Big Boy Birthday

Last week, my adorable husband turned 30. I asked if he wanted a date night, a small gathering, a party, or just to forget about it. Surprisingly, he wanted a party!

The party planner in me was thrilled, but what do you do for a 30th birthday?? We planned the party for the afternoon of a Clemson home game and invited friends and family over to watch the game and eat. It was a beautiful day, so we ended the night with a bon-fire as well.

Decorating for a 30th isn't easy, but we stuck to the number 30, and the colors blue, orange, and gray.

A little photo collage as the number "30" showed of my favorite photos of Hubby. He's changed a lot in the last 10 years!

Some little streamer/banners added a pop of color as well.

I used my silhouette to cut out circles of the three colors, then just sewed them together! 

I didn't want it to look like the cake was on fire, so we settled for three candles instead of 30.

He had help from his favorite little girl to blow out his candles!

He said it was the perfect birthday. All of his friends and family were there, the Tigers won, and the food was great.

I hope he has many more, even happier birthdays for us to share together!

Free Printable: Fishing Party Favors

Here are the FREE printable goodie bag toppers from our Fishing Birthday Party.

One topper has a very faint gray line in the middle of the graphic. This is a guide for folding, and will not show once you have actually assembled your bags. (I put it there for me, and decided to leave it.)

Just fold the topper tent-style over the top of your goodie bag and staple it closed. Easy peasy!

Click Here to Download 

A "Reely" Good Time: Fishing Birthday Party

I have made it through the terrible, horrible realization that my baby boy is growing up. He turned ONE this past weekend, and is no longer my tiny tiny little baby.

To celebrate, we threw him a fishing birthday party. He LOVES goldfish (what baby doesn't??), but we didn't want to do the "goldfish" theme.

With blues, greens, reds, and browns we made a sweet little fishing theme for him to celebrate with our family and his baby friends.

The most important part of any birthday party is the cake right?

Especially if you're turning one. You need a SMASH CAKE!

His smash cake was 2 layers of chocolate and strawberry cake with blue frosting. Tiny pretzel fish circled the bottom of the cake, while a bobber, and a small pennant banner decorated the top.

I used my silhouette to make the "1" for the bobber.

Everyone else enjoyed cupcakes. Blue icing topped the cupcakes as well as either a little pretzel fish, or a circular cupcake topper.

The cupcake toppers are simply a piece of scrapbook paper glued to a stick, with an additional circle glued on top with a birthday message. Easy to make a looks cute on a cupcake tower.

I was lucky to find some really great woodgrain scrapbook paper to go along with our theme.

Additional bobbers and some fishing net were also used to decorate the cupcake tower.

Scrapbook paper is your friend when decorating. It's easy to find the patterns and colors you need with hundreds to choose from. A simple pennant banner adds lots of color and is easy to  make.

A banner of pictures was strung for guests to see our "incredible unchanging baby". We laugh because baby boy has changed hardly at all since he was born, except being a little less squishy.

I used the monthly pictures I took of him to make the banner. It was sometimes hard to remember to take the pictures, but we ended up with 12!

For a little snack we had some "cat tails" right off of the water. They are chocolate dipped marshmallows and were a yummy addition to our lunch.

 

The favors were of course Goldfish crackers. I made the printables for the bag toppers. I will be sharing those as a FREE printable shortly!

I took the ribbon off our year-round wreath and added another pennant banner and a "1" for baby boy.

I even found these super-tiny bobbers at the hardware store for some added sweetness.

Baby boy had such a good time at his party. His family and friends shared food, laughs, and fun on a chilly January day. I just need time to slow down just a little bit before he has another one of these....

Sprinkle Party

Somehow....someway....this beautiful little girl turned 3 years old. It seems like she should still be the tiny little redhead, obsessed with her Daddy and shoes. While she is still obsessed with those things, her world has expanded and she learns so much every day!

 

She is one of the funniest people I've ever met, and the things she knows at the tiny age of 3 is amazing. She is incredibly smart, well spoken, kind to her baby brother, and such a beautiful person all around.

To celebrate her birthday, we wanted a theme that she would LOVE! One of her favorite things in the world is SPRINKLES!! What 3 year old doesn't love sprinkles. So a sprinkle themed party is was.

 

A few hours at the computer and I was able to get her invitations just how I wanted them. A rainbow of cascading sprinkle goodness.

 

The décor was multicolored and fun.

My Parent's beautiful gardens provided an extra pop of color too.

 

Baby girl didn't choose her birthday. She was born on one of the hottest days of the year. Our friends and family melted through the party with us...as did the cupcakes! They were dripping with sprinkles, and melting in the heat.

 

Sugar sprinkled strawberries were cool and sweet.

 

And we couldn't forget her favorite...Sprinkle Cookies!!

 

She made a wish (a good one I hope) and blew out her candles.

 

I made her dress using THIS pattern and some sweet "sprinkly" fabric from Simply Color for Moda.

 

Gray wasn't the only entertainment. We had some baby friends there too! Brayden and his cousin Abigail spent some sweet time together.

 

The birthday girl enjoyed opening presents from her friends.

 

Gray taught Abigail and thing or two about opening presents.

How cute are cousins together???

 

Baby brother watched from the sidelines. Maybe we should get him his own chair...the pink doesn't suit him.

 

She loved her party and playing with all of her friends and family!

 

This little girl lights up our world with her joyful personality. She is my little firecracker.

 

While I'm sad that she's getting so big so fast, I love watching her grow and learn.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!

A Nautical Shower

I just realized that I never posted pictures from my beautiful baby shower to welcome Baby Boy into the family! It was thrown by my aunt, sis-in-law, and cousin-in-law and so many wonderful ladies of the family and church were able to come.

 

It's a good thing the shower was held on the date it was...one more week and I wouldn't have been able to attend! Brayden was born 5 days after the shower! He surprised us a little bit by coming earlier than expected...

 

His nursery has a Nautical Theme, so the girls kept the theme going with the shower too.

 

I loved all of the decorations. It's hard to decorate in a HUGE church hall, but they made it super cute!

 

I think I took 10 of these little favors for Gray to eat. The girl loves her jellybeans...

 

The corkboard had notes next to it, so each guest could write a little something to Brayden for the board. There were such sweet things left on it when it was time to go home.

 

The name board looks great in his nursery.

 

There was so much attention to detail. The "life-savers", fishing nets...

 

And little sea creatures too!

 

It was unseasonable warm the day of the shower (in January!) so I got to pull out a dress I wore when I was pregnant with Gray!

 

Unwrapping tiny baby things is so much fun. I love going to baby showers too just to see the tiny clothes, soft blankets, and sweet little toys.

 

And of course the food was wonderful. When you're 9 months pregnant, seeing your favorite fruits, snacks, and of course, cupcakes will make your day!

 

It was such a special time and so much fun to prepare to welcome our sweet little boy. He turned two months old this week! Yikes!

They grow up way to fast.

A Baby Boy Shower

One of my best friends is having her first baby, a little boy, due just a few weeks after my little man is due! Of course we had to throw her a shower to get some adorable boy things. She is obsessed with monograms, so we wanted to have a personalization shower to get some fun things with her baby's name on them.

Lots of blues for this shower!

And plenty of diaper cakes to go around! (you can never have too many diapers)

Find my diaper cake tutorial HERE

I love the onesie clothesline...

Here's me and the bestie...just three weeks apart! Our boys are going to be great playmates...and I have a feeling that Gray will be their boss!

Opening lots of wonderful gifts.

I wanted baby boy to have a quilt made with love. I used the Reunion line by Sweetwater for most of the fabrics, as well as a few fabrics from my stash. It's such a fun collection of prints that say "Boy" without being baby-ish.

I had one square embroidered with his name before putting the quilt together.

There was also a diaper station, to write fun messages on some diapers. There were definitely some that made me laugh!

It was a fun shower and I was so happy I could help with it. The other two hostesses were wonderful, and we had a great time planning this special time for our girlfriend. Now, we wait for HER little man to get here too!