6 sounded like a good year to have a carnival/circus themed party! This was probably one of the easier ones to put together because items were easy to find, costumes I found early, and a dear friend had sent me … Continue reading
Since I did a fairy themed party when my daughter turned 3… that meant it was my one opportunity to do a boy-themed party… whoohooo! Robot it was! For the centerpieces, I found these Valentine Boxes from Oriental Trading – which of course I bought after V-day for much cheaper. Came in a dozen, I only used 5 though. But they were super cute and easy to put together with adhesive foam. I put a small vase inside to weight it down and with a styrofoam piece inside the vase, I was able to make the toppers.
I saw a robot from cardboard on Pinterest and thought… I could do that! The hardest part was finding all the pieces. More details on how this robot came to life here.
A party is not a party without a watermelon carving! Saw this idea on Pinterest as well. 🙂
We were hoping for a transformer pinata… but couldn’t find one… so Iron mad had to do!
The bakery from Ranch Events did an amazing job as usual!
For the crafts, I couldn’t resist these adorable little ceramic robot piggy banks! 12 for $20. I bought a set of Owls for any girls who didn’t want to paint a Robot. The kids enjoyed it.. but I think adults had more fun with them!
Lastly, our lovely photobooth, designed by Snapshots Moments. Check out how I put together the backdrop here.
I first saw this on Pinterest here and totally thought it would be the perfect way to backdrop the photobooth this year.
I bought a little bit more than I needed to start. … but ultimately used 3 table covers and two banners from Walmart. Didn’t cost more than a total of $7
The longest part was probably the cutting. The strips were about 3 inches wide and the braids were maybe 3 inches down. I’m pretty good at braiding so that was easy, although my arms were sore from being in the upward position for so long. Haha.
I have to admit. It looked pretty cool once it was all braided and the colors mixed together.
Add the banners… and there you have it. I contemplated doing the fans at first…. but I didn’t want to take from the photobooth template. So I kept the backdrop simple.
Looks good! I’m definitely going to do this again! Different colors!
This year, my nanny was able to head down to Tijuana and pick up this HUGE, and I mean, HUGE pinata for only $13. It looked amazing, but then I thought… crap. what am I going to fill it up with!?!?
I always high up the after Easter sale at Target to pick up the candy for my kids’ parties (stock up for May and July no prob). But I thought this year, it would be good to do a larger filler for the pinata. I saw these balls filled up with a pinata before at a local store…. so I went on eBay and found a listing for 50 of these 4.5 inch “knobby” balls for $19.99! Had to pay $10 shipping… but still!
Got a foot pump at our local Ace Hardware store for $10. Which I could probably use in long run for other things anyways.
It was total success! For a bunch of kids 6 and under… they were totally happy with all the balls that came bouncing out of the pinata unexpectedly.
Definitely going to do that one again!
Check out pix of my lil guy helping to fill the pinata. Heehee.
For V’s 4th birthday this year, I had my heart set on a superhero theme. Its all about superheroes right now, so why not do a girly pink version!? It really started out when I was shopping online and just happened to find her the cutest WonderWoman costume in metallic pink for $11 on Tanga. Score! From there, all the planning began. The centerpiece above came from a template I bought on Etsy. Kept it simple on the centerpieces on this one because there was a lot more work that went into the capes and goodies. But add a little bold colored tissue and we were good to go!
Goodness – it is hard to find girl-related superhero stuff for the goody bags! BUT! I did buy this bottle cap kit on Ebay… plus the Hello Kitty superhero bottle cap template on Etsy and the necklaces on Amazon… and BAM – a cute ass gift for all our little girly guests. For the other stuff in the goody bags/pinata – I usually stock up from the After-Halloween and After-Easter sales at Target. Can’t beat 50% off! So I already had a load of spiderman crayon sets, erasers, etc.
 
The main gift to our guests were the custom capes! So I had purchased a bunch of felt by the yard through Joanna (with coupons of course!) then had them cut into capes with a template I found through Pinterest. I also found a template for the masks as well. With the scraps, we just cut out random shapes for the kids to pick from. Whenever a guest arrived, I let them pick out the color cape and logo shape… then I cut their initial freehand on adhesive felt sheets from Walmart. I did a quick hot glue gun of all the pieces and there you have it! 😉
For the goody bags themselves, I got a bunch of these 3-packs for $1 each at walmart, then ambitiously decided to freehand the Superman logo on each one with puffy fabric paint and each kid’s initial. I know… too ambitious.
For our fruit display, it was hard to think of something superhero related to carve out of a watermelon – so I kept it simple with just V’s initial and logo. Then my mom made a backdrop of buildings behind it.
Again – it was a little more challenging to do a girly version of a superhero party as all the pinatas I found were all boy heroes! Geez. so I saw this Lollapaloosy one hanging and thought – hey, I can totally rig this! She already had cool boots on and that apron front. So we got her home and added a cape, mask and chest logo.
When I saw this photography backdrop on Etsy, I was SOLD. It was perfect! I saw different versions of ideas for homemade backdrops on Pinterest. But in all honesty, I was short on time and definitely knew we could get more use out of this backdrop for other purposes anyways. I got some printables used throughout the party and as props in the photobooth in a set from Etsy. As you can see below, my daughter loves the photobooth. The kids had a blast!
 
Lastly, for the cake design, I went with the skyscraper going all around the cake. Topped with a Hello Kitty Wonderman and it was perfect for our girly superhero party!
Ahhhh… what a success the party was. I thought superhero was probably the most fun as our adult guests got into the spirit of dressing up as well. I found my son’s shirt at Old Navy and re-used his custom cape from last Halloween. For my own outfit, I purchased a Wonderwoman tanktop on Etsy, but handmade the tulle skirt myself. For the crown, I cut out the shape on a yellow foam and glued it to a hair clip. Looking foward to recycling this theme back around in 2 years when the lil’ man turns 4. For now, it all sits boxed up in my garage. Good times. 🙂
When V’s preschool sent home a letter about their upcoming carnival and inquiring for parent volunteers… I thought “FUN!!” I instantly thought that it would be a great time to take a stab at face painting!
I went over to Amazon to read some reviews on face painting kits and settled with Face Painting book by Klutz that features Wolfe brand paint. Today was my first trial with the kids – freehanded it all. They were excellent guinea pigs for my artwork and totally excited about getting painted. I was equally excited, considering the last time we were at SeaWorld, we paid $12 for just a basic design! Hmph. No more of that. Tempted to bring my kit with me next time and paint them before we even get into any darn amusement park! Ha! Take that!!
The book had some basics and easy stuff that I’ll be able to duplicate for a group of preschoolers. But I went to Pinterest to get more of the ideas on super hero related ones for boys. Started a Face Painting Pinterest Board for it too of course!
The paint was so easy to use and easy to clean up. It’s water-based though, so it did start to look crazy after V was playing around the house for a bit and started sweating. But other than that, it was a good buy. The carnival is this Thursday…. Can’t wait! Gosh, if I wasn’t so busy being the hostest with the mostest at my kids’ bday parties, I’d be sitting there doing face painting for sure. Guess all my family members are gonna score when they all have kids and parties!
With my son just turning 2, it was time to recycle back the safari theme we had 2 years ago. Ahhh, I love recycling themes – one less thing to have to creatively think about. Especially since that last Superhero party was a lot of prep work! This time around, I just brought down our “safari box” and most of the decor and crafts were already to go. I even had left over goody bag/pinata toys because I had bought one of the bulk sets from Oriental Trading last time. Yeehawww. More money saved.
Well… let’s just rewind here for a moment. In 2011 – when my daughter turned 2. We had a safari themed birthday party for her. In all honesty, the theme was selected around a cute tutu outfit that I had found for her 2 year photos. Hot pink zebra animal print!? YES! Ok – safari theme it is! 😉
Here is the outfit that inspired the whole theme:
Centerpieces came mostly from the little tin buckets for $1 a piece at Target at the time, and I purchased a DIY Printable Party Pack for the paper decor items (being that I’m so photoshop-inclined… or kinda just lazy).
For the fruit display, I had my mom do an alligator head. This was her first try at it – not bad! (but for my son’s party this year, she scored a perfectly long watermelon that really suited the purpose – see further below).
For the kids crafts, we had: Design your own binoculars, Design your own safari hat, and Create a safari door hanger (foam with stickers)
For our “photo op” I found this standup jeep prop from BirthdayExpress.com
I went for just a simple pink animal print cake. We get our cakes from our favorite hidden gem: Renaissance Bakery (part of Ranch Events Catering)
I love that our family and friends like to get into the spirit of a “themed” birthday party! Makes it more fun for all!
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Fast forward to 2013 – it was time for the Safari, Round 2.
This year my mom went searching early for a long shaped watermelon for our alligator and she found one! She even added some legs this year. 🙂
I reuse my old glass vases a lot for my centerpieces (they were leftovers from my wedding and come at $2 a piece at Michaels). Why not use them? They get covered up by whatever theme we are doing anyways. Again, I got a Printable Party Pack from Etsy. Add in his birthday photo and some stickers and waaaaalaaa! 
Eeek! When I saw these safari PJ’s from Old Navy – I immediately knew it would be his perfect outfit for the party! I had put in our invitation for guests to come dressed in their best animal print. So it was just right that he had on this shirt. And he loved wearing a pair of binoculars around that day as well.
Since we started doing photobooths at our parties last year, I definitely wanted to incorporate the same Jeep standup prop. Then the photobooth template was designed to match his cake. I found some animal masks on clearance to use for props! Thank you Snapshot Moments for designing the template… it was a collabo with our Happy Endings Photography set-up. 🙂
Speaking of the cake! I didn’t want to get lazy and just go for a blue animal print cake, so I combed Pinterest looking for ideas and came up with this:
Crafts to keep the kids busy included Building your own compass, Magic Scratcher, Color your own binoculars, and Design your own Safari Hat. That hats were actually more like the ‘sailor’ hats – found them on clearance on Oriental Trading a while back for super cheap. Add some fabric markers from Walmart and we were good to go! The hats were probably the kids favorite of the crafts, along with the Magic Scratcher.
All in all, I’d day both parties were a huge success. The kids had fun, the adults had fun, but most importantly, my guest of honor always had a huge smile on their face. And that my friend, makes all the planning and hard work worth it.
Now, time to start brainstorming for next year! I’m thinking Disney for V’s 5th, and I’m just dying to do a robot theme for K’s 3rd! No recycling for him next year because we did “Fairies and Wizards” when V turned 3… and I don’t want to go the fairy route for my lil’ man. hehe.
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