Happy Memorial Day!

Hope you are enjoying the long weekend and remembering to remember!

Banner - Cakes Like a Party

Jungle Themed Inspired Banner

My very best girlfriend is hosting a 1st Birthday party for her son Dominic this weekend.  His love for giraffes inspired a jungle theme.  I made this sweet jungle inspired banner for the party.  I hope he likes it!

Buckets of Cherry Inspiration!

My absolute favorite place in the world happens to be (sort of) in my own back yard - Door County, Wisconsin.  My parents started taking my sisters and I there when we were young kids.  In those days, we ruffed it - actually camping, with no electricity (although we had running water and flush toilets and showers, but those were a hike from the campsite.)  (More to come later this week on Door County.)

Door County is known for many things - its beautiful beaches, picturesque lighthouses, fish boils (yuck!) and great shopping.  But most of all, it is known for its cherry orchards.  Last Mother's Day, Chris treated me and the kids with a day trip there.  Spring time in Door County is just beautiful!  The cherry trees are quite a sight.  This year, we had to delay our trip due to sick kids and the unseasonably cold (even for Wisconsin) spring temps.  The cherry trees finally started to bloom this week. 

So North we headed today.  I made us stop (literally on the side of the road) to trespass into some orchard to get these pictures.  Chris never even complained!  I love the picture of the kids!

 

So in honor of those beautiful trees (and yummy treats later to come this summer,) I wanted to do a post of some great cherry party inspiration.

I saw this party from Green Apple Paperie a while back on Save the Date for Cupcakes and LOVED it!  Honestly, I LOVE everything about this party - the gingham, the vintage look, the picnic baskets.  I am just loving light blue or turquoise and red right now. 

Loving the retro look instead of the vintage feel?  Check out Lindi's take on a cherry party at Love The Day.  Lovin' this too!!!  This would be a perfect party to hold at Wilson's in Door County.  (More on Wilson's later this week!)

Looking to make your own cherry blossoms?  Christine from Pure Joy Events put together gorgeous faux blossoms that will keep their blooms year-to-year!

Today was a great kick off to an early summer of fun, family and memories.  Have a great week!

Enchanted Prom Birthday Party - Part IV, More Decor

The final of the Enchanted Prom Birthday Party posts features more of the decor from the party. (See Part I here, Part II here and Part III here.)  I wish I was a simple, minimalist party decorator - it sure would cut down on the amount of work I do for parties.  My problem is that I like too many things and get way too many ideas!  It sort of is odd that I gravitate to the parties that are the more simple and streamlined rather than the ones with more, more, more.  Ha!  Life should mimic art!

So here is the final roundup from Grace's Enchanted Prom Birthday Party.  It truly was a fun party to plan.  Now, on to Ethan's Carnival Extravaganza! (Wait, that's not until September!)

Meri Meri by Make it Mine Parties

Maybe I've been living under a rock (I do live in Wisconsin after all), but I discovered Meri Meri's line of party goods when I was planning Ethan's Cars party and fell in love with all of their party lines!  When I found Meri Meri, I also found Make it Mine Parties.  The gals at Make it Mine Parties take the already cute Meri Meri products and make them uber-cute by personalizing them. 

The Princess Royalty line worked perfectly with the Enchanted Prom theme.  These pictures really do not do these products justice - they are really high quality and absolutely adorable!

Disco Ball Topiary

As if hanging disco balls throughout the party was not enough, we needed a disco ball topiary to anchor each side of the dance floor.  These particular disco balls were outdoor Christmas ornaments that I removed the stems and inserted a wooden dowel.  I then hot glued ribbon to the base of the ball.  These happen to be my mom and dad's ornaments they use for their outdoor "Charlie Brown" Christmas Tree.  Guess they will just be a little fancier next Christmas :)

The Gift Table

The background for this table is what else, another shower curtain!  This one was a $5 find.  I thought the pattern sort of mirrored a disco ball.  I attempted the cute layered look for the table skirt, but mine some how did not look right.  The ribbons are from Target that I found after Christmas for 75% off in the outdoor holiday decor aisle.

Garden Stakes

Welcome Sign

From the oh-so-talented Jill of Peas and Thank You's.  (See the coordinating banner here.)

Table Centerpieces

Grace's Birthday Poster

Starting with Grace's 1st Birthday, I've been making a poster each year of the kids with one picture of them from each month during the year to show how they've changed during the year.  I try to keep the poster consistent with the theme of the party.  My hope is that when the graduate, I will display the posters for all their friends and family to see.

I think that's a wrap of the party!  Again, thank you for looking.  It's a good thing my kids' birthdays are a good four months apart because I am going to need a rest!

Enchanted Prom Birthday Party - Part III, Fun and Games

Part III of the Enchanted Prom Birthday Party posts features the activities from the party.  One of my "pet peeves" should we say about gorgeous, styled children's parties is that they are just that - styled parties - and not really about the kids.  Having a "real party" means that you have to have "real" things for the kiddos to do - not just a pretty favor table (see here) or a pretty sweets table (see here) to look at.  Frankly, the kiddos could care less whether your tables are symmetrical and and sweets that you know what they are by looking at them have coordinating labels informing you of the obvious.  (I can say this because I do just that!)

So, in thinking about what Grace's friends could do at the party, I wanted to keep it fun of course, but also keep the activities with the theme of the party.  The problem is, however, proms don't really engender a ton of activities - time to be creative!

I always try to have an activity the kids can do as the other guests arrive.  They never all come on time so it is nice to give the early arrivers something to do.  With girls, finding things is pretty easy - they love seat work and any craft project.  I found some cute free printable coloring sheets (Coloring Book is a great site) for the girls to do as they arrived.

Prom Coloring

Pin the Corsage on the Prom Princess

Once all the guests arrived, we played "Pin the Corsage on the Prom Princess."  I made the poster by transferring the prom girl from the invitation to a transparency and then used an overhead projector to trace it on poster board.  After outlining my tracing with marker, Grace went to town painting the girl.  She always likes to help me get ready for parties so it was a good activity for her to do.

Prom Masquerade Masks

Grace LOVES art or craft projects like most girls so I wanted to come up with some sort of project for the party.  Watching a (bad) Disney movie one night with Grace gave me the idea of masquerade masks. (I think it was some kidnapped princess movie with Selena Gomez and Demi Levato - whatever it was the storyline was awful.)  I found the masks at Oriental Trading and purchased self-stick beads and feathers for the girls to use to decorate the masks.  I decided to use glue dots so we didn't have runny, sticky glue all over their pretty prom dresses.  The glue dots worked out well.

(Ethan thought it was a superhero mask!)

A very well planned, color coordinated masquerade mask!

Let's Dance!

Of course, what would a prom be without dancing!  My husband put the kibosh on renting a dance floor (probably a wise idea) so the next best thing was creating out own.   We used peel and stick tiles to create the dance floor - a set of 45 was $25 - a fraction of the cost of renting a dance floor (and it still did the trick.)

I LOVED how the paper honeycomb globes turned out.  I strung them together by running ribbon down the middle of the globes before opening them.  I taped the ribbon to the inside of the globe using duct tape.  It held very well.

The Prom Dancers

I LOVE this picture.  One day I'll look back at it and remind them that they really do like each other!

I LOVE this picture even more.  Grace insisted on having a "father daughter" dance - her idea.  She was so excited to dance with her daddy.  I'm not quite sure what Chris' tongue is doing hanging out of his mouth though!

I realize that proms do not typically have the cheesy dances that weddings do (well, at least the weddings in Northeast Wisconsin!)  But, I thought those cheesy dances sort of flowed well with the prom theme and that the girls would have fun - so we did them anyway.  The girls LOVED the limbo.  I also taught them the Macarena (or so I tried) and the Chicken Dance.  And, the cheesy dances would not have been complete without a version of the Hokey Pokey!

Prom Castles

I found these adorable pop-up tents and the price was right and they looked so cute for the party.  At the end of the party, the girls had fun all piling inside and acting goofy. Ethan especially enjoyed his "man cave!"

Prom Fashion Show

Grace and her friend (our neighbor) recently started giving us "fashion shows."  I vaguely remember from prom some sort of "parade of couples" or something to that effect.  So, I thought a fashion show would be sort of consistent with the party.  The girls were a hoot and loved putting on a little show for us moms.  Ethan especially was a ham!

These pictures make me laugh out loud!  These are so my kids!

Prom Pinata

The idea of using a bat to try to crush something just seems like such a fun activity for kids.  I was able to find a disco ball pinata from Amazon.

Prom Pictures

A universal prom experience has to be the very staged and choreographed prom pictures.  I still have the picture of Chris and me from when we went to my high school senior prom (4 dress sizes ago!)  This party would not have been complete without the prom pictures!  We are very fortunate to have a very talented, kind and generous aunt who happens to be a professional photographer - Debbie Daanen Photography.  She graciously let me use her backdrop and props for prom pictures. 

While my pictures are not even half the quality of hers, they captured some cute moments from the party!  Each girl had her picture taken when she arrived (just like the real prom!)

(Yes, that is me in a prom dress!  What we won't do for our kids!)

(Poor Ethan was not feeling well by the time we took these pictures!)

(In real clothes - much better!)

Grace and her good friend Emily.

One more post to come - more of the decor!  Thanks for looking!