Carter's bowling party

This past weekend, Carter celebrated his 5th birthday with his friends from pre-school. His family birthday party is in June with Addison's, but this one was at a local bowling alley. His birthday was a few days before his party. He opened his gifts from mommy and daddy! He got a board game, some TMNT figurines and vehicles, a rocket launcher, legos and a couple other little things! :)

On Saturday, he was ready to head to his party! Before the party, he had a baseball game and the game of a friend so he had been moving all day! (We also had a picnic after his party too! Busy day!)

The simple set up at each setting. I made the swords out of the jumbo paint stir sticks, paint and electrical tape.

His cupcakes were vanilla and chocolate--as requested by the birthday boy--with yummy buttercream and TMNT rings (a hit with the kids!).

Time to blow out the candle!! 

They had such a blast bowling. There were 6 kids per lane so things were definitely lively. :) 

Part of the gang! 

He had such a blast -- I love seeing him so happy and excited. And, it was by far the easiest party I've ever thrown. Wrap up the disposable stuff and toss it, pay the bill and head out (with someone else cleaning up the mess...my kind of party).

Addison's 2nd Birthday Party!

Well, I'm REALLY behind. Two weeks ago, we held Addison's 2nd birthday party--and the theme was ice cream. It was SUCH a fun one to plan and the colors were super cute together. The day was sunny and nice, but actually quite chilly. It was pretty windy--so much so that we never even put up the little EZ Up tent at all. People were even wearing jackets...who would have thought in the middle of June??? 

For the favors, I did homemade hot fudge in little jars with a bamboo spoon. 

Target Dollar Spot for the win on the take-out boxes in the perfect colors! 

I found the perfect bowls at Dollar Tree and all of them were cheaper than cheap disposables, so of course I got them. I had the dessert bar set up as her ice cream shoppe.

Cousins made the trip for the weekend and the kids were VERY excited! 

The night before the party, Carter and I whipped this up with some card stock and crepe paper. I had no other idea for the wall, so I was happy with how it turned out. 

For dinner, we had a pasta bar -- three kinds of pastas, three kinds of sauce, toppings, a big salad, and homemade garlic bread. De-lish! 

The pretty birthday girl. She was such a sweet little lovey. 

Cousins! 

Gift time...a very blessed little girl. :) 

Just some of the toppings - we also had hot fudge, caramel, bananas, whipped cream, and cherries! 

The birthday girl, ready to blow out her candles. :) 

I took her rag banner from last year, removed the colors that didn't coordinate, and replaced them with turquoise and orange--voila! A brand new banner! 

Dessert time!

We had such a fun time celebrating our precious little girl. I can't believe she's two but boy is it fun planning parties to celebrate her. :) We love you, sweet pea. 

(Friend) birthday party

Because I like to live on the wild (and crazy) side, we opted to let Carter have a friend party this year in addition to his family party. So many of his friends have invited him to their parties, and he kept asking if so and so was coming to his party (meaning his family one). We opted to have it at a local park and rent a pavilion. We got even crazier and had it the today--the day after the family party. :) Turns out, it worked out pretty well. We were able to use all the decorations again and just kept in the party spirit for the weekend! 

It was SO incredibly. I had to tie everything down and put little boulders all over the place. Sadly, I didn't get to put up half the decorations. But the good news is that four year olds have no idea about that stuff and I didn't worry about it. 

I even opted to buy the cake to keep things simple. We added the little toys to the top and voila! 

Bubble wands for the favor -- a hit with kids! 

The real hit of the party was the pinata. Carter talked about this for WEEKS (and I am not exaggerating) leading up to the party. It cost a small fortune to fill it but the kids just loved it and I loved seeing how happy and excited they were!

We did gifts when we got home and wow, is he a BLESSED little boy!! It was like Christmas morning! 

All in all, it was such a fun time and was over before we knew it. Can't believe we have a four year old already? Wasn't he just born yesterday???

Carter's 4th Birthday Party

Today, we celebrated Carter's 4th birthday--at least for the first time--with family. Tomorrow will be another with his friends. He is a BIG TIME fan of Disney Planes and that's what he wanted for his party. And what little dude wants, he gets! I love throwing a party, and this was a fun theme to do! :) 

 I was excited when I realized my mom still had the globe from when we were little and it perfectly represented the "Wings Around the Globe" rally.

He talked and talked about party hats, so I'm thankful I was able to find some! 

I made "pilot badges" for all the kids. It was just too stinkin' cute to see them running around all day with these on. 

A couple weeks out, I saw this precious Dusty fabric and couldn't pass it up. I had no idea what I was going to do with it until about a day or two ago. And I'm SO GLAD I decided to do this. It was so, so cute. We got photos of the birthday boy with each guest at the party (we missed a few though). :) (Some photos below)

Baggage claim! I got each kid a little aluminum water bottle. I found these on sale at the Disney store a few weeks before the party! I got the babies in attendance a little organic squeezie but then forgot to give it to one of them before they left. Boo!

I made all the signs and details (for the most part). Most of the stuff just fit in with an "airplane" theme. 

I was trying to think of how to use my chalkboard and came up with this. 

Face painting station! I was envisioning them picking a sun, star, etc. NOOO. Mr. Elijah picked a T-REX!! Stinker. :) I had to google it but we survived. We also had a balloon, a shooting star, a heart, and some letters.

Centerpieces (that kept blowing over)

The birthday boy and guest of honor. He LOVED having so many people there loving on him. He was just so precious and appreciative of everything. It melted my heart. 

In the photo booth with mommy and daddy! 

For food we had meatball subs, coleslaw, "Dusty's Dippers" (Fruit w/ dip and veggies w/ dip), chips, "Cloud 9" parfait (Jell-o and cool whip) and cupcakes and ice cream! 

Digging in! 

Pretty sissy! :) 

We had such a blast celebrating the little boy who made us mommy and daddy. These four years have FLOWN by so lightning fast. We cherish all the sweet giggles, activity, and love he dishes out. He's truly a little sweetheart (that keeps us on our toes)! Happy 4th birthday (in a few days), little dude. We love you SOOOO much! 

(Friend party post to come...)