Sesame Street!

Growing up I loved Sesame Street. So when my son started gravitating to a certain red furry friend (Elmo of course!), I was super jazzed! I knew just what to do to celebrate his first birthday. I chose red and blue with a bit of green as my main colors to tie in all of the fun. Here is a bit of what we did:

For the street sign I screwed together a newel post, scrap wood, and wooden dowl. I finished it off with a coat of green paint and a printed street sign inspired from the show. I ordered these super sweet cookie monster and Elmo cookies (they were gone in the first hour!). So much fun and yummy too!

Rylan's big brother helped with the cake and it was so cute to see him proudly show off our creation to all of his friends! We finished it off with and Elmo topper from Calladoo paper which was a nice addition to Rylan's scrapbook later on. Then, I found the polka dot fabric and just couldn't resist! A pair of peaking shears, 3 yards of fabric, and multiple printouts later, I had my table runners and bunting.

To dress up the kids table, I made a centerpiece out of upcycled chocolate boxes that I decorated with some scrap paper and fabric. The letters and Sesame Street stickers added an extra bit of fun. Rylan still plays with them today!

What is a Sesame Street party without Elmo and Cookie monster poufs? Rylan kept hugging these all throughout the party and let out a big belly laugh when I made them "talk". 

For activities we decided to go with a puppet and craft theme. The little guests tried their hand at making puppets and letters of their name, tattoos, and even got to color Mr. Hooper's store!

They loved crawling in and out of the store and even started playing "store" inside. Big Bird's letter nest (find your name!) and Oscar the Grouch recycle toss also made a showing too. A puppet show and Elmo stopping by to say hello kept the kids engaged and excited for more. So fun!

We did prepacked food for all of the adults and children which I highly recommend to make the day of the party less stressful. The children received cheese pizzettas, grapes, chips, pasta salad, napkin, chocolate chip cookie, and an elmo juice box in their lunch sack. Everything (except the pizzetta and pasta which arrived the day of ) were packed a couple of days prior to the party. The kids loved that they got to pick whether they got an 'Elmo or Cookie Monster'.

The adults had similar nosh with some sandwiches thrown in for good measure. I totally fell in love with these omm...nomm...nomm napkins and it was fun using them in our house later.

I think I sang the Sesame Street song for days after! Rylan had a terrific time and I loved being able to celebrate such a special milestone with those near and dear to us.  Happy birthday to my joyful wonder!

The Art of Fall

Now, who doesn't love Fall colors?! At an art session for 6 year olds, we focused on leaves, trees, and fall colors. The session started with the kids listing out fall colors and I have to say that it was my favorite part!  Apart from the expected oranges, reds and browns, I heard grey, purples and then.. honey, mustard, ketchup and olives! How cute and creative! 

 

We then sat down to make trees. The kids drew the trunks of trees or used printouts and added leaves using paint in the colors that they had listed. We stamped the leaves using corks (that Whole Foods generously donated to the project), pencil erasers, and even our fingers!

Was so great to see all the lovely color stories on each sheet of paper.. true Fall Fun!!

Fabulous fun with Fabric!

I LOVE fabric.. the textures and colors have always fascinated me. I've been working with fabric every since I was 8 when I made a bag for my mum's birthday present. I felt an immense sense of accomplishment! Now, I get such a thrill when I see little ones experience a similar feeling when they look at the fruits of their labor. 

I recently introduced a dozen kids to the world of fabric paints and techniques at a 'design your do' art session. They started off learning how to stamp patterns on fabric - using wood blocks and rubber stamps. We then moved on to stenciling and freehand painting.  We wrapped up with each of them designing their very own apron or t-shirt.

Some of the parents stayed for the session and it turned into an impromptu parent-child project. So fun!

It was amazing to see their excited wide eyes as they peeled off the stencils and lifted the stamps. Creativity was really high with some of the kids conjuring up whole stories on their shirts and mixing various techniques to create something that was truly their own! 

And if I had to make a prediction, the designer bug has bitten more than a handful of these kids!

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

Growing up, Sesame Street was one of my first loves. From Big Bird to the Count, I learned so much about counting, words, and friendships. So when my son's first birthday came along and saw that he simply adored Elmo, I couldn't wait to bring Sesame Street come to life!

I love sending a little package a week or so prior to a party to build excitement and give the little ones a sense of what to expect. This time I spent some time thinking about what kind of things one would need on a trip to Sesame Street. So here is what I crafted:

I sewed a wallet using foam rectangles, letters and circles, and ribbon. I also filled the wallet with Sesame Street money that I found on the Sesame Street website. We also put together a music CD complete with all of the songs that I sing to my little one as well as the Sesame Street theme song with a little verse on the back   of the envelope about singing is the way to get to Sesame Street. Then I crafted a map with downloaded images and red footprints and asked the guest to help Elmo find his friends. I included all of the activities the children could expect at the party (with some surprises included of course!). The younger kids (2-4) gravitated to the characters on the map while the older kids actually were engaged in the map activity. 

All in all it was a super fun way to kick off the excitement to the party and helped the little ones in their journey to Sesame Street. I always wondered how to get to there and now I know!

Trucking around...

Toddler birthdays are so fun and special! Very recently, we planned a very special one for a li'l boy turning two who was into trucks in a big way.  So, we decided to turn him into trucking king pin for the day! To our surprise, his adorable older brother couldn't wait to play host and lent a helping hand each step of the way. 

Set on center stage, was the birthday cake which we fashioned into an 18 wheeler! Since the birthday boy loves truck stories, we created a fun little story - a scene of an accident - with his fav vehicles and his very yummy cake. He loved it so did every one of our guests. Some of them even engaged in a guessing game of which one was the cake.

 

What is truck party without a playing dress up with some trucks! We created a fleet of trucks for our little party guests out of a cardboard box, paper plates, pictures, and craft paper. The trucks were such a hit that the kids didn't want to take them off! This was perfect for the red light/green light game we played at the party. 

 

The party area was zoned into several sections. One of the more popular ones was the 'construction zone'. A baby pool was wrapped in black plastic and given some tread marks (thanks to some handy dandy chalk) and filled with sand. We finished it off with some mini diggers and sand toys and it was all set! It made the perfect construction site. The slightly older guests had a fabulous time hammering nails (golf tees) onto boards (styrofoam, of course). We had an autobody shop - an art & activity corner - with tattoos, playdoh, paint, nuts, bolts, blocks and more. Another fun spot was the 'city of Truckee' where we created a city with a rug play mat, cars, trucks, and traffic signs.. so fun!!

 

The entire venue was injected with road signs to set the right mood. Transportation themed bunting zig zagged above everyone's heads and made for a festive time!

Guests could recharge at the 'Truck Stop' which had a range of truck and truck themed food that was served along with Oil (apple juice) and Water.

Traffic (cheese) cones, timber (pretzel) logs, and popcorn satisfied those little munchies. We also had sandwiches (cut out in truck shapes), tires, and other transportation themed food too.

So that our little movers had a rest stop we fashioned these moving boxes into little stools. So cute!

As the day wore down our little truckers had to bid over and out. Each guest took home a 'trucker survival kit'- a change of clothes (blockprinted onesies, tshirts or aprons), some instant energy food (chocolate truck shaped lollipops) and a set of handy tools - all packaged in a traffic cone. All the adorable little guests had a fabulous time.. and were a tad disappointed that it was wrap up time. A sign of a very fun party!

Eat, Drink, and Be Scary!

I am a sucker for a good Halloween party. So when time came around for our annual Halloween party, I knew that I just had to do something fun. I looked around the house and found some extra oreos, white chocolate and some lollipop sticks. After doing a bit of thinking I decided on mummy pops! I also stopped by our local grocery store and picked up some Wilton monster eyes and I was all set.

As you can see I dipped the oreos in meltable white chocolate, then set the eyes into the chocolate. I placed the stick with an extra bit of chocolate and then finished off the rest of the 'bandages' using icing. Then I tied on some gauze strips for a bit of fun. Last, I popped them in the fridge to set.

Then, I started thinking about how to display the pops. I figured it would come to me at some point, but I started getting a little nervous as the party drew near. Just when I almost decided just to put them in bags to hand out, I came across this:

I found this wooden Halloween box, foam core, and washi tape at my local Daiso store and I was in love. The foam was a little shy of the box dimensions, so I wrapped the foam in gauze and then made some starter holes so the pops would stand upright. The box needed a bit of dressing up so I added the black tape for a bit of fun and texture (it had this great sculptural feel to it). All said and done the pops were done in about an hour and the box in 15 minutes. Perfect for this busy mom!  Here is a look at the finished product:

Spook-tacular! And they were super yummy and nut allergy friendly (a very important thing for our party guests). Here is a quick look at some of our other food...

I started with a eat drink and be scary sign and then had all of my other fabulously talented neighbors and friends bring whatever they wished. Some of the hits that brought peals of laughter were spider crackers, witches hats, freshly exhumed green jello brains, spooky 7 layer dip, monster spoon pops, jello eyeballs, lychee eyeball punch,  mummy piggies in a bandages, and graveyard cupcakes. For flatware, we rolled it as usual and then added vampire teeth as napkin rings. We also played ghost bowling before going off to trick or treat. To entice the adults, we had them vote on whose door decorations were most impressive. The winner loved her bottle of wine (7 Deadly Zins of course!). In terms of other decor we had all of the usual suspects- halloween bunting, witches fingers, spider rings, dry ice in the fountain, spider webs, creepy petri dishes, potion bottles with cool labels, rats, bones, and such. Even an old cape, dress form, witch shoe covers, and broom were re-purposed into a scary witch.  Soo fun to watch the kids check out the phantom witch!

Our neighbors are always super generous with their candy (more than our kid-lings could ever eat!) so all of the additional candy was donated to a local hospital for the kids to enjoy. The kids had a great time and dare I say the adults too. A great spook-tacular time!

The hills are alive with the sound of music!

I am a big fan of the Sound of Music. I love the whimsy, the catchy tunes, and the nostalgia that that era brings. So when we were asked to lend a helping hand with doing an invite for a Sound of Music party we were totally stoked! 

Diya was absolutely in love with the movie The Sound of Music. So of course the theme centered around that. To account for the guests that weren't familiar with the movie, the family decided to make it a celebration of music (hence music notes and guitars) with a bit of Sound of Music thrown in.  

In our help with the invite, we decided to create a concert ticket. From the bar code to the guitar to 5 going on 6, it wrapped up all of the details in a pretty VIP bow!

                                                          

Then she also wanted a "fingerprint" for the party to tie everything together (food, favor bags, and the like). Using the invite as the jumping off point, we focused on the guitar (as the party had a music teacher led sing-a-long). Sound of Music lyrics, dots, and the like helped it to come together nicely.

We also encouraged her to use picnic baskets (those kids were always picnicking!) to hold food, green fabric on the floor in the eating area (grass of course), with low seating and Do Re Me suspended from the ceiling. 

I am so glad that we got a chance to revisit an old favorite and introduce it to other little ones who will love it just as much as us!

For the love of grandparents!

Grandparents are the best! I know some of my favorite memories are when I would visit my Gran and we would spend all day sewing, and talking. I even still have some of the books we read together of which I truly cherish.

When our little guest of honor Nynika visited her grandparents for the first time (all the way to India no less!), we knew it was important to make it super special! Set in a gracious tennis club, there were chevrons and damasks (family favorites of course!), and pink and lime green abound.

As the guests arrived they were greeted with drinks and yummy bites and found a place a resting place for their gifts. Complete with butterflies (is it really a girly party without butterflies?!), a crepe rosette bunting, as well as, chevron and lime running throughout it really set the cheery tone. Such an adorable way to begin their time with Nynika.

The guest tables were clearly a lovely sight! Covered chairs, layered linens, darling pots of fresh flowers..oh my! Such a beautiful way to meet their bundle of love for the first time.

The photo booth area was a hit with the younger set! They were so creative as they tried on various crowns, beards, glasses, brocade turbans, and such. I loved it how the kids hammed it up for the camera!

No party is ever complete without a gracious thank you to all of the guests.  The custom made boxes of chocolates hit just the right tone and left the guests savoring their time with their new little love.  It was lovely how the grandmom had even saved Nynika's mom's first doll and stroller! And so, there she was.. bidding adieu to the guests.

Overall, a sweet event for one adored little girl! Now I am off to go relive some of my favorite memories with my grandparents....What are some of yours?

naughty and nice..

A very fun shower was recently hosted for an angelic mom and a devilish dad-to-be to celebrate the arrival of their precious little baby girl. The theme was 'Angels and Demons' and we were called on to put together favors for the event.

As we learned that the new parents-to-be are foodies, we wanted the favors to reflect this as well. Pairing some devilishly good chocolate with some very healthy, 'angelic' nut mix, we kept true to the theme. The pairings were packaged in custom boxes.. the lids had sweet, cheery patterns and they all had a hint of pink to highlight the li'l girl on the way.
 

The hostess and most importantly, the preggie mamma LOVED what they say and we hear that there was a bit of a melee with the guests attempting to pick their fav boxes. 

Barca, Barca, Barca!

Parties to celebrate the special men in our lives can be such a challenge. My husband usually wants a low key birthday, but this year he made an exception. After a bit of thought, he decided that racing go carts would be an awesome way to spend some quality dude time. Knowing that he loves the Barcelona soccer team, I knew that it would be a very Barca party!

As the guests arrived, we had them check in at the Go Kart track and suit up. We listened to a safety video and then they were given these:

As a rule, the go kart track gives plain black head socks to wear underneath the helmet. Just to make it a bit more fun and personal, I went a couple days prior to the party and picked up our guests plain black head socks. Then, I fired up my handy dandy sewing machine and appliqued each of their names on them.  The guys really dug it and it turned out to be a perfect party favor!

It really was a fast and furious ride on the go karts! We did practice laps and then did a qualifying lap which gave us our poll position and then we had the final race. Everyone had a grand ole time and we finished off with a metal ceremony for the top 3 finishers. After all of that fun and burning rubber it was totally time for some nosh. We had all of Patrick's favorite foods- pizza, wings, Caesar salad, and garlic cheese bread, and of course beer. 

I wanted the dessert table to be a reflection of Patrick's favorite loves so I decorated it with his triathlon metals, favorite candy (I used his bike helmets as bowls), pictures of him, and thank you cards from the various patients he has helped over the years (he is a nurse). It was great to see his eyes light up as others would ask him about his various metals and competitions. We are just so proud of him! He recently traveled to Barcelona to see his favorite team compete (yes, he loves this team THAT much!) so I knew the cake had to honor some of the experiences he had there. I emailed a couple of pictures to this awesome bakery called the cake gallery  for his cake (we did a chocolate cake with fudge filling and white icing per Patrick's request). Not only did they do a fantastic job of depicting Patrick with his favorite player - Lionel Messi of course!, but they were even able to do a 3-D soccer ball that totally looked like the one he brought back for our sons. That cake was a total crowd pleaser.. sooo yummy! We also had another table with all of Patrick's college photos and honors throughout the years. Amazing to see a visual depiction of his journey throughout the years.

The guests also left with little mason jars of cake with the Barcelona crest on the top. Except for one of the guests who was a Real Madrid fan, so I made sure his favor had his favorite team on it instead!

As you can see we had a great time practicing our Ninja moves for the camera. All in all it was great fun and I know one special guy had a good time too :)

Bottles and Blockprinting!

We recently planned a lovely baby shower for Jamie, a glowing mom-to-be. Her request was that it be stylish and elegant with a bit of baby sprinkled in. And, that's exactly what we focused on.

Here is an adorable centerpiece from one of the tables. Love the wagon with presents and block art piece arrangement!

As it was a spring shower, we pulled hues from the season to create a cheery color story - lime, orange, turquoise and a touch of warm yellow. And, since she is a modern mom-to-be, the fingerprint for the event included a pair of baby bottles - clean, simple, bold and adorable! Lime and turquoise stripes framed the signage and ribbons in baby bottles added a nice accent. 

As the celebration got underway, the rooms were filled with a lot of love, laughter and conversation. It was a mid afternoon affair with a delicious menu that included freekeh salad, crudites and mini fromage blanc & grilled asparagus sandwiches from Bi Rite market.

Jamie loves bundt cakes, so we had this specialty bakery whip up some bundt-inis for the event! We arranged the bundt cakes on a tower and placed a larger cake on top with a beautiful peony topper. The guests simply adored the bundtinis! Especially the lemon.  Salted caramel, raspberry, and chocolate macaroons, short breads and luscious fruit skewers rounded off the dessert menu. The salted caramel macaroons were such a hit!

As the guests noshed, they wrote li'l notes for Jamie and the baby to be. The wishes for the baby had fill in the blanks that included "I hope you love...", "I hope you get...". Jamie's friends and family had great fun coming up with all sorts of inventive wishes! 

Jamie loves handcrafted items and loved the idea of her guests doing a block printing craft to welcome her new bundle of joy in style. The guests 'left their mark' on onesies, bibs and little t-shirts and had a collection of handmade wood blocks and rubber stamps to select from. After completing their work of art, the items were hung to dry on the tree so all of her guests could see the fruits of their labor.

We also engaged the guests in a very fun raffle that had them digging in their purses for blue credit cards, wet naps, pacifiers, gold keys and more!

In the end, it was a beautiful afternoon with loving friends and family. Jamie enjoyed every moment celebrating her bump and the baby that's on its way. And we absolutely loved planning every minute detail.

It's a merry Cars party!

Birthdays in our house have always been a big deal. I am totally in love with throwing parties, so this year when my son said he wanted a Pixar Cars party, I was so excited! I saw how he carried his little friend McQueen with him from day to night, so I knew he would really like a party dedicated to his best buddy. Here are some of what we did:

I opted for checkered sashes on the chairs with a table runner that was sewn to look like a road. The scene setter was a great backdrop for pictures and Aiden couldn't get over the lifesize Mcqueen!

For the table centerpiece, I found these fun printable letters that were a road theme, so I made large 'Aiden' lollipops out of paper and placed them in balloon weights to anchor them down. A simple but fun way to have an interesting table scape.

The dessert table was an extravaganza of all of Aiden's favorite things! Fruit, gum balls, lollipops, chocolate, cookies, etc. And cake of course!

 The route 66 signage was a throw back from the first movie and a trip we once did across country. The food had names inspired by the movie and all things related to cars (chocolate biscotti were dipsticks, rock candy on a stick were sir axle rods, etc).

Aiden is totally in love with the Dinoco version of McQueen so I knew he had to be part of the cake. I made this multiple layer extravaganza with white cake and lemon curd. The icing was butter cream and some of the layers were encased in fondant. A road running down it with some of Aiden's favorite characters completed the look. He couldn't wait to get his hands on his new little buddy. 

We made his bunting using checkered bunting and added a crepe paper element that was sewn so as to ruffle. On the signage itself we used the Cars font (Magneto) and if you look close you can see each letter has a road encircling it. So fun!

The drink table had a "Taste In" bunting (after Fillmore's Organic Fuel) and the table was topped with peace sign fabric. I found this cute little Dinoco label from the movie and knew I had to do something fun with it.What better than to make mini apple juice cans into oil drums! And the kids totally loved their Dinoco juice! The tower was made out of a couple of boxes wrapped in craft paper and styled with Aiden's logo and checkered flags. We also had orange juice, milk, and for the young at heart some leaded fuel (aka Starbucks espresso shots). The drinks were paired with black and white paper straws which added a nice touch.

Sarge's Supply Hut housed the favor boxes which were little race tracks with cars and checkered flag with each child's name. Each favor box was individualized to the child's interests (sewn car rolls for the automobile obsessed, dress up tutus for the girls who were into princesses, invisible writing sets for school age kids, etc). Each guest also received a booklet titled "Aiden's Favorite Things" which talked about his favorite things, had some activity pages, a CD with songs he liked, and pictures of all of the party guests (because they are Aiden's favorites too!).

We had all of the food at Flo's V8 cafe. I read somewhere that when designing the Flo's V8 cafe sign, they wanted the sign to be reminiscent of an air filter.  The woman at the auto parts store was super kind with helping me find just the right one to compliment the Flo's V8 cafe sign I made. Aiden liked it so much that he wanted it for his room!

This was a breakfast time event, so all of the food was centered around that. We had mini leaning towers of tires (Luigi's Special), quiche, hash brown in diner boats with a Flo's logo sticker, fruit kabobs, cereal (spare tires), muffins (I used one of Aiden's racetracks to arrange them), and yogurt parfaits. There were also other sundry cookies, breads, and the like. The wrapped flatware had napkin rings that had a road pattern on them and were placed in an oil pan.

Then on to the games! We had car races using Aiden's blue track (www.blutrack.com) which did a loop d'loop. One of the older kids loved manning the checkered flag at the finish line. Above is a picture of the leader board that we made with all the kids names on it. They kept going up to the board and pointing out who they wanted to race next (soo cute!). After the races, we had a medal ceremony for the winners (essentially everyone!) where the parents were the paparazzi and the kids posing in front of the scene setter.

Over at Ramone's body shop we had all kinds of fun!

The kids painted wooden cars and got Cars tattoos. The day before the party Aiden and I made the Ramone's cardboard cut out together (you can see a bit of it in the background). They also had a little area for Izzy's Curio shop where they decorated 'license plates' (foam rectangles with stickers, stamps, alphabet letters, etc). We also did a McQueen pinata (the pull kind as most of the kids here were younger). We also converted a train table into a racetrack with some motorized cars and characters from the movie. There was never a dull moment!

Then we had various decor elements to round out the rest of the space..all car themed of course!

All in all it was a really fun party and all of the kids had a great time. It was wonderful to see my son's eyes light up when he saw his favorite movie come to life. All in all totally worth it and can't wait to see what strikes his fancy for next year!