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Hope you find some ideas that you can use at your next party!!

Alex & Emily

Alex & Emily

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Luau Party for Emily's 5th Birthday

We did a luau party for Emily's 5th birthday.
I ordered the invitations from http://www.birthdayinabox.com/
The ones I used are no longer available but there are many other choices.
I had a lot of luau stuff already like grass skirting for the decks, inflatable palm trees etc.
For the activities, we had sand art where you could make your own sandcastles. I ordered the kits and sand from Oriental Trading.

It was a big hit with the kids.
                                        I gave each kid a grass skirt and lei if they wanted one!!
                                                            We also played limbo!

We let the kids swim and play!!

I just served Chick-Fil-A nuggets and had bowls of colorful skittles, goldfish etc.
My dad helped me and we cut fruit kabobs into shaped with cookie cutters!!
They were a big hit!!
For favors, we had sand pails that I personalized with flower stickers I had gotten in the walmart clearnace section. I gave each kid a pair of sunglasses, water toy fish game from OTC, goldfish crackers, fruit stackers, palm tree bubbles also from OTC, and homemade coloring books with a thank you poem in the back. I found a lot of cute summer printables at kaboose.com and crayola.com
It was a fun, low-key party!!

I made this cake from the Wilton Palm Tree Pan.
It was the first cake like this I have ever made!
I thought it turned out cute!!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Pirate Party


When Emily was 4 she wanted a Pirate Birthday Party.
I started with the invitations which I made to look like a map. I printed them on regular copy paper and then soaked them in tea. After they dried, I burnt the edges. It was very time consuming but worth it!!
I will feature some more invite ideas I will design with my Cricut!!
The highlight of the party was the Pirate Ship that I made using furniture boxes. I found the pattern on a site called Mr McGroovy's. He had many plan ideas and also some pics  others had submitted.


Since her birthday is in July, we had the party outside. My dad has a nice large party tent that we set up the tables and food.
I found a lot of Pirate stuff at the dollar store and PartyCheap.com. I decorated the tables with red table cloths and map placemats that I got from Oriental Trading. I had small treasure chests that I got at the dollar store filled with candy for each kid.
When the kids arrived, I had set up an area that they could transform into pirates. I bought pirate tattoos, skull headbands, hoop clip on earrings and eye patches.  They loved this!! Prior to the party I made each kid a name tag with a "pirate name". There are many sites out there. This is one that I used, http://www.piratename.net/ I sometimes had to change the names a little to make them kid friendly!!
We played several games. I had purchased a small bomb shaped ball that we used for "Hot Potato".
It said pirate like sayings and then made an explosion sound !
Here is the link I purchased the game from!
http://www.apiratelife.com/toys/pirate-bomb-blast.php
We also set up a board so that the kids could "Walk the Plank". I put a blue tarp under the board and had snakes and blow up alligators and sharks I got from the dollar store.


We had a treasure hunt. I used printable cards from Familyfun.com I searched around the internet for wording for the clues. We ended the search in the sandbox where I had placed their treat bags, each personalized with thier pirate name and a skull and crossbones that I had fabric spray painted on. I added some jewels for the eyes and tried to jazz them up a bit!! I had pre-made coloring books for all of the kids using printables I found on Familyfun.com and Kaboose.com I had hidden seashells, gold and silver coins that I purchsed from Oriental Trading and small rings/jewelry!!They were very exicted about this!!


My cousin helped me make the cake and I found the idea for the pirate cupcakes after searching online
The cake idea came from Familyfun.com



I served the kids dolphin and fish shaped chicken nuggets, grapes, strawberries, goldfish crackers.
For the adults, I had subs. I had wrapped the silverware and served in the treasure chest.