Saturday, January 3, 2015

Olivia's 5th Birthday Party!

December is always a hectic month for us.  Not only is Charlie's B-Day on the 6th, but it is also O's on the 9th followed by Christmas.  This is why I was determined that baby #2 be born in the summer, LOL!
This year for Charlie's B-Day I planned a night out on the town in Philadelphia meeting up with my Brother Chris and Sister-in-Law Erica, who flew in from Cali for a two week stay.  Not only were they here for all the birthdays, but they also became God Parents to both our children when they were baptized at St Joseph's Catholic Church on the 14th.
This year I had a hard time deciding what to do for O's 5th B-Day party.  Last year we did a Nutcracker theme by having a Sugar Plum Fairy Party at a play place.  O really wanted to have a party at the movie theater, but it quickly became too expensive.  I tried convincing her to do a bowling party, but she really wanted something girly.
One night while reading her favorite book Pinkalicious during bed time, I told her that we should make pink cupcakes for her B-Day.  She was so excited by that thought, that I immeditely said lets do a Pinkalicious themed B-Day party at our house!  "Oh yes" she screamed!  That night I began brainstorming about all the different games the kids could play, along with decor I could make,  Pinterest once again gave me inspiration.  What would I do without that website?  Granted, when I came up with this idea it was only days before the Disney Cruise and I didn't start planning or preparing until after Thanksgiving, leaving me only two weeks to get everything done for her party.


First project was the invitations.  I made these on microsoft word, the Pinkalicious girl was copied and pasted from a google search.  Charlie printed the invites at work and then I cut them and pink card stock, which were adhered with scrapbooking tape.  The invite was finished with a little gold glitter on Pinkalicious's crown and star wand.  On the envelope O helped me place puffy stickers that were these cute cupcakes, sundaes, and candies.  But, be warned,  don't mail puffy stickers on your envelopes because the post office charges extra!
The invites took longer to make than I would have liked, especially when you have to make thirty of them.  Finally I got them out, leaving me only a week in a half to craft and get all I needed for the party, as my Brother and Sister-in-law came into town.
Out of some kind of Christmas miracle I finished all my projects, got all the supplies, and made all the food in time.  The bit of decor I made was a circle garland, created by tracing and cutting circles out on card stock and then hot glueing to bakers twine.  I made pink garland for the pink food table and green garland for the green antidote food table.



I just love these puff balls, which were graciously hung along with tulle by Erica and Chris.



 Pinata cupcake that was later smashed by the kiddos


 The puff balls were so pretty! I ended up hanging them in O's bedroom along with some pink tulle after the party was over.


 I made 27 pink cupcakes for cupcake decorating.  We moved most of the furniture and toys down to the basement and installed two huge picnic tables from Charlie's work.


 I also made these foam tirara wands by taping them on a stick with pink glitter tape.


Next I made star wands, using star cookie cutters to trace stars on yellow foam.  I would place the stick and pink ribbon on top of a foam star, apply hot glue, and press another star over.  Erica glittered the outside of the stars.  Green ribbon was used for all the boys, in case they were allergic to pink. ;)  These star wands took a long time to make.  I made 30 for the party, unfortunately it seemed the girls were more interested in the tiara wands.



 For the gift bags I stamped every child's name on a pink lunch bag. My stamps came from a Disney princess set, O wanted to help stamp a crown or Cinderella carriage on every bag.  I placed pink bubble gum and green mint M&M's/green antidote in every bag.  The kids also got to take home as much candy they could gather when the pinata was smashed.




 I also made a book mark for the gift bag.  How appropriate is a book mark when the party is based off a book!  I used a quote from the book, along with the Pinkalicious girl.  Like the invites, Charlie printed these out at work and laminated them.


Gift bags are ready to go!  The night before O's B-Day we all stayed up late doing last minute decorations and preparations.  The next morning was like Christmas for her, she was so excited to see all the final decorations.  I told her a party fairy put it all together, I wish!



The pink area!




Green Antidote food, to counter all the pink food
Icky Green Relish= Split Pea Soup
My homemade guacomole was a hit as always
Drink station


O's B-Day cake and cup cake
My Rice Crispy Treat stars on sticks didn't hold up and started to fall apart, boo!

I cannot believe she is turning 5!


 On our front door I made a laminated sign warning people that we are a family infected with Pinkititus.  Finding a good looking pink cupcake graphic is harder than you would think!





 Before all the festivities I asked all the children how many have read the Pinkalicious book.  Only a few hands came up, so I read the story to 18 children under the age of 6.  I wasn't sure I was going to hold their attention, but O was really into it, helping me recite parts of the book (she pretty much knows the story by heart).  Someone even told Cha that I was brave trying to read a book to that many kids.

Loving a story she has heard a million times


 Now onto the game, "pin the cherry on the cupcake"!  I made the cup cake from foam and added gold glitter and used some left over pink tulle to decorate.  I cut stems out of card stock and glued them to pink foam circles for the cherries.


 Jake won pin the cherry on the cupcake with the closest placement on top of the cherry.


 O and the kids really seemed to be into the game, I wasn't sure if they would since it is so old school.  Some games are just classic.



After everyone had a turn at pin the cherry on the cupcake it was time for cupcake decorating.  Since my house is so small and we had so many kids, I wanted them to be entertained and busy with activities and games at all times.  The kids really seemed to be into decorating!

You know when the tongue comes out there is
precision decorating going on. 



Silly Alexis
She really looks like Pinkalicious here, just needed her star wand!
 O's very good friend, Ella
Time for cake!  The cake was a dark chocolate with raspberry
filling and raspberry butter cream frosting from Simply Sweet Cupcakes.
It was so yummy, as always!
The kids wanted to eat their cupcakes, leaving lots of yummy cake
for the adults, couldn't have worked out better for us!
The final activity and maybe one of the favorites was the pinata.  For O's first B-Day we used an owl pinata, which Cha held.  This time I thought it might be wise to hang the pinata from a flag pole that Charlie would hold so that there was more distance from him and the swinging stick.  As I took pics from a safe distance on the stairs I saw Cha take a couple whacks to the knees.  It was hard not to laugh, thank goodness they are only toddlers.

Niko giving it a try
Deborah is not so sure
Alexis gave a few whacks
Jake tried to hit it with his star wand, ha!
Henry in mid swing
Olivia was loving it
Emma hit it good!
Greyson went for it
Kelsy did a great job!
Juliana hitting it hard.
O gave it a go
I love Ella's face!
Alina did her best!
I was trying to get a shot of everything, but instead
got a great shot of the flag pole, ha!
Steven was the one to break the cupcake!
Candy galore!
Luz digging into her cupcake
Aunt Erica and Uncle Chris, love these two!


 Everyone is gone, time to dig in and open presents!  O loved everything she got and Thea, her cousin, had no problem helping her open everything.

Sweet baby Luz is love!

O's favorite movie and maybe Thea's too!
Bubbles and Tinkerbell all in one= Pure Bliss

 Time to shoot the confetti blaster outside to commemorate a succesful party and Happy Happy 5th Birthday to our sweet Olivia!




 Uncle Chad reading the girls a princess book.  I am so glad Thea and Luz made it down for part of the party.  O and Thea are like kindered spirts and it is so fun to watch them play together.


When everyone was gone I took one last pic of the party before Cha started to rip it down.  I  convinced him to leave up some of the decor for another day, it was just so hard to say goodbye after all that hard work.  A couple of parents at the party thought I did this for a living.  Deborah's father said, "this was the party of the year!" and that I need to try out for America's Got Talent.  All the praise felt really good and was great to hear,  although as a career it is not in the cards with a baby in the house, especially when I know how much work goes into it!  Honestly, I worked harder for this party in two weeks than all the years I did work.   O seemed super happy with her party, even asking the next day "could all my B-Day's be a Pinkalicious party?"  Yes baby, of course! ;)