French Fashionista Birthday Party

Happy 10th Birthday to Grace!  This birthday was a little different than our past birthdays.  First, we had two parties on two different days - one for friends and one for family.  Second, the friend party was held mostly "off site," not at our house.  And third, both parties were VERY scaled back - VERY.  No one believed me that I could do it.  I love a challenge.

 

Grace wanted to have a "fashion shoot" for her girlfriends.  We needed a big space for it and our house just would not work.  My good friend Kimberly allowed us to use part of a space at a local store she owns (Green Baybeez - check it out!)  It worked out perfectly. 

 

The day could not have been more perfect.  Every tween girl deserves to feel like a super model - regardless of body type.  Our photographer - Andrea Westein did just that.  She was amazing and made the girls feel beautiful and special.  What a valuable lesson to teach these girls.  I am so glad Grace chose this theme!

 

This was not my typical birthday extravaganza.  I reused a lot of previously purchased decorations and items I had for prior parties.  No fancy sweets tables.  No over the top table backdrops.  What it taught me was that even on a small scale, birthdays can be special and memorable.  The girls who attended Grace's friend party have been to most of her previous parties.  They all said this was the most fun one yet.  Great lesson - high end designed sweets tables, perfectly symmetrical favor tables and high end decorations do not make a party memorable.  Laughter, friendship and family does!

Favors

Decorations

Small Treat Table for the Super Models

 

 

 

Super Models!

(Photographs by Andrea Lynn.  Copyright Andrea Lynn Photography)

 

 

 

 

I even had a chance to get a pic with my sweet little lady.

 

Treats for the Family Party

Decorations

Thanks for looking.  I hope this party inspires you to make a party meaningful for your child and not simply about great pictures for a photo spread.

Sources:
Printables - Lora Lang Designs
Tissue Garland - homemadexojules

{Real Party} All Wisconsin Boy Sports Party - Football and Baseball Decor and More

The last post from Ethan's party.  I'm exhausted just looking back at these pictures!  Just a few more to post!

 

For the tables, I wanted to incorporate the three teams and two sports.  At first I thought I'd make the tables look like fields.  Then I thought I'd do black and white striped to look like referees.  But I wasn't in love with any of those ideas.  I had ordered wrapping paper for the background of the press conference area and when it arrived, it hit me - my table coverings. 

 

I had never used wrapping paper to cover tables before.  I was concerned it would not hold up well.  However, this was really high quality wrapping paper and it worked great!  I would definitely use wrapping paper again!

 

 

I made three centerpieces for each team.  I found the megaphones from the dollar store.  I used the team spirit printables collection from Amanda Parker at Amanda's Parties to Go for the megaphones as well as the pennants and signs.  I found pom poms from Shindigz.  The turned out pretty cute - and the price was right!

 

 

If you live in Wisconsin, you are likely familiar with the Badger, Brewer and Packer mash up logo.  I don't know where it originated from, but it's been around for a few years.  I remember it coming into being the year that the Brewers made the playoffs for the first time in my lifetime and the Packers and Badgers were pretty hot and had a game that same weekend.  It's stuck around and is pretty well recognized.  I had wanted to get a big logo for the party, but couldn't find one.  So I made a few myself using my overhead projector and a transparency I printed the logo on.  The kids helped me paint the logos.  My husband is now proudly displaying them in his garage!

Finally, I used a number of items already owned by my sports fanatic.  The baseball diamond came from Ethan's baseball guys.  I used the football field he has from his football guys to cover the table for the drinks.  Easy and cheap!

 

The best part of this party was all the thought and ideas put together by Ethan.  It was so fun to see his imagination at work.  Several times he would tell me what a good job I was doing on his party.  That's priceless as a mom.  Thanks for visiting out blog!

{Real Party} All Wisconsin Boy Sports Party - Football and Baseball Activities

Not too  many 6 year old boys are party planners.  My Ethan is definitely my son - he's got lots of party planning ideas when it came to his All Wisconsin Boy 6th Birthday Party.  He had ideas of decorations, and most certainly the activities.  While not the most flashy part of the party, it's the most important.  Most 6 year old don't care what sweets tables look like or if the centerpieces match the theme.  They just want to have fun.  And fun we had!

We incorporated the "Lambeau Leap" and infamous "Jump Around" from Camp Randall with a bouncy house that we rented.  It's about the third time I've rented a bouncy house for Ethan's birthday party and it has not gotten old for him.  He loves them!  I used the team spirit printables collection from Amanda Parker at Amanda's Parties to Go for the signs. 

Ethan absolutely wanted a football field and a baseball field.  Luckily my husband has had some experience in chalking lines for fields and was able to make Ethan's wish come true.  He even cut the lawn lower for every other yard line to make it stick out like the pros.  It may not have been the hallowed Frozen Tundra, but it was great in Ethan's eyes!  We used the field to have our own "Sausage Races" - using potato sacks for the "sausages."  The kids had a blast!!!!

 

 

 

 

Not only did Ethan get his own football field, but a baseball field as well!  The kids had a great time playing wiffle ball on the field.  Even the littlest little ones got into the game.

 



 

 

 

For those of you who are familiar with the Milwaukee Brewers, the team mascot - Bernie Brewer - slides down a slide in the outfield when a Brewer player hits a home run.  I put a sign by our own slide (which was even the same color) and we had our own Bernie's Slide.

 

Another request from Ethan was a press conference area.  Really, he truly thought of this idea.  I used wrapping paper from each team to simulate the background of a true press conference.  Easy and cheap.  (I used the same wrapping paper for the table coverings.)

To make the press conference microphone stand, I found microphones at the dollar store and a tin pan from the dollar store.  My husband took a cardboard ring and cut out spaces for each microphone  A little hot glue and some black paint and you have yourself a microphone cradle for a press conference!

 

Ethan's imagination was in overdrive for this party.  He also asked for a locker.  Not sure how I was going to do that.  When I stumbled on this empty box at work, I instantly thought of Ethan's locker.  The box was so sturdy, my husband literally had to use a saw to cut the one side out. We used the side he cut out for the shelves.  I had hooks left from our ice cream party that we screwed into the box.  The paint was left over from Ethan's bedroom.  All of the locker props were already owned by Ethan.  Not a bad locker for being free!

 

What's party without a photo area?  I love photo areas.  I found the foam fingers and pom poms from Shindigz as well as the backdrop.  Although, I have to say, I do think differently about foam fingers these days....

Ethan's shirt from This Pretty on Etsy.

Thanks for visiting our blog!