35 Years of Adventure Party

This year my hubby turned 35.  We keep his parties pretty low key, at his request.  He is certainly the adventuresome type, though having a young family and a busy job have really limited his adventures lately.  He is also an avid fan of National Geographic.  I put these all together to make the theme for his birthday celebration. 

Here is the invite I sent out to let everyone know when to stop by.  I used my photoshop skills on this one, but there are websites out there where you can add your own photo to a magazine cover if you want to make your own. 

We kept the food simple- a doughnut tower for a "cake" and hot chocolate & wassail for drinks. 

I used neutrals with Nat. Geo Yellow to accent.  Thank heavens for scrapbook paper!  On the wood wall I hung paper with sticky tack, and the little banner across the table front is jute, clothespins, and squares of paper.  

The party was held in a partially finished basement, which gave quite a blank slate for a backdrop.  The rest of the decor also doubled as the party activity.  I found pictures of his adventures from when he was a little guy up to now.  I hadn't planned on how heavy 100+ pictures and clothespins could be.  I had to tack in little finishing nails to hold the jute I clipped them to.

 When our guests arrived they enjoyed their food while browsing the photos and keeping the Birthday Boy busy answering questions and telling stories about the pictures that caught their interest.  It was really fun!

I didn't want all the memories to leave him longing for the adventures of the past, so for his gift I made him up a set of adventure passes.  He can redeem these throughout the year for fun activities he wants to enjoy.

Birthday Bash Beach Party

Wow! I really got carried away from blogging this summer, but we have been having lots of fun.  Today I am sharing some pictures and details from the Beach Bash Birthday party we hosted last month.  I love seeing all the party ideas out there and finding inspiration for planning my own.

The Decor

The dessert table had the bulk of the decor.  I hung paper lanterns from the patio umbrella and trees, and made a backdrop out of ruffled plastic tablecloths.

The table was laid with a caramel colored tablecloth,  Squares of burlap layered as a runner,  and dollar store seashells arranged by my 4 year old. :)

The Activities
These are also part of the decor, I can't resist getting the biggest bang for my buck and most things at this party served a dual purpose.  We put our sand table behind the treat table with pails and shovels. You can't have a beach bash without sand!  This allowed the ruffle streamers to backdrop the sand play and the colors helped set the ambiance.

 

We had almost one dozen beach balls to add to the color and the fun.   We sent them home as party favors.

The Food

Of course, the food served as decor too.  I used the Nordicware Castle Pan to make a sandcastle cake.  I mixed a vanilla cake mix and a spice cake.  Next time I will just stick with the vanilla.  It got a bit darker than I'd anticipated in the bundt pan.  It was perfect inside, however. 

 I invested in a starfish shaped chocolate mold to decorate the sandcastle cake and some of the cupcakes.  I used peanut butter chips to fill the molds.    I frosted all the cupcakes with a basic vanilla icing and then rolled them in crushed graham crackers.  I tried to leave the very top of the starfish cupcakes free of crumbs to help the starfish stick.  If you are going to transport them consider mounting them to toothpicks to help them stay in place.   We did use 1/2 toothpicks on the other cupcakes to keep the gumballs in place.  My kids had a lot of fun helping decorate these.  I love that they are foolproof enough that the kids can help and I am still happy with the end result. 

 If you do a party using any of these ideas, I would love to see it! 

Scrabble Party

Today we celebrated my Grandmother's 87th birthday. This spunky little lady loves to play Scrabble. As a matter of fact, we play it nearly every Sunday evening. So when it was time to plan the birthday celebration, we went with the Scrabble theme.

We started by making a banner using the font named Tilez. We enlarged the font so one letter fit per page, adjusted the margins so the letters were centered, and printed on appropriately colored cardstock. Then we took a regular hole punch, some 7/8 inch satin ribbon, and threaded the whole thing up. We simply taped together her name for the vertical tiles, since it was short and the majority of it hung below and needed no support.
We wanted to keep it simple, so we assigned everyone to bring their own pizza and drinks. We provided tossed salad and dessert.
My mom was awesome and made Scrabble cookies and cupcakes that had all the letters to spell "Happy Birthday Grandma"
We asked everyone to come with a token/gift to give Grandma that represented a memory of her. It was a hoot, I would highly recommend it for a Parent or Grandparent's birthday. Some examples included:

• An Easter egg decoration from a granddaughter who cherished making Sugar Eggs together.
  
• A can of aquanet from some grandsons who asked for hairspray and learned all about aerosol!
• A pair of gardening gloves from a granddaughter who remembered long mornings in the raspberry patch.
• A basket of fresh baked bread and homemade jam from a son who remembered coming home from school to those handcrafted treats.
• Reusable shopping bags from a granddaughter who remembers weekly shopping trips, and how Grandma would ask for paper in plastic, to get the sturdiness of paper and the handles of plastic.

Decorative Votives

Another fun idea for decorating a party. Remember to go with battery operated lights to make these worry free.

Here are the instructions for wine glass lanterns


And here are instructions for hanging jar lanterns

Ice votives & serving dishes

So this is a fun idea for any event.

Here is a basic "recipe" at kidsregen.org
Or try this one with better description of how to get the details right. Pictures included!