Happy 3rd birthday to our wonderful, sweet niece Callie! We cannot wait to celebrate with you tomorrow!
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Friday, August 19, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig
We made it home! Yesterday we got here around dinner time. We had such a great time at the beach. I will be writing more posts to go in detail later. (We have date night tonight, so probably tomorrow). I think this was our last big trip of the summer, other than a birthday party on Saturday. We want to thank the Troutmans for inviting us! It was a blast!!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
On the road again
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Thursday, August 11, 2011
Sesame Street Party - Part 2
As I posted Tuesday I am breaking up this party into two posts. This post is all about the details of all the food and decorations. I apologize that these pictures aren't the best. I need to take a photography class! (To see the pictures larger just click on the picture and it should pop up in a larger view.)
The welcome wreath. If you would like a tutorial here is a wonderful one: http://simplycreativeinsanity.blogspot.com/2011/07/balloon-wreath-tutorial.html
Happy birthday banner and lots of Sesame Street books and stuffed toys. All of my signs I use my favorite tool, my Cricut. If you are an avid scrapbooker and do not have one, I must recommend this as a MUST have!
Here is a picture of the dining tables and a view of what the party looks like as you walk into the door. Each table has a balloon bouquet and they all have a different colored table cloth.
Center 1 is my Photo Booth. Having a photo booth is a great way to keep a memento of who came to the party. It is also a LOT of fun taking silly pictures. I hung up a backdrop (The backdrop is actually Dora's backdrop because they stopped selling Sesame Street) and decided to have photo props (see below) and a walking Elmo and Big Bird balloon.
I used Photo Shop to print out all the photo props and then glued them onto dowels so guests could hold them without touching their face. Some of the props people could choose from were: Abby's hair, Ernie's hair, Big Bird's beak, Oscar's uni-brow, Bert's uni-brow, Elmo's smile, The Count's monocle and Cookie Monster's crazy eyes.
I had a red crayon out so people could shade their white bags. Then I had pre-cut out eyes, noses, and mouths. All the kids had to do was glue each piece down. Here is the finished puppet below.
The only game that I thought was missing was Oscar's Trash Toss. I just used a small silver trash can we already had, put Oscar in front, balled up some trash and hung the sign up above the can. The games actually were a huge hit with all the kids.
All the kids got goldfish crackers and a small pack of crayons.
This is a picture of the table WELL before all the gifts started coming in. I will have to ask around to see if there are pictures of the table once all the gifts were on the table. I did put out their 2 year portraits on the table for all to see.
Center 4 was the Food & Drink table. Elmo's favorite food is pizza, so we had pizza. I also had salad available for those that don't like pizza and/or wanted something extra.
The food tags were shaped like the Sesame Street sign. I also had Sesame Street books line the table.
My favorite part of this table was the Elmo cups. I glued crazy eyes, a nose, and a mouth onto each red cup.
Center 5 was by far my most favorite table. It also was the table that I worked the hardest on "projects". Here is the overall look (before I added the milks, there are pictures below of the milk). I made tissue balls to hang beside the sign I made.
I posted these before, but here are the cupcake towers that we made from scratch. We took a
2 x 4 piece of plywood and cut it down into to 2 bottom pieces (one for each tower) of 16", 2 middle 12", and 2 top 8" squares. I then took both middle pieces and drilled holes to stick cupcake pops and chocolate suckers into.
The middle columns are boxes that I covered with scrapbook paper.
I made personal cakes for both Maddie and Zack. I covered them with fondant and then used my cricut to cut Sesame Street characters into colored fondant. At the top I made bunting using two wooden dowels (wrapped in ribbon) and hung fish line with flags with their names on them draped across the dowel. (Sorry this is a horrible picture).
What would a Cookie Monster table be with out LOTS of cookies? Below are pictures of all the cookies we made. Each tray has a Cookie Monster tag with the title of the cookie.
The middle tray is full of cupcake pops (for a tutorial go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpIifr0VOxY) and chocolate suckers. I actually enjoyed making these and they tasted GREAT!! I also made cupcakes with cupcake tags on each one. Below is the couple of pictures that I got with the milks.
Just like the Elmo cups, I wanted Cookie Monster cups. Each blue cup got crazy eyes and a mouth.
For the adults, I wanted to have favors for coming as well. So I had bags for everyone to take home some cookies.
This party was SOOOOOOO much work, but SOOOOOOOO much fun! I loved doing every little bit. The stress of pulling it all together is just so worth the happy faces of the birthday boy and girl. The more parties/showers I throw the more that I want to do this for a living. I love coming up with small details to parties that maybe not everyone will notice. More to come later on my dreams!
The welcome wreath. If you would like a tutorial here is a wonderful one: http://simplycreativeinsanity.blogspot.com/2011/07/balloon-wreath-tutorial.html
Happy birthday banner and lots of Sesame Street books and stuffed toys. All of my signs I use my favorite tool, my Cricut. If you are an avid scrapbooker and do not have one, I must recommend this as a MUST have!
Here is a picture of the dining tables and a view of what the party looks like as you walk into the door. Each table has a balloon bouquet and they all have a different colored table cloth.
When I thought about this party (back two and a half weeks ago) I immediately thought of "centers". I came up 5 centers. 1) Photo Booth 2) Crafts 3)Games 4)Food & Drink
5) Cookies/Desserts
5) Cookies/Desserts
Center 1 is my Photo Booth. Having a photo booth is a great way to keep a memento of who came to the party. It is also a LOT of fun taking silly pictures. I hung up a backdrop (The backdrop is actually Dora's backdrop because they stopped selling Sesame Street) and decided to have photo props (see below) and a walking Elmo and Big Bird balloon.
I used Photo Shop to print out all the photo props and then glued them onto dowels so guests could hold them without touching their face. Some of the props people could choose from were: Abby's hair, Ernie's hair, Big Bird's beak, Oscar's uni-brow, Bert's uni-brow, Elmo's smile, The Count's monocle and Cookie Monster's crazy eyes.
The 2nd center was crafts. I knew that there were going to be kids ages from 1-10. I wanted to have something all ages could do. So I decided to have coloring pages/books and crayons for the younger ones and an actual craft for the older kids. The craft I came up with was make an Elmo puppet.
I had a red crayon out so people could shade their white bags. Then I had pre-cut out eyes, noses, and mouths. All the kids had to do was glue each piece down. Here is the finished puppet below.
Center 3 was games. I actually had bought wood games for my nephew's 1st birthday a couple of years ago off of etsy.com. I knew one day that my kids would probably have a Sesame Street party too. The kids also have some big square tiles that are Sesame Street tiles that I put out for others to play with.
The only game that I thought was missing was Oscar's Trash Toss. I just used a small silver trash can we already had, put Oscar in front, balled up some trash and hung the sign up above the can. The games actually were a huge hit with all the kids.
Right beside the door to leave I had a table set up with favors. This table also doubled as the gift table. Maddie & Zack's favorite character is Elmo. For those who haven't seen Sesame Street in a while, Elmo has his own little show within the show every day. He has a theme song and the words are "Elmo loves his goldfish, his crayon too, that's Elmo's world". So for favors...I came up with this:
All the kids got goldfish crackers and a small pack of crayons.
This is a picture of the table WELL before all the gifts started coming in. I will have to ask around to see if there are pictures of the table once all the gifts were on the table. I did put out their 2 year portraits on the table for all to see.
Center 4 was the Food & Drink table. Elmo's favorite food is pizza, so we had pizza. I also had salad available for those that don't like pizza and/or wanted something extra.
The food tags were shaped like the Sesame Street sign. I also had Sesame Street books line the table.
My favorite part of this table was the Elmo cups. I glued crazy eyes, a nose, and a mouth onto each red cup.
Center 5 was by far my most favorite table. It also was the table that I worked the hardest on "projects". Here is the overall look (before I added the milks, there are pictures below of the milk). I made tissue balls to hang beside the sign I made.
I posted these before, but here are the cupcake towers that we made from scratch. We took a
2 x 4 piece of plywood and cut it down into to 2 bottom pieces (one for each tower) of 16", 2 middle 12", and 2 top 8" squares. I then took both middle pieces and drilled holes to stick cupcake pops and chocolate suckers into.
The middle columns are boxes that I covered with scrapbook paper.
I made personal cakes for both Maddie and Zack. I covered them with fondant and then used my cricut to cut Sesame Street characters into colored fondant. At the top I made bunting using two wooden dowels (wrapped in ribbon) and hung fish line with flags with their names on them draped across the dowel. (Sorry this is a horrible picture).
What would a Cookie Monster table be with out LOTS of cookies? Below are pictures of all the cookies we made. Each tray has a Cookie Monster tag with the title of the cookie.
The middle tray is full of cupcake pops (for a tutorial go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpIifr0VOxY) and chocolate suckers. I actually enjoyed making these and they tasted GREAT!! I also made cupcakes with cupcake tags on each one. Below is the couple of pictures that I got with the milks.
Just like the Elmo cups, I wanted Cookie Monster cups. Each blue cup got crazy eyes and a mouth.
For the adults, I wanted to have favors for coming as well. So I had bags for everyone to take home some cookies.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Sesame Street Party - Part 1
I am so happy to be sharing birthday party pictures with you! There is one thing that I hate about blogger. You have to upload one picture at a time so I am having to go through over 200 pictures. So I have decided to break up the birthday party into two parts. Part 1 is pictures of the kids and the rest of the party goers. Part 2 will be all the details, how to, etc.
If you remember my post two weeks ago...I had mentioned that this party snuck up on me. I knew it was coming, but I really didn't jump on anything until two weeks ago. On their 1st birthday party I planned for about 3-4 months. So I was WAY too late to ask my professional photographer (aka my cousin) to take pictures. She lives in VA and wasn't planning on coming in this weekend. So Samantha if you are reading this...plan on every first weekend in August to take photos for me!! I do want to thank Crystal for jumping in and picking up my camera to take most of these for me. It didn't even dawn on me where my camera was most of the time.
Zack and Cayden playing with gifts.
We are about to sing Happy Birthday
Great picture of Zack blowing out his candle
We had a photo booth set up... I regret not making an announcement to make sure that everyone needs to get their pictures taken. These are my favorite pictures!! I just wish I had more of them!!! Again, if I had my professional photog, maybe I would have had more.
The kids opening their gifts...
Playing games...
Maddie received a vanity. This child LOVES to look/talk to her reflection. Once she sat down and saw the mirror, she didn't get up the rest of the party. Now that we are home I haven't brought this out yet, because I'm afraid she will never get up (lol).
We tried to get a family portrait...didn't turn out so well.
If you remember my post two weeks ago...I had mentioned that this party snuck up on me. I knew it was coming, but I really didn't jump on anything until two weeks ago. On their 1st birthday party I planned for about 3-4 months. So I was WAY too late to ask my professional photographer (aka my cousin) to take pictures. She lives in VA and wasn't planning on coming in this weekend. So Samantha if you are reading this...plan on every first weekend in August to take photos for me!! I do want to thank Crystal for jumping in and picking up my camera to take most of these for me. It didn't even dawn on me where my camera was most of the time.
Here are the pictures when the twins first entered the party...
Mommy is taking them around the room to show them all the Sesame Street "centers"
Zack and Cayden playing with gifts.
We are about to sing Happy Birthday
Great picture of Zack blowing out his candle
CAKE...Yummy, yummy!!!
We had a photo booth set up... I regret not making an announcement to make sure that everyone needs to get their pictures taken. These are my favorite pictures!! I just wish I had more of them!!! Again, if I had my professional photog, maybe I would have had more.
The kids opening their gifts...
Playing games...
Maddie received a vanity. This child LOVES to look/talk to her reflection. Once she sat down and saw the mirror, she didn't get up the rest of the party. Now that we are home I haven't brought this out yet, because I'm afraid she will never get up (lol).
We tried to get a family portrait...didn't turn out so well.
Mamaw, Aunt Sue, me, big bird...(Thanks Grammy for the shirts!)
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