Kids’ Birthday Parties

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is hosting a “Show Us Where you Live Friday.” She does this every Friday. She did one room per week for a while and she has now exhausted all areas of the home. She has moved on to other ideas now. You can check out her blog for the schedule. This week she is featuring kid’s birthday parties.

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Over the years I have done a LOT of things for the girls’ birthdays. I only have pics of Jenna’s 6th and 7th on this computer.

Jenna’s First:

Family only- cake and ice cream after dinner. We chose a cake that the adults would like since it was basically an all adult party. Of course, we did a smash cake for Jenna.

Jenna’s Second:

We rented a lake house from the local bank. We ordered BBQ and Stew. Once again we fed more adults than kids, but we did have several children who enjoyed playing with punchy balloons and a bubble gun.

Jenna’s Third:

Jenna wanted a swimming party, but her birthday is in January. We waited and celebrated her birthday at 31/2 so that we could honor her swimming wish. I designed an invitation that read as a fairy tale including a princess who wanted her winter birthday party to be a swimming party. That one was really fun! I got all types of pool toys instead of goodie bags. The kids chose which toy to take home.

Jenna’s Fourth:

We combined parties with another little girl. We rented out a local reception hall. We had a cotton candy machine, cake, and McDonalds. We ordered a craft from Oriental Trading for the kids to do.

Jenna’s fifth:

Jenna wanted a “garage party” so we closed up the garage, loaded in tables, chairs, etc. Lots of kids came. I had an artist come who drew caricatures of each child. That was a BIG hit. My dad did a hay ride for the kids. They always love a good hay ride. I also got tshirts for each child. I ironed on their names ahead of time. At the party I had rubber stamps and fabric paint and the kids stamped their own tshirts. These were still being seen worn at school 2 years later. One tip: Only have one color paint per stamp- otherwise the colors get messy. I poured the paint onto paper plates.

JEnna’s Sixth:

JEnna convinced me to let her book her party at Sweet n Sassy. This is an all little girls’ salon. It is pink and girly. They offer several different packages. Jenna chose the runway party. All of the girls chose dress up gowns, got make up, up dos, and manicures. Then they got to walk the runway as the salon people called out their names on the mic. The girls then danced and enjoyed cake and ice cream. This ran about $250 for 8 girls. It was expensive, but was the easiest because all we had to do was order pizza and bring a cake.

dancing….

Jenna on the runway….

Everyone on the runway….

cake for Jenna….

Jenna gets an updo….

Jenna tries to remove her updo….the hairspray was a first cousin to Gorilla Glue I believe !!! (I deleted the pic- just picture more hair spray than you have ever seen!!!)

Jenna’s Seventh:

Yet another garage party. Jenna’s friends requested another garage party. This time we did an all girl party. (Well, almost all girls- One of Jen’s best friends is Ryan and she wanted him to come anyway. We had Ryan a boy pillowcase.) The girls colored Hannah Montana pillowcases that I ordered from Oriental Trading. They made homemade body glitter. I saved baby food jars, made cute labels, and the girls mixed glitter into aloe gel. They also made a homemade oatmeal milk bath out of baby oatmeal and dry milk. They also put these into specially labeled baby food jars. After all of this fun the girls enjoyed a game of Wii Sing it.

Jade’s First:

Jade’s birthday is at the end of May, so it was HOT! We did it outside. We served BBQ and Stew and the fixins. We only had family and a FEW close friends. My brother, sis in law, and new niece came from Oregon. This was my niece, Victoria’s debut appearance in Eatonton. Most people swam. I decorated with hot pink, lime green, and zebra print.

These shoes came from Heelarious. Check out all of their choices.

Jade’s tutu outfit was ordered from a girl on eBay. I forgot her name, but it wasn’t hard to find. I did not have a “1” put on her hat so that she can wear it again.

Yes, that is a beach umbrella on the Polaris. We needed to keep the sun off of Jade during her birthday rides. You will be happy to know that the Polaris is at the shop getting a real top installed as I type. I know it’s a little (lot) redneck!

I like this picture I took of all 3 girls.

I made this invitation for Jade. I was pleased with its outcome.

cupcakes at daycare

My grandparents and AUnt Bonnie enjoy Victoria.

Uncle Todd and AUnt Caroline with Victoria.

Jenna has already begun to plan her 8th party. I will share her ideas, but if you are a local, please don’t take her ideas. This is a rather strange idea, but it is the result of a lot of brainstorming on Jenna’s part. Several of her friends and our families have decided to do $10 cash or $10 gift cards to a requested place instead of the traditional gifts. This seems like a good idea for numerous reasons: 1) $10 is less than most of us would spend on a regular gift and 2) The child would then have $100 or more dollars to go on a shopping spree to buy whatever they want. 7 and 8 year olds LOVE the idea of have that much money to spend. Anywhoo…Jenna has decided that she wants a “Wal Mart” party. She wants smiley face invites, smiley face balloons and cake. For gifts she wants Wal Mart gift cards. ($10). Yes, a little odd, but it’s her birthday and I think its a great idea. I’m thinking we can make smiley face tshirts with either bleach pens or rubber stamps. If you live far away from me, feel free to steal her idea.