One day last week she literally SLAMMED the door, ran down the hall and screamed "MOMMY MADDIE TIME WOOHOO! We watch Georgie..OH YEAH!" She jumped on the couch into our spot and called for me to join her. It really is one of my favorite things. We snuggle and cuddle and watch Curious George. She likes when I tickle her back and I like when she out of nowhere says "I Love You Mommy!" I could go on and on :)
When Maddie realized her birthday was coming up and I asked her what she wanted to do for it. She was very clear "I get a Georgie cake!!!!" So there it was- our theme. I love a good theme like some people like a good movie. It just makes me happy. Now Maddie is 3, and not in school or daycare so she only has the friends that we have :) It just so happens that there were 5 of us all pregnant at the same time. Now these are some of our best friends how fun was that! Granted it was most of their 1st or 2nd kids but hey we caught them on the 4th. YAY! It is Maddie and 4 boy babies all born 3 years ago this year :) Let's just say that Maddie has many suitable suitors to choose from in her older age :)
Now I decided that instead of having a big ol' to-do we would just have the grandparents, aunts and such over on her actual birthday and then have a teeny, tiny, glorified playdate the next morning.With Georgie as our inspiration I started to plan. Now once upon a time I planned elaborate soiree's complete with hand made, mailed invites hinting to our guests what the theme would be and planning for months on end. It was my passion. I along with my best friend and the grandmas, oh and Joe too :) would pull off fun, somewhat extreme, get togethers that I was really proud of. Lots of times sporting details that only a few people besides me might notice, but I didn't care :) I would love to say all my kids have gotten the same things through the years but let's be honest. I may have to tell the kids their "baby books" were lost in a freak fire, and thankfully I forgot to take pictures at pretty much all the parties we had after Delaney's 1st so their is no physical evidence of the extravaganzas. Now don't get me wrong I have thrown parties for my kids, all of them in fact. But they have gotten smaller and less planned out as the years have come. Everyone of them got a fun, special 1st birthday and then it kind of petered off. No one would tell you they had bad birthdays, most people would think they were great, but to me I feel guilty because I KNOW that they aren't to the caliber I prefer. No one else would know. But I know. You get what I am saying :)
Anyways, we made a deal with them. Seeing as their birthdays fall in March, April, May and June, it can make for a very busy, very EXPENSIVE 4 months. Not to mention it got to the point I had to start planning in January to be prepared and organized enough to pull off each subsequent party. It all became too much. So the deal is that every other year they get a "real party" Last year Delaney and Cam got them and this year is Maddie and Keegan's turn. So since I haven't made a "REAL" invitation in like 3 years THANK YOU PUNCHBOWL!
I Love how you can add your own pictures. Now that we have access to so much free art on the internet it makes it fun and easy to customize these online invites.
Because we were having everyone over at 11. I planned for brunch food. A smoothie bar, baby pancakes (Maddie's favorite) a quiche, salad, grapes and muffins.
Smoothie Bar: We make smoothies all the time, especially on busy mornings, using frozen fruit medley from Costco, Pom juice and Chobani Yogurt (lots of protein) With the fruit frozen you don't need ice. I borrowed another Magic Bullet Blender and set them both out. Along with all the fixings for the smoothies and let everyone make their own. Everyone thought it was a fun activity as well as a yummy treat.
Plain yellow Solo Cups were brightened up and tied into the theme with more free clip art, primary colored ribbons and red and white paper straws.
I save the bottles from Santa Cruz Organic Lemonades and juices when I get them. Soak to remove the labels and they make great vases and bottles for other juices. I hot glued the striped ribbon around them and wrote with puffy paint and paint pens to identify which was which.
I put the frozen fruit for the smoothies in my ice bucket with a stainless steel scoop. Just tying ribbon on stuff like this ties it all in to your theme and colors. Little touches like that make such a big impact :) Putting the yogurt into bowls just made it look nicer then the plastic containers.
How cute is this cake! Jaime with Sweet Cheeks Confections made it (she also made Cam's Rhino Wild Kratts cake last year!) Maddie was SO EXCITED! and can I just say it tasted even more delicious then it looked. If that's possible!
Banana Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins (see recipe roll for how to) were a bite sized treat. Plus I made a ton so we have been eating them ALL WEEK! Yum.
Coffee area. Flavoring, creamer, sugars and good black coffee!
I always do something last minute that ends up being the talk of the party. It usually is totally random, but I always crack up at what it ends up being. It might be a decoration I grabbed at the last minute, or a song I put on or like St. Patrick's Day it was the green Sixlets (candy) and Lime green Gumballs I threw in my cart at Party City on a whim. People could not get enough of them and I had never even tried Sixlets before. It just happened I got 2x as many as the green M&M's, for the same price. So funny!
For this get together, it was the red and white popcorn boxes and Orville Redenbacher Tender White Popcorn I popped at the last second. They matched my colors and I figured everyone likes popcorn, but it was hilarious when everyone kept talking about how cute it looked and how good the popcorn was. Yet again the most random thing became "the hit" Who knew :)
Borrowing our cousin/neighbors mini bounce house was a cost effective and fun way to provide an activity for the kids. That along with sidewalk chalk and Maddie's new birthday doll house, provided just enough fun to pass a couple hours!
Cake and present time. Best present opening EVER! Only 3 presents to open meant that there was no meltdown or lack of attention happening before she was done. YAY!
Daddy and Maddie time
This party was B.Y.O.B.
Blow Your Own Balloon :) Balloons were a cheap, very fun thing to play with :) Since I forgot to blow them up the night before, and didn't want to pass out quickly doing it before everyone arrived. Keegan blew up a few and we left the rests for our guests :)
Like I said I appreciate the little details. These were leftover muffin
papers I punched holes in and pushed onto my branches by the door.
These monkey ears were a score! I found them at Target in their newer party aisle. They had elephants and lions but how could I not get them?! At $1.99 each they were not something I would have done at a bigger party but just another good reason to keep it small!
For favors I bought each kid a Curious George Book, would I have done this if I had 12 kids coming no!!! But for 4 you bet! I pulled out some of my stamps and punches, dusted off my craft area and crafted this cute little packaging. I let each kid pick a book and some ears as they left.
There was much fun had and it was all over by nap time. Good thing they burned off some energy :)
Trying to get 1 birthday girl, 3 party goers and 6 siblings to say
cheese is just about impossible even when you take 10 pictures!
Somebody was sleepy :)
All in all it was a success! It was cute I felt like I got my party planning MOJO back a little bit and am so happy with how it turned out. Maddie Moo couldn't stop talking about her "Georgie BIRFDAY:)" Thanks to my friends for coming out early on a Saturday with her little boyfriends. She had a ball!
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