Birthday party invites and cupcakes

When I was growing up, I remember having family birthday parties and enjoyed spending every moment with my family. Our parties never had themes but nowadays everybody has a theme for their parties. I have always enjoyed putting ideas together whether it is for scrapbooks, parties, holidays or anything where I get to be creative. When my sister had her kids -- my triplet niece and nephews -- I knew early on that I would be planning their birthday parties. I don't even think I gave my sister a choice of letting her plan their first birthday party. I just said this is what I'm going to do and I'm going to pay for all the decorations or whatever it takes to put together my theme so she couldn't say no.

For past birthday parties we have had a carnival theme, Blues Clues, Princess/Spiderman/Incredible Hulk, tea party, and movie party themes (I will dig up some photos and post them soon). They have all been fun to plan. As the kids have gotten older, they've gotten to the point where they want to have their parties at arcades or someplace where they can just play games. This puts a damper on my theme party planning.

This year the kids all had separate parties and I tried to make each of their parties have a little bit of homemade touch to it by making cupcakes and their invites all match what they picked for their cakes.

Sydni had a Harry Potter themed party at the movie theatre. We watched the first movie in the series while the girls had some of Sydni's favorite foods: homemade mini-pizzas (made by Sydni herself), curly fries, chocolate covered stawberries (made by Sydni), cupcakes and cake. We also had a candy shop set up like they have in the movies complete with Bertie Botts Every Flavored Jelly Beans, chocolate covered frogs (homemade), lemon drops, licorice wands, and lots more. The girs loved being able to pick out candy to take home with them. In addition to the candy, they had Harry Potter glasses and silly bandz in their gift bags. I made the cupcake wrappers and toppers for the party - but as you can see in the pictures I forgot to use the wrappers! Way too much going on.

The cupcakes were delicious. They were vanilla and chocolate and scrumptious. For past parties I have always made a movie poster that incorporates their picture into the poster. The manager of the theater then puts the poster up outside as if it was for real. I think I get a kick out of that more than the kids do.









Jacob's party was at Chuck E. Cheese. Since they do all of the work for the party there is not really anything you can add to personalize it, but I made cupcakes to try and add a little something extra to the party. The cupcake wrappers and toppers were both used successfully for this party! I added gumballs on some of the cupcakes to resemble the ball pit. The goodie bags were the standard CEC ones so I went ahead and upgraded everyone's cup as a little treat. Jacob wanted his party here just so he could have a turn in the Ticket Blaster. He also was generous and let his brother and sister do it as well since it was also their birthday.






Caleb wanted a Dale Earnhardt Jr. NASCAR theme at his party that he had at the Park and Pizza place. This was another party that they took care of everything for us. I wasn't able to take time off work to make cupcakes so I bought them from a cupcake delivery service. Unfortunately the cupcakes were horrid. The worst cupcakes I've ever had. Thank goodness the wrappers and toppers were cute! And to top it off, the cake melted on the drive to the party but as Caleb said, "at least we have cupcakes". Well the cake was delicious but ugly. The cupcakes were cute but awful tasting. And the gift bags each had a Dale Jr. diecast car per Caleb's request.





No matter the size, theme or mishaps of a party, kids are just thrilled that they have something that celebrates them!

Kids 9th Birthday

We had a mini-party for the kids yesterday at Main Event. I wasn't going to have one then Jacob said that everyone would have a better birthday than he would and I caved. They were only going to take one friend each then that turned to two....and we ended up with three friends each which was 12 kids total. They loved it though. They played laser tag, Glo golf and arcade games for three hours!

I got Sydni and Caleb phones -- Caleb has been begging for one. He texted me over 20x today. Twice to tell me to hurry up and text him. Jacob wanted video games. Then when he sees Caleb and Sydni's phones he asks where his is. So we have to look into whether he can upgrade the one they previously shared.


-- Post From My iPhone

almost birthday time....

My sister did not want me to have a party for the kids this year -- and since they are her kids I agreed with her. We decided we would only have them take one friend each to Main Event on the big day but then when I priced it, it was cheaper to have a party for ten kids than six separate individuals. So we are having a tiny party. Then of course we have to add in the cakes, party bags, decorations....oy vey it is going to start adding up!

But they are worth it -- spoiled but worth it.