Brayden's 5th Birthday!

I realize that I haven't posted anything since April-AJ's birthday! LOL  Maybe (notice I said Maybe) I can try to keep this current now that school has started and I feel a little bit more ahead of the game on staying organized.

First off, let's just send a shout out to all things Pinterest!! Love that site!!!  We planned a Pirate theme party for Brayden and we were able to pull it off all thanks to pinterest!!  It was such a fun party and I really feel that the kids enjoyed it.  It was also VERY inexpensive thanks to all the ideas we found from pinterest...ok, enough advertising ha Here are a few of the pics of what all we did and how we did it!

The cake was done by a wonderful lady near our home who is a genius when it comes to creating cakemasterpieces!  Loved it!! 
We also had a trays of just a few cupcakes in order to carry out our color theme-black, white, red.  We just used an ordinary Dollar Tree vinyl tablecloth and then added other trays and foods.  The trays were the silver chargers from Dollar Tree and the base on them was the glass tapered candlesticks from Dollar Tree.  With a little spray paint they were black and red to match the theme!! 

On one of our trays we had Fudge bars to be the "planks" and the other tray we just had cubed cheese for the "Gold Nuggets". 

The cupcakes were on the same DT chargers, just painted red.  We just used a circle punch to put patterned paper on them.  We used 4 glass candle holders from DT and added ribbon around the center and them put a label on them. 

We found some old mini coolers that we added a little bit of matching material to and put our silverware and napkins in it. 

Our present table had just a DT banner around the outside and some DT Pirate decorations on it. 

We also had a banner up on the window that I purchased from Etsy and printed it off-wow-what a time saver!!!

 For the games, we began with 4 items the kids had to find in our yard using a pirate map we made.  The 4 items were in 4 different spots in brown sacks labeled 1-3 (the swords we propped up against a tree instead of in bags with #4). After they found them all, they had to come back inside and open up the bags there-we told them that if they were going to be a pirate, they had to dress like a pirate!
Bag #1-Eyepatch
Bag #2-Sword Hands
Bag #3-Pirate Hat
Bag #4-Swords

Once they were all dressed, we went back outside for the final portion-they had to Walk the Plank and then they went to the Cannon ball Toss. 

A father of a lady I work with created the wood toss board and my husband painted a ship on it!  We spray painted 2 bags (12 in each bag) of balls from DT and those were their cannon balls. 

Afterwards, they used their final map to find the "treasure" aka Goody Bags.  They were my favorite of all time!  They were Huggies wipe containers-spraypainted gold!  I put a red striped paper on top with a pirate and Thanks for Coming to My Party to cover up the Huggies sign. 

 

 Inside they had a bag of goldfish-labeled  Pirate Fish Bait, they had a mini bottle of water with the label covered in matching paper and a skull and cross bone that said Sea Water.  They also had Ring Pops, pirate tattoos, Rolos, a necklace,compass, party blower, and a doublin (sp).  The kids all brough them back inside and went through their "booty"! LOL I really feel that the kids all had a great time at the party!!!

Everyone say AARRRGGGHHH!!

Aftermath...

OK, so the party is finally over with!  LOL  Loved decorating and all for it, but it made me a nervous wreck! So, I deviated a little from the invitations and created my own spin to it.  I will post a video of the new ones that I actually used.  I also made some super easy and cute favor buckets for the kids to take home.  They were the black buckets from the dollar store - the ones I always think of people using when they wash their cars.  I shredded up construction paper and put in the bottom as filler.  I know that Walmart has the Easter grass and I could have used it, but I have a BIG hangup on people using holiday supplies for birthday - they aren't the same!!!  (My husbands birthday is in December and he always has birthday gifts wrapped in red and green - hello!! My birthday is in August - would you give me a gift wrapped in Christmas paper??  Think not-so dont make his birthday a Christmas event!) OK, off soap box! So...

On the outside of each bucket I had a car and the childs name in vinyl from the Boys Will Be Boys cartridge.  The boys were in red, the girls were in pink.  Inside the buckets I had the filler, colors, a car coloring book, and a mug.  The colors were car shaped - just used the Wilton Car candy molds.  I melted crayons in the microwave and then filled up the molds, placed in freezer, and the viola!  Car shaped Crayons!  I put the crayons in a clear bag and had a topper on the bag with a coordinating car - except this car had a party hat from the Create a Critter cartridge (super cute, I thought).  Lastly, each bucket had a cup for the kids.  The boys had car paper inside their mugs with their names cut out and Xyron(ed) on from the Cuttin Up cartridge.  The girls paper was gray wheels on it and their names were in pink letters.  I think they turned out really well! 

The party came together pretty quickly - just allow a little time to get all of it together, but overall, it was a pretty cheap endeavor, compared to ordering a bunch of stuff from Oriental Trading and half of it gets trashed!

1st Birthday

OK, so didn't get the pics up like wanted - hey, its Spring Break, so maybe I can get it up this week...notice...I did say Maybe! 

However, I did get started on a project today, and I will put some pics up with this post.  I have been dying to do an explosion box for my son, AJ, 1st birthday invite ever since I saw Momo do hers!  Loved it!  So...this is my take on it - this in the sample one, and I am starting to mass produce them but I have already changed just a couple of things - nothing big, just size and different shades of paper...SO! Here is what I have so far. The middle insert is still blank - it will have all of the actual party info-date, time, etc.

I would LOVE to do a quick vid of how and the actual measurements on them..but, we know how that goes, so I won't make any promises that I can't keep :)

This is the box itself.  We inked it all, which I love the ink effect, but because it is a car theme, it looked so much like grease to me! I just loved it!

This is what the inside looks like after you remove the lid.

This is the layer on bottom.  The "Honk Honk" is behind the red car.  The "Lil Racer" is behind the blue race car.

The "Zoom" is behind the green truck, and the 1 and present are behind AJ's name.  All items came from the Boys will be Boys cart except the birthday present, it came from the Create-A-Critter cart. 
All black squares have the white faux stitching around them and black faux stitching around the letters. 

For a first time adventure, I like how it turned out!