A One Month Birthday Party

This past weekend we had the privilege of hosting a belated baby shower which turned out to be on the one month anniversary of this darling little boy's life.  He is the 3rd son of our dear friends and we had the honor of having his sister stay the night with us as he was making his entrance into this world.

All that to say, we were thrilled to host a party in his honor and shower his family with a bit of love.

We had a gathering of all our old home group, and a few others.  All these people used to gather in our home weekly when all of our children were quite a bit younger than they are now.  The rec-room is now fitted out with all the kids toys and the living room reclaimed as 'grown up space' -- the perfect set up to have 10+ adults and 15+ kids catching up with each other over soup.

Having just done the birthday parties for my kids, I was still very much in 'party  mode' and had a delightful time planning and setting up for another party.  

Because I know some are interested in the details ... here is what some of the details looked like for our little celebration.  It's tricky for me to get adequate pictures of the over all look, so I just selected a few of the details.  Basically the theme colours were white, blue and brown and there were little glass jars with flowers around the place.  The table started out quite bare but soon filled up with all the goodies people brought to share.

the invitation!

We asked everyone to spend a moment writing out a word of encouragement, blessing, prayer, or scripture for our friends.

Brownies are a favorite, so I made a little brownie tiered cake for the little man, and extra round brownies for everyone else to enjoy

We even sang "happy one month birthday" ... and the guest of honor slept through the whole thing.

Little bundles of jelly-bellies were taken home by each guest as a thank you for coming.

 Planning parties is a passion (if you haven't noticed). Creating all the details makes me come alive and brings joy to my soul.  It is always an honor and a delight to 'put on' a party for someone I care about. Thanks sweet family for allowing me to love on you in this way!!

Next on the agenda for my crafting season ... Christmas gifts!  Stay tuned.  I should also put up some posts about 'life' and kids and all that -- but really -- right now -- the details aren't all that attractive! 

Pampering Our Birthday Girl

A sisters afternoon of papering with Muma's hair dresser, something that has been talked about and anticipated for months!

Renatah was quite happy to have Shalom go first, to see what would happen before she experienced it.

Steeping her tea to enjoy while she waited for her turn.

Renatah knew just how to 'be' at a salon, quite the conversationalist!!!

This was Renatah's favorite part ... the hot head shower!

Renatah got a little trim, not too much off please, I'm growing my hair super long... like Rapunzel!

the cut

the dry

the style

My two curly blonde beauties!

Pink and Purple Princess Pamper Party:: Renatah's 5th Birthday

 To celebrate her fifth birthday Renatah wanted a Princess Party ... this is what it evolved into ... and evening of pampering for the birthday Princess and her friends.

We were so organised (and with the daylight savings time change) that we were all dressed and ready with two hours to spare ... so ... the princesses sat down to enjoy a viewing of Cinderella while they awaited the arrival of the party guests.

As each princess arrived they decorated a hat to wear throughout the evening.

our gorgeous stylists for the evening

Welcome to the Pamper Parlor.

waiting room entertainment

waiting room refreshments

Mani-Pedi with our stylist Yzobella

our guests enjoyed a foot bubble bath while their fingernails were painted

hair and face beautification with our stylist Shalom

The Princesses are ready ... let the Pampering begin!

The Pretty Pampered Princesses

Our girl ... "tickled pink" ... sharing a meal with her princess friends.

                   

Our evening ended with our Pink and Purple Polka dot cake Pops.

Tait's 3rd Birthday:: DAY

With his birthday bash a couple of weeks in the past we felt we would celebrate our boy a little more on his actual birthday. 

 

Our tradition ... a photo of their last sleep before their age 'changes'.

 You'll never guess from the pics what he is 'into' these days. He requested that theme for his 'birthday'.  I didn't really want to plan a party around a particular 'character' so we just waited till his birthday to cater to his request.

LIGHTENING MCQUEEN!!!

We got our "Birthday Gobblet" this year (and maybe I should get an extra few to stash away). The kids loved a special glass to use on their birthday.

We made a whole day of celebrating Tait.  A present here and there through out the day rather than all at once and cupcakes and candles ... twice!

... after naps with is 'sisters'

and ... after dinner with our neighbors.

What a gift our boy is to our family and what a joy to celebrate life with little kids!  So much excitement in each moment.  Hope your year ahead is a great one little man!

Tait's 3rd Birthday:: Dino Style

Our Birthday Boy!

This year we decided to do a small family/god family celebration for Tait's 3rd birthday. With his aussie god-muma here we had his celebration a few weeks early. It was small, and sweet but I still allowed my creative energies to flow to create a fun "Dinosaur Discovery" for my boy and his 'family friends'. Here are some pics of the party and all the little details. Enjoy!

The birthday boy got a kick out of helping to make his invitations ...

... which ended up looking like this.

Our party started at 'snack time' so when everyone arrived the children dove into their 'snack sacks' which were guarded by Tait's dinosaur costume. I think most of the kids ended up wearing the costume at some point during the morning!
For our DINO DISCOVERY
we had 4 "exhibits"


In the Fossil Dig, the kids got to dig around to find a little dinosaur skeleton and then brush the dirt off and put their find in their bucket.

Paint-o-saurus was a painting activity, we plan to turn ours into magnets for our fridge!

Exhibit C was a dinosaur habitat play land. Renatah and Tait helped me set this up in the week before the party and had a great time 'testing it out'. They are still enjoying it a week later. On the day the dinosaurs ended up in a time warp and into modern day with horses, trains, airplanes, and people joining in their habitat!!

Our final Exhibit was a story read by Papa, "Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs" and a Dinosaur Classification activity. Each child was given their own 'bucket full of dinosaurs' and were asked to find which one in their bucket matched the description that was given.
After all our discovering was done it was time to feed our own little dinos. Having a small group meant I was able to make a place for each of them at the table with a table runner made to look like some dinos had run across it!!

Our feast was complete with some "swamp water'' to drink (a mixture of ice tea and lemonaide!)
It didn't go over too well with most kids, they ended up asking for 'normal water' instead!! No complaints from the mumas!


Of course there was a 'cake'. Which was enjoyed by all and my favorite part ... there was NO LEFT OVERS!!

The kids all left with their dino discoveries in little bags that had some more dino fun inside.

We are in the midst of converting our garage into a rec room. Progress had come to a stop for a few weeks, which ended up being great. We were able to set it up as a party room exclusively. Probably not something that will happen again - so I thoroughly enjoyed it!! We decorated with dinosaur books from the library too to add to the activities available for the day. Here are some room overviews.

There is it. Tait's third birthday party - Dino Style. Thanks for looking - please leave a comment, I'd love to hear what you think!!