Birthday Party at the Movies

We just celebrated my Son's 9th birthday party at our local movie theater. It's the perfect party for any kid. Especially when Dreamworks puts out another great 3D movie like Megamind. All the kids loved the film and said they would want to go back the next day to see it. I'm so glad it came out to the theaters just in time for Jared's birthday party.



Can't you just smell the popcorn from here? As an added bonus, each child and adult got a small popcorn, small coke for being apart of the party. Wow!

The party room! Plenty of space for kids and adults. I set out food on the first table, the middle was where I set up the cake, and the last table I put the presents on.



He requested a Halo cake like the video game. Well I had to get creative there because they don't make halo cakes around here. At least they don't have a kit or pan to make it from. I decided to order the Batman cake at the bakery and had them leave off the batman toy. I bought some new small Halo toys and added it to the top like they were fighting each other. I printed out a Halo picture, laminated it and stuck it in the cake so everyone knew the toys were halo. Us old folks can't always tell what the kids are into these days. :)

He got the X-box game he's been wanting for awhile. He was so happy!

Kids so cool, they had to wear their shades!

Madison played in the arcade during the movie. A one year-old of course can't sit still long enough for a movie such as this, but I managed to find other things for her to do.

After the party, Jared gave me a big thank you hug for such a fun day! The other Mom's said they might have their kids parties at the movie theater next. I think I've started something now. Ha! If you haven't thrown a birthday party at a movie theater before, look into it for your kids. They will love you for it.

Cake Practice

Little Miss is turning ONE in just a couple of days. I thought it would be fun to give her a practice cake to see what she would do with it.

BEFORE



AFTER

I think she's got the hang of it. The girl loves her cake!

Birthday Crafts

I'm preparing for Madison's first birthday party already. I want this to be special so I'm hard at work crafting my little heart out.

M for Madison



The inspiration for this party...Polka Dot Ribbon that I love.



A preview of what the tableware will look like. Everything is going to be pink, blue & green.



I've even made the utensils pretty!



I've been hand painting buckets to match the decor. These might be used as the centerpieces for the tables and filled with snacks.



A little birthday sign that I framed for the party table.



This one says...Madison you take the cake!



Here's a banner I made from chipboard, painted, decoupaged the letters and strung them all together with the pretty polka-dot ribbon. It's hard to see with the glare from the light in the room but it just says...Happy Birthday Madison!



I found these bouncy balls for Maddie the other day. She loves playing with them and what do you know??? they match the party!



Oh and I'm not finished yet! There are more projects to complete. I'll be working on them this Summer. This is just what I've completed as of now. What do you think?

Sneak Peak

At Madison's Birthday Decorations!

I've been hard at work already on planning her FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY! I realize she doesn't turn ONE till July, but it's never to early to start crafting. For the past month I've been in my craft room just making banners, signs and party ware for this special day. Call me crazy, but I love to craft so this is not work at all to me. It's more like fun and it provides an escape for me to get my mind off things that are stressing me out.

Here is a sneak peak at the wall/door sign decorations.



I'm going with pink, blue and green polka dot theme for her party. So that's why I made the signs round.



There is a ton of things I haven't taken pictures of yet. I think I'll do that today and post them later today/tomorrow so you can see what I'm talking about. Most everything is going to be handmade by me because I don't like what they sell in the stores. I might be able to use it again for the following years as well. All I have to do is change the number and I'm good.



All because this little girl is going to be turning ONE! I can't believe it. Where did the time go?



Stay tuned for more party pic's and details to come!

Gift Wrap Organization

I have a lot of wrapping paper, gift bags, bows & tissue that I keep for birthday's and such. I'm ready for any occasion. I've kept it stored in my craft closet. Well it's actually Madison's clothes closet now, but it still holds all my craft items. I have no where else to put it. I was running out of space and needed something to organize it all.. It needed some organization really bad since it's a very SMALL clothes closet.

{Exhibit A}



Look at that mess in there. It scares me every time I try to open the door. I just know it's all going to come tumbling down.



Then I came across this at Big Lots the other day. At last this is the answer to my prayers. Could it really fit all my gift wrapping items?



From this....



To this....
It holds my tissue paper on the bottom and gift bags in the many pocket above.



Look how nicely it holds those large rolls of wrapping paper!



What I like most is that it hangs nicely in the back where no one can see it. Whenever I do need some wrapping paper, it neatly organized and ready to go.



Aaaah...one less headache.

It's my new favorite thing.

Better Video's

I finally figured out how to add my video's using Blogger tools. The quality is much better then Photobucket or Youtube. Take a look now.



I'm so proud of myself. Yeah! One video uploaded, several to go. Look for more to come.

Caught on Film

Well the party has been over for a couple days now, but I haven't had the time to blog about it. I was going to post all sorts of pictures from Jared's big day but my camera decided to act up. So I only managed to get a few of his presents and of his cake. (Tear, Tear)




The rest I captured on video. So maybe that's better in a way. You will get more from a video then pictures anyhow. I hosted this party at the new Inflatable/Arcade place in town. It had a lot of fun things for the kids to do. For instance a velcro sticky wall. Check this video out of Jared sticking to the wall. Funny! Plus an overview of what other stuff they had.



Inside our party room there was a TV/Karoke machine along with plenty of tables to seat your guest. I didn't go all out on decorations this year but I stuck with a green/black theme. I forgot to film this before everyone started eating up the pizza and drinks. Oh well, you get the idea.



Finally, singing Happy Birthday to the big 8 year old.



We wished Robert could've been there for this. He would've enjoyed it. I hope he was there in spirit. He was very much missed and everyone was thinking about him.

One birthday down, another to go. Brittany's is next in a few weeks. She'll be turning 14. Can you believe it? Her event will take place at an indoor pool. I'm blowing up the floaties for the little ones and getting the tropical decorations ready. We are changing Winter into Summer. It's our favorite Season by far!

Hope you enjoyed the videos.

Planning Birthday Parties

Everyone knows I love to throw birthday parties. It's never to early to start planning these kids parties I don't think. I usually start collecting stuff a couple months before. It's easier on my budget and I'm not stressed out when the big day arrives. So this year is just the same. Last year I went all out having the kids parties in the house. Not this time, because I plan on it being pretty busy with the new baby and all. We will be throwing their parties at places we've been invited to before. That way I know what to expect and I'll know what to buy for the space we'll have.

Brittany has picked a Luau Pool Party theme to celebrate her upcoming 14th birthday. This is some of the stuff I've collected already. I just love all the colors. So bright and pretty.






We will be having the party at a local hotel that rents out their pool for 2 hours at a time. They have a table in the corner for food & drinks so it works out well. I think it's an age appropriate activity for a couple teenage girls she'll be able to invite.




Jared wants a(you guessed it)GI Joe party to celebrate is upcoming 8TH birthday. I have been waiting for these party supplies to come to the stores for sometime. They just arrived at Kmart so I quickly bought all I could before it was gone. I try to have an original themed party and GI Joe hasn't been done as of yet. It seems everyone has been doing Transformers so I didn't want to be another Mom who uses that theme. Here is some of the stuff I purchased.






I'm thinking of having his party at this Inflatable bounce house place that is just around the corner from us. We were invited to a party there at the beginning of Summer and he just loved it. I took a couple of pictures from that day so I could plan his. You actually get the whole place to yourself for 2 hours and can invite as many people as you want for that time. I think it's worth it and great for all ages. I think Brittany might even jump. :)







That's what I'm working on as of now. I still have a couple of months to pull it all together so I'm happy about that. Since their birthday's are so close to Christmas it's one less worry. I know I'll have the money for it and it's easy to put together. Next year we'll be celebrating one more with Madison. I don't know if that's gonna be a good thing or a bad thing. It'll be the first birthday party I get to plan in the Summertime. We might actually get to have it outdoors for once. Wow!

I wish everyone lived closer and was able to come. It's going to be a lot of fun.