Mad Hatter Tea Party

   

A couple of months ago, my daughter Annie took it upon herself to memorize the poem "The Jabberwocky." She really loves reading Lewis Carroll. So we began discussing ideas for her 13th birthday party, and when the idea of a mad hatter tea party came up she wouldn't let it go. I personally loved the idea because I already had everything I needed in my party supplies. A giant table: check. Lots if mis-matched chairs: check. Oodles of paper lanterns: double check. 

I kept the table decor simple with a runner down the middle. I borrowed some tea pots from a friend and filled in with some of my own. Hanging over the table I used a lamp shade skeleton and hung vintage playing cards from fishing line to make it appear as if they were cascading down to the middle of the table. 

We filled the cute "drink me" bottles with raspberry lemonade punch (recipe: can of pink lemonade concentrate, bottle raspberry soda, some water and ice).

Aren't my hot air balloon lanterns adorable? My girls also made direction signs for the tree. Because nothing makes sense in Wonderland.

Last minute we decided to do an activity. I quickly scanned Pinterest and found this tutorial to make mini mad hatter hats. 

http://www.desumama.com/mad-hatter-tea-party-hat-tutorial

The girls got so creative and worked on them for almost an hour! They turned out so cute.

Annie's wearing one we had already. We put the hats on headbands and the girls loved them.

Pink lemonade cakes. A bhg recipe I saw last summer and happened to clip and save. Annie actually requested pink lemonade cake so I was excited to finally try the recipe. I actually made six cute little bundts but could only get three out intact. So glad I did backup cupcakes. They were tasty!

Annie leading her friends in "happy birthday."

Teenager parties are so much easier than younger parties. The girls entertained themselves! I even got to go inside and lay down for a bit 😌

                 Happy party planning!

                            Lindsey

Nautical Baby Shower

I know what you're thinking...can she get away from the nautical theme?  And the answer is "no!".  Not when I find adorable vintage nautical fabric at the D.I..  When I found out my friend was expecting a boy, I quickly volunteered to throw the shower.  I love parties, and already had this idea circulating in my head.

My darling friend Becky designed these sweet invitations for me...

I had an adorable life-preserver wreath on my front door to greet guests that said "Ahoy".  This is a picture of the wreath that inspired mine.

The food.  Note the to-die-for fabric that I'm using as a table cloth.  And there's that fun boat dish again.

Isn't it berry cute?

For the cake, I used a yellow box cake mix and made it richer by using butter instead of oil, milk instead of water, and added an extra egg.  Then I made a yummy lemon cream cheese frosting from this recipe.

Can't take credit for the cute napkin idea...stole it from this site.

And these delicious sandwiches were the hit of the party.  Here's where to find the recipe.

I decided to keep the decorations simple, and just did a wall above my entertainment credenza.  We moved our t.v., then used the space for gifts.  My wooden whale stayed up, and I added wooden sailboat I found at D.I. for 75 cents.

I also happened to have a cute little sailor baby outfit in my stash of gifts, and decided that it could double as a decoration.  The picture was just a frame I had...I wrapped some cardboard in nautical paper for the backdrop and added a little "baby" bunting.

I'm not usually a "game" person at showers, but we did play a couple of fun ones that weren't too obnoxious.    And I really wish I had taken photos!  But I was too in the moment.  The first game we cut up photos of the parents to be and created mash-up babies, inspired by this shower.

 

We also did a price-is-right game similar to this:

Posed for a quick photo with the cute movie-star mommy when all was said and done.  This is my "I don't have a double chin" look:)

Happy party planning!

Lindsey

Aaargh! 'Tis a Pirate Party!

I'm sad that my youngest daughter is no longer into princesses (boo-hoo!). Instead of a typical girly party for a normal little girl turning six, she decided she wanted to have a pirate party. Mostly because she wanted to invite her boyfriends. Ugh. At least it was a theme I could get behind. Who doesn't love talking like a pirate?? Aaargh!

My first go-to when planning a party is Pinterest. If you don't know what Pinterest is, you NEED to check it out. It has become my recipe box among other things, and a great place to gather ideas and websites with tutorials. I found these cute invites for free and printed them on cardstock. Here is the link. They had more printables than just the invites. I also printed off the little sails and flags I used on the orange boats (pictured later).

Overview of the set-up in my living room. When each of the children arrived, we outfitted them in pirate gear (a striped head scarf and eye patch).

The favor bags I found at a local party store. We put in each of them a little jolly roger flag, a bag of Pirate's Booty (my daughter's favorite) and some of the treasure they found at the party. We also tied little foam pirate hats onto them. I found the hats in the Halloween clearance section for cheap.

We had a little photo booth with mustaches, pirate captain hats, and flags. I threw up some cute red and white chevron wrapping paper that I got for Christmas wrapping. It made a great background, but a little bit of a glare plagued the photos. Oh well...totally unnoticeable when there is a cute kid in front.

For an activity, we made pirate spyglasses. I collected and painted some paper towel rolls black, and then added gold duct tape to the rim and middle. The kids got to decorate them with the glitter glue and rhinestones that came with those pirate hats I had tied onto the bags. And how cute is the silver boat?? I found that at a local thrift store for only $5. I didn't have any food I could put in it, but it was so cute I had to use it.

I think they turned out great!

The food. I think it's easier at a party for younger kids to not schedule it around a mealtime. We decided to have the party from 1-3pm, and just served desserts.

This is my attempt at this cake. I made mine smaller because I also made cupcakes, so the idea is there even though I'm no cake decorator (so sloppy!). 

Also made these cute jello cups...pretty straight-forward so I won't insult your intelligence with a link to the tutorial. Well, I guess I should give credit to the site I got the idea from.

The cupcakes. Despite my lack of cake decorating skills, you get the idea. The kids were just thrilled that they had swords on them. Their polka-dot head scarves are made from fruit rolls. I found this idea here.

For decor, we skipped the balloons and just had a banner. I made the pirate flags from a black fat quarter from Walmart ($.97) and some white felt. I had the blue and white striped fabric, and bought a red bandanna. To make the banner, I used fusible interfacing to make the fabric stiff (and so I wouldn't have to finish the cut edges) and then stitched them onto some cute red jute from the craft store.

Had a couple of leftover pieces so I made a mini banner for the front door.

Luckily I acquired this adorable Fisher Price pirate ship (from my little brothers' childhoods), because it came in great when there was down-time between activities. That's a good party tip too. A large group of kids can get destructive without something to do! So pull out a couple of toys, maybe that go with your theme to keep 'em busy. 

So for one of the activities we knew we wanted to do a treasure hunt (of course!) but after a week of wonderful 70 degree weather we had a huge snowstorm the day before the party (of course). We moved the treasure hunt indoors and had a friend of ours dress like a pirate and show up accusing my daughter of stealing his ship.

He made the kids walk the plank (aka a kitchen bench)...

then on his way out he conveniently "dropped" his treasure map.

The kids had to decipher my horrible drawing to figure out where the treasure was.

The LOOT! It was found, and it was a good haul. We divided everything evenly among the treat sacks for the kids to take home.

All that was left to do was "blow the man down."

It was a super-fun party to plan, but shiver me timbers, I'm super-exhausted.

Happy party planning!

 Lindsey

Robot Party

Having a robot party for my son's fourth birthday was more my idea than his. When he was a baby I found some cute robot party things on clearance at Target. So they had been sitting around awhile. Luckily, my little guy was on board, and a party theme was born.

We began by looking out for robot parts...saved some boxes and had leftover silver spray paint from a previous project. Purchased some dryer vent thingys (a technical term) from Home Depot, and a few zip ties and hot glue sticks later and we had ourselves a homemade pinata. Also doubled as a cute decoration.

Decided to hang the crepe paper streamers in a new, fun way. I love the way they turned out...so festive.

Also pulled some foil out of the drawer for a table runner.

We had fun making these little robots out of cans we had saved from recycling, and some nuts and bolts I got at the dollar store. I decided to fill the smaller ones with goodies.

Found these cute sippers in the Walmart party section for $.97. I'm telling you: CHECK the Walmart party section! You never know what treasures you will find there. The kids thought they were fun to drink out of, and were so excited to go home with them at the end of the party.

Also, a good tip: try using a cute wrapping paper in place of a tablecloth or plastic cloth at a kids table. Easy clean up! I've even used wrapping paper for runners on larger party tables.

The robot cake. He turned out so cute, and really simple to make. The buttons are M&Ms, Tropical Twizzlers for the antenna and arms, and round chocolate cookies for the wheels. I was worried that we wouldn't have enough cake so I made the #4 cake last-minute.

A glimpse of the cute little robot table runner I made. The flowers are from Sam's club...I always check there first because I know they will be cheap and will last for at least a week. Plus sometimes they have fun colors like blue!

When I choose a theme, I always check to see if there are any cute free printables out there. I found these for the bottles here .

Some photos of the spread. My hubby (the grill master) made hot dogs for the kiddies and tri-tip for the adults (much too good for children). We supplemented with fruit, grilled veggie kabobs, and chips. It was all delicious.

Party success! Birthday boy with the pinata. I have to say though that the homemade pinata didn't work exactly as planned. But the candy came out eventually after a severe beating;)

Happy party planning!

Lindsey