines Turns Two!

So I am a tad late on posting this sweet little cactus party we put together last minute for our lil man, Haines.  Our precious baby boy turned two on September 11th. This particular week was a little hectic to say the least. My hometown of Houston, Tx  just had a hurricane push through causing much devastation to the homes of friends and family members of mine. Fast forward to this week, we received news that a Cat 5 Hurricane was headed in our direction and would reach our house here in south Georgia as a Cat 3 on Haines's Birthday.   Needless to say my nerves were a little on edge, however I still made it our mission to celebrate our little man. 

Thankfully I ordered these letter balloons ahead of time not sure exactly what our planes would be but I'm so glad I did. A few days prior I began looking around the house to find a way to make what we had laying around work as decoration because plans of a big shindig were out of the question at this point.  I came up with the idea of a little Cactus/fiesta theme using the mini succulent plants I had more that I remember scattered around. So I made a quick call to our local cookie master with my fingers crossed,  that she would be able to throw together a dozen cactus theme cookies. To my surprise she did and they were ready right on time. I purchase a pre-made vanilla cake from our Publix bakery, hung up Haines's name in balloons and set up a little table using succulents that I put inside a few cactus glasses from the Dollar Store, a birthday cake and cookies for display. Viola, our Pre-Hurricane Birthday Party went off without a hitch! You would have never known that we had a pretty scary storm scheduled to touch down the next day.  

It was the perfect distraction for this mama though since I couldn't keep my eyes, worry and fears off of the weather channel! Luckily by the time the storm hit us, it was reduced to a tropical storm and we kept our power the entire time. 

As I look back on these photos, it brings such a sweet memory of us spending time as a family together celebrating Haines and the precious little people that GOD has blessed Ryan and I with. Even in the middle of fear, worry and chaos that was going on during this time, I just know that GOD was here to calm our nerves (well mine mostly) and provide us with a beautiful way to slow down and spend time together as a family while we  celebrated the gift He gave us just two years ago. 

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Source Credits:
Haines's Cactus "TWO" Tank: Our5Loves
Haines's Balloon Letters: MagnoliaBloomBoutique
Cactus Theme Sugar Cookies: Sweet Addiction's Bakery
Cactus Stem Glasses: Dollar Tree