I can’t believe I have a 3 and 5 year old.
My world was rocked this year.
I think this was the craziest feeling of all their birthdays.
I feel like they shouldn’t have had a birthday this year. we just did one last year.
I think it’s because I had a baby under the age of 1 this whole year….
Time moves in slo-mo-super-speed all at the same time.
BUT… even with my sleepless nights and usual glistening of baby drool…
a birthday came upon us nonetheless! It was a week before Sophia’s birthday
and I realized that if we didn’t throw a party for the two of them that weekend..
it wasn’t going to happen till a few weeks..and that seemed too
far from her actual birth date. SO… we texted the cousins and some
friends to make sure they could do a last minute party and picked a theme!
Party Animals! 7 Days to throw it together…
I like a good challenge ;)
Balloons. They were a must for this party. I could have just given
them balloons for their birthday present and they would have squealed with delight!
They Love them. So I went all out and got 30 balloons from Party City!
I placed some balloon colors out on the counter…and picked my favorites…
including some fun animal print ones..and then took a photo..that was
going to be my color inspiration for the rest of the party! And I looked back
at that photo as I continued with my planning and little DIY details!
I love a good dessert table.
But I had to go basic when it came to sweets.
Cupcakes. and marshmallows dipped in chocolate on a stick.
boom. toddlers are in heaven.
I designed some cute cupcake toppers in Photoshop..
Printed them and cut them with one of my fun craft punch.(I have
few fun ones that I had gotten at Joanns over the years) I can’t throw a party without
designing and using a printable!
Instead of doing the usual step of taping the cupcake
toppers to the lollipop sticks I cut straws in half and used them!
(I bought the large pack of straws at TJMaxx for 3.99)
For the paper garland, I grabbed up a handful of cheap scrapbook pages
at JoAnns and paper clipped them to a white ribbon I already had.
We moved furniture around (husband was thrilled about that) so we could
use this IKEA Dresser as the buffet table. I got two foam boards from the
dollar store..and draped over it the cheetah print fabric that I bought at Joanns
(1 yard) I used crates I already had(from Joanns) to give height to the table.
I loved how the cupcake toppers turned out..
and to make the cupcakes extra fun I bought appetizer picks at Party City…
and pushed them into the cupcakes too!
The sprinkles had fallen off the cupcakes into the container…
so I just dumped them onto the cake stands to be like confetti! party time!
The marshmallows dipped in chocolate were a hit!
They are the lazy/busy moms version of the cake pops haha.
I just dipped them in melted chocolate..and placed on parchment paper to dry…
then for the party I displayed them in animal print cupcake
wrappers that I got at TJ Maxx for $1.99
I placed the pinatas on the tables to use as decor before we smacked them to szmitharines.
And the girls helped out by placing their animal toys on the table ;)
We had two of our IKEA containers filled with fun party blowout toys..which were a request by the birthday girls. They were slightly upset they didn’t make noise and just unrolled. but I learned my lesson from last year’s horns. my head hurts just thinking of them. Haha. The Zebra is from TJMaxx and was my splurge for the table.. it was 9.99
and I HAD to have it. It’s going in micah’s room. (which I’ll share eventually!)
All of the toy animals are from Target or the Dollar Store.
I grabbed up 4 more animals to add to the mix around the party/house
Every time I turned around, while setting up the party, the animals were in a different place.
I knew that a Party Animal theme couldn’t be complete without an Animal Parade!!
Oriental Trading saved me by having super cute foam animal masks and
delivering them the day before the party! I wasn’t sure if they would come in time…
but God wanted the animal parade to happen as much as me. Obviously.
The girls were so excited about this… and all their little friends had
fun picking out their animal mask to wear as we marched around the backyard!
I felt like the pied piper marching with a little crew of animals following a long!
From now on, to get my kids to do what I say, I might pull out the animal parade trick.
“march! march! roar like a lion! trumpet like an elephant! stomp like a…hippo?” – Me.
I love party favors. I wanted to do a different type of packaging then I usually do…
so this year I saw some cute white heavier feeling paper bags(at Hobby Lobby)..
I designed a Thank you Tag in Photoshop and printed and
stapled to our filled up goodie bags!
We had bubbles.. candy.. stickers for the boys.. hair clip-ins for the girls.. Fun stuff.
I also had fun party cone hats for all the kids! They were too cute to pass up. (Hobby Lobby- $4.99) I also got the happy birthday banner that matched
up with my color scheme so perfectly! (Hobby Lobby- $5.99)
Sweet Harlow is rocking her party hat and dress made by her mama Kacia! (of Coconutrobot)
Can barely handle the cuteness.
My muscle man of a husband carried my IKEA desk up from the basement for me.
I filled up one of my big bowls with the masks for the kids to choose from.
We had the party in the back yard..because our house is TINY.
(perfect for us..but let’s just say the morning of the party the girls and
I were praying out loud that it didn’t rain!! LOL)
Ben was grilling up hot dogs and burgers.. it smelled so good!
(Easel from IKEA..use it almost every party! and the girls
are always coloring on it..mainly just to erase the chalk.)
Love Lily loving on Harlow! Lily has a super talented mama, Jacquie, who blogs over at The Sweeter Side of Mommyhood. She makes cute cakes and even cuter quilts. The cute zebra’s mama below, is also a blogger! Regina blogs over at Good One God and her posts are so relatable and charming that I usually end up reading them out loud to my husband ;)
We grilled out, we played corn hole, we bounced in a bounce house…
That cutie patootie below is Mario and his mommy is Angelique and is just as sweet
I have loved getting to know her! She has fun play dates where the girls
can learn all about why dogs shouldn’t eat chicken wings. ;)
The mommy of that sweet little one with the balloon also blogs!!
(realizing..as I’m writing this.. a lot of my friends are bloggers. lol.)
Jenn’s blog is Sweet Plantains! and she is super mom in my book.
My family! Kinda in love with this crew. a lot.
BAHAHA..
Being patient and waiting for cake is HARD WORK.
I bought a chocolate chip cookie cake at my grocery store.
(because mine never turn out as good..and I was being realistic with time…
launching a business, publishing a children’s book.. baking a cake wasn’t gonna happen.)
I Scraped off the labor day red white and blue frosting…
and re-frosted with green frosting. I used a ziploc bag and a tip…
and piped on some grass. I’m not a cake decorator. like at all.
But I can do overgrown weeds and grass. I was going for the jungle look haha.
Then we threw on some animals we had from their Vintage Circus Party last year!
I had the GENIUS idea of using funfetti! You know..those things you swing
forward and confetti pops out of the long cardboard tubes?? YEA…..
It was a little more violent than we imagined haha. BUT.. the kids and
adults liked it after the initial shock of “are we being attacked??” faded.
THE BEST PHOTOS OF THE DAY.
The moment ONE balloon flew up into the sky.. goodbye balloon….
crush my children on their birthday…nice.
but seriously. I die laughing every time I see that photo of sophia in the background
in what looks like complete misery and desperation. She was over it in a second. ;)
Micah was a sweetie pie..slept all morning before the
party so mama could get things together. then woke up just in time
to play in his run around on the deck and join in on the fun!
He REALLY wanted cake. but I’m making him
wait a couple more months!!!!
The girls got this blow up bounce house from Grandpa last Christmas.
(Ben found it on craigslist for 30 bucks!..we tipped off grandpa ;)
Best thing ever. We’ve used it all summer in the backyard!
So for lunch..We served burgers, hot dogs, homemade mac n cheese, chips and pretzels DIPPED IN CHOCOLATE, and some other yummy stuff but who really cares I already mentioned the chocolate dipped chips…nothing compares.
The cute animal plates are from Walmart. Zoo Pals. Super cute.
The girls are blessed with such sweet friends who gifted them
with so many fun and cute presents! The girls’ friends, Max, Ben and Gracie,
gave the girls each some jewelry that was so precious! Max insisted
they get something “special” for their birthday gift and picked it out.
Their mom, Nicole, and I melted over their cuteness.
(Nicole blogs too over at Being Messy Beautiful)
I knew that I didn’t have time to make cutout cardboard animals and paint them and place them around the yard..
no.. I mean it was hard to have a party and not paint or create something out of cardboard…
BUT.. I just didn’t have the time or
energy for that type of DIY project. So Instead I thought hey…
Party? Pinata. Animal? LION PINATA!
I also got a pink flamingo Pinata since sophia lovessss flamingos.
If this was just her birthday party, and not sienna’s too,
it would have been all pink flamingos. ;)
THE KIDS WERE IN HEAVEN.
I am pretty much in love with these photos…
We also did Pin the Tail on the Donkey..
It made sense… a classic Party game..and an animal game at that. boom. done.
the husband said he would have been super disappointed with the busy budgeting mama
if I DIDN’T do pin the tail on the donkey. I got a kit that included EVERYTHING you
needed and it was only a couple bucks at Party City.
I taped it up to the brick with this awesome kind of duct tape that you NEED to have.
It’s this heavy duty metal kind (not the official name.)
But it sticks to everything. great for outdoors/brick.
My girls are snackers.
and they like Options. what about yours?? haha.
I thought it would be fun to let the kids make their own little Animal Snack mix..
And because I have the desire to label tables with signage…
I made it the Animal Snack Mix Station!
I grabbed up different animal crackers and cookies at walmart and the grocery store.
We had whales, bunnies, penguins, bears, and animal crackers.
I got a roll of “grass” at Joanns. (I had a coupon which convinced me to get it.
I plan on using it for a few parties! It was so fun looking and the girls were like WOAHhh cool mom! :) It’s the little things. like fake grass runners..)
I printed off a cute sign and put it in a frame I had gotten at Hobby Lobby
for the girls’ party last year…then stacked up a bunch of my dishes
and placed some of their animals around! I had the lion pinata at the head of
this table until we needed it! Use what ya got! ;)
And our kitchen table is from IKEA. and I love it. I always wanted a circle table!
I’m hungry just looking at these photos.
I could eat a whole box of chocolate teddy grahams myself.
but I don’t….psh….because that’s.. unhealthy….
Ahem The cute animal plates were from THE DOLLAR STORE.
I know. awesome.
I do this for my girls!! AND I love the fun details.
It was a nice day celebrating Sophia turning 5 and Sienna turning 3.
Even though I would have preferred to just not have a
birthday this year and have them stay 4 and 2.
No one listens to me.
I’m so grateful for an old youth group girl who we convinced
to come party with us and take photos!
Amanda is amazing and has a great eye…
she was able to snap shots for me while I was the hostess!
If you are in the Pittsburgh Area..Amanda is Available to freelance
video, photograph and write. She is talented!
She is also great with kids and happy to give you a date
night and hold down the fort.
Here’s her info if you want to contact her.
Amandaking722@gmail.com
@amandaking722
Video portfolio: http://www.vimeo.com/
It was a fun day! and we did “family nap time” after…for a few hours.
Which was proof that we partied hard. ;)
Thanks for checking out our birthday celebration!
Please feel free to pin and share the party.. it was fun to pull it together in a
week and make my girls’ birthday extra special!
Next birthday is Micah’s in November.
Is it bad that I’m already thinking of a fun boy theme??? ;)
If you are new here..you should check out their other birthday parties…
Mrs. Howard
September 13, 2013 at 1:17 amSUCH and adorable party, as always Natalie!!!
Danielle
September 13, 2013 at 7:11 amWow! What an amazing birthday party, and done in only a week! You are awesome (plus you always look so put together and your kids are adorable)! I love following your blog (especially at 2am when I am nursing my little one ;)). Thanks for always making me smile!
Liz
September 13, 2013 at 8:47 amSUPER cute, Natalie! Looks like such a fun party. :)
nicolemariearts
September 13, 2013 at 10:12 amWe are still loving our animal masks at our house! And, um, how much confetti is still in your backyard anyway? hahaha
Kacia
September 13, 2013 at 12:41 pmhad such a fun time! xo!
Andrea Worley
September 13, 2013 at 5:03 pmWhat an awesome and fun theme!! I love the animal snack station. And those masks are really fun!
Chloe Dunkley
September 14, 2013 at 10:26 amLooks like such an amazing party!x
Fawn Rosenbohm
November 3, 2014 at 4:53 pmI love this idea for a party. My daughter is turning 5 this year and I think this is the perfect thing for her. She is an animal lover and I can’t wait to throw it now. Thanks so much for all the details and pics.
Jessica
January 5, 2016 at 7:31 pmHi! Where can I purchase those cupcake toppers!? I clicked on the link to the etsy shop but didn’t see them!
natalie
January 5, 2016 at 8:49 pmso sorry I don’t offer them right now!