Airplane Party

This was for my son's third birthday. I absolutely love this wall art--I may have to find someplace in the house for it just because it makes me smile!

Get ready for a long post with lots of pictures! We did an orange, green and blue airplane party, which was really inspired by THIS and THIS post from Kara's Party Ideas. If you like parties, hop on over there and check out her site. It's filled with great inspiration for all kinds of celebrations!

I have two boys just under two years apart, so I decided to do the same color scheme for both of them, with just a little different twist. If you want to see what I did for the other party, look at my post for my one-year-old in May.

Since it was an airplane theme, I packaged up in-flight meals for everyone. These were for our youngest fliers.

They got a small package of raisins, bag of organic apples, a small juice, and a peanut butter and honey sandwich.


The adults got in-flight meals consisting of a turkey and cheese sandwich and green salad. We also had a table set up of condiments and extra sandwiches, salads and chips for those who wanted a little more during the flight. They were warned to be careful when opening their meals as some items may have shifted during take-off.

Love this plane coming in for a landing out of the clouds!

We had a iced tea and lemonade bar set up. I am just sorry I didn't get pictures of it before the party started.

Close-ups of the additions for the iced tea. The fresh basil with raspberry syrup was the big hit of the day! I could drink that stuff forever!!

This just makes me happy! I love the banner and the pom-poms! For once, they actually turned out full enough! I used 10 sheets of tissue paper instead the 8 I usually use. That must be the trick!

Ordered this cake from Costco! I usually make the cake, but realized my limitations this time!

This was made by my mother-in-law. It was a plane made entirely from foliage and flowers! I think it was so creative!

Here is the "baggage claim" area where the little kids got to fill their treat bags before going home. I really like the idea of this, but the sign didn't really turn out like I wanted. Maybe I should have made the sign stretch across the entire wall space.


I don't know what these are called, maybe fourth of July sparklers. They are from the Martha Stewart website, but I got the instructions HERE.




These airplanes were a pain to make, so I enlisted some help from family--thanks everyone! They were puzzles from the $ store and started out as flat pieces of wood that you had to punch out and put together. After that, we spray painted them to match the colors of the party and added windmill props to some of them. Loved that whimsical touch! I was going to give them out as favors, but decided after all that work to save them and maybe use them as a decorating theme in my boys' room!


The kids got to fill their bags with small packages of floam, bags of peanuts, bubbles, marshmallow pops, salt water taffy and home-made play dough.



We also did a small craft where the little ones got to decorate their "pilot visors" with stickers. Hmm...I didn't even notice that pepsi when I took this picture!

Without even planning it, almost everyone who came to the party was dressed in either orange, green or blue! Too funny! All in all, it was a fun party, but I am sure glad I don't have another birthday party to plan until October (I do have another Birth Day before then though!).

Hope you enjoyed this post and all the many pictures!

Coffee and Chocolate Birthday Party

My birthday and my husband's are both in November, just days apart, so this year we decided to combine our birthdays and have one get-together. We did a coffee and chocolate theme (these are a few of my favorite things!) and pulled that theme into the decorating.

We had a dessert table with all types of chocolate goodies on it including a completely raw chocolate torte--it truly was heavenly! My mother-in-law made the "birthday cake" centerpiece--it turned out beautiful! It was a pretty simple party, but we all had a good time and were pretty caffeined-out when it was over!

I am linking this party up to the Celebration Inspiration Party. Head on over there and check out all the great parties!

Down at The Farm

The birthday boy getting ready for his first taste of sugar!

For my son's first birthday I did a "Down at the Farm" theme. The colors were red, blue and white. His birthday is in late June, so we did a full-on summer BBQ. We had hot dogs, corn on the cob and potato salad, with a green bean salad and watermelon. My mother-in-law brought a beautiful fruit bouquet that she made. The food table was covered with a red and white checked tablecloth and I used wicker baskets and buckets for the food. We served lemonade from a jar.

I had a lot of help from my sisters both ahead of time and on the day of the party. We covered the large gate to their backyard with a cardboard sheet painted to look like a large farm gate and put a sign on it that said "Welcome to The Farm". I did not get a picture of that, unfortunately!

We made a horse corral out of cardboard boxes and put our "wild horses" in it, which I gave to all the children as take home gifts.

Here is a closer picture of the fruit bouquet made by my mother in law. It was beautiful and practical--everyone grabbed a skewer and voila! They had their own fruit salad!

I also strung a clothesline and hung small denim clothing. Between each item of clothing I put bandana pouches filled with goodies for each child to take home as a favor. My niece gave "hay rides" in a wheelbarrow around the yard. I went to a local feed store and got free hay to scatter around the yard and in the horse corral and barn.

Love this picture!

I think he likes the cake! What do you think?

The cake was a farm scene with a barn, pond, tilled up "earth", horse corral and pig mud hole. I used colored coconut for grass, a pond with real water in it, pudding for the pig's mud hole and shredded wheat for hay. I couldn't find ducks small enough, so I had giant ducks on the cake! Oh well! My son didn't mind!

We painted a box to look like a barn for the kids to play in. The younger kids had a good time with that!

It was so hot that day so we also put water on their slide with a tarp at the bottom so the kids (and adults) could cool off. Everyone had a great time with that!

It was a fun party, although a lot of work to set up and take down because it was at my sister's house. I decided to try to do simple parties after that, but my daughter's tea party was after this one. I just can't seem to keep it simple! I love decorating parties and setting stages for fun!

Linking this post up to Inspiration Party--check it out!