Pinterest and Parties

Oh Hai! Long time no speak. Why? Because I have been crazy busy with an almost toddler, a baptism party and planning Emma's first birthday. Things have been just a smidge crazy in our house, and I have been going in circles in my head making lists and trying to figure out everything that needs to happen for the birthday.

The expectation that Pinterest has put on us mothers to create cute and adorable and handcrafted parties has made me a crazy woman once again. Why did I even go online and look up inspiration photos for this party? I put together lots of items in my board and thinking to myself that I got off easy because I picked an easy theme. HA HA HA ha. (insert sarcastic laughter) I my head doing a 4th of July inspired BBQ was easy. But now with all of my "inspiration" I am feeling the stress. I think I say this with EVERY party I do. Why why why do I do this to myself? After a couple of crafting weekends under my belt, invitations out and decisions made I am feeling better and we will hopefully be able to enjoy this upcoming weekend as a early birthday celebration for me and the hubbies first Father's Day.

What's a post without a couple of craft updates (Pinterest inspiration), and a Pinterest fail!

The hubby and I painted this wooden pallet as a flag inspiration. It was a fun project that we did together, and it can be used as decor on our porch, when we have one.

Again, I saw this inspiration on Pinterest and had to do it because it was so cute. They are firecrackers made out of pool noodles and some wire decor. They were hung from the ceiling in the pin, but our location has vaulted ceilings and I cannot do that, so they are going to be table center pieces.

There's no first birthday without a highchair banner. I took inspiration from two separate pins and blended them together. Excuse the blurry image of Emma, but I LOVE this thing! It was so fun to make. I also made some "sacks" for sack races. Hopefully I can come back and do another post with all the fun things I am planning.

I promised a Pinterest fail didn't I? Well, in all my glory of ideas I plan on making Emma's smash cake. I have some cake decorating tools so I thought that I would practice. Here's my inspiration:

Source

Seems simple enough. I emptied a couple of large cans of chicken and baked my cakes to have a small little three tiered cake. I then died my frosting using liquid food coloring....mistake one, it wasn't even red or blue. Then I used my horrible tool and started frosting.

NOT EVEN CLOSE!

I kept trying and it wasn't working so I eventually just ended up with this:

I was so frustrated that I had a mini meltdown and cried in my hubbies lap. I eventually calmed down and once at work asked a coworker if she had better decorating tools. She brought me an arsenal and I practiced my roses on a plate.

Much better. I feel a little more confident that I can pull off the cake now. All I need is some gel food coloring. Pray that I don't die of frustration before the party! Happy Monday!

DIY Pinata - Gender Reveal Party

I was in hardcore "save money" mode in planning our gender reveal party. I knew I wanted to incorporate my craft side and make lots of cute and fun things for the party. I came across the idea to reveal the gender using a pinata. Basically you can fill it with colored confetti and when its broken open the specific color is showered down, but I wanted to make it like a traditional pinata and fill that bad boy with candy. We decided that we were going to write the pertinent information on the candy and once it was broken open then the guests would have to rummage through to find the piece. It was a fun and new way to reveal to our family and I loved it. The next decision was what would the pinata look like. I scoured the internet until I decided that I didn't like anything in my price range and that "it didn't look that hard to do." So I enlisted the help of my hubby and we made our own Question Mark pinata.

What You'll Need:
Cardboard (Big pieces)
Pencil
Xacto Knife
Masking Tape
Crepe Paper (I used streamers from The Dollar Tree)
White Glue
Scissors

Directions:
1. Draw out your shape onto the cardboard. Since mine was a big question mark and I wanted it to look proportional, so I had to re-draw it a couple of times to get the shape right. To make the question mark you will need (2) sets of the main shape, (2) 6"x 6" squares, (4) 4"x 6" squares and several long 4" wide strips for the sides.

2. After you cut out your shapes, its time to assemble. Take your masking tape, one main body and the 4"W long strips and start to shape and tape them to the main body. Tape the sides all the way around and repeat with the back. Use the same technique for the dot of the question mark. I made sure to glue a string attaching the dot to the main body. Don't forget to cut a fill hole at the top and add in your hangar before you decorate. It will be easier to do it now.

3. Take your streamers and cut 3/4 of the way up the sides ever 1/2" down. Take your glue and apply a strip of glue to your base and attach the streamer. This is the time consuming part. Sit in front of the tv and listen to your favorite show and just keep applying streamers in sections all the way around until its completely covered.

4. Take a gander at your completed pinata, and let your hubby pretend to take a whack at it with some wrapping paper.

This is a super simple project, but time consuming. I would say to start working on it at least two weeks before your event to ensure you have enough time! At least now I know how to do it, so if baby girl ever asks me to make one for her birthday parties, I know I can!

Have you hosted a gender reveal party? How did you announce your little ones gender?

Ties or Tutus? A Gender Reveal Party!!

This post is WAY long overdue. I am so sorry. Things just went crazy after we announced that we are having a baby girl. However that is no reason for my tardiness! We have been packing to move, trying to figure out what to register for, which is a whole other post, and frankly I have just been so exhausted! #preggoproblems! Anyways, here's the recap of our gender reveal party, or as we called it Ties or Tutu's.

I scoured Pinterest, of course, for many ideas for decor, food, and creative ways to announce our baby's gender. I saw many many of the same announcement ideas and I really wanted to step out of the box a little. I saw the Ties or Tutu's theme and just fell in love. I was a dancer as a child and in my formative years, and my hubby works in a bank and wears a tie everyday so I thought it was super appropriate. Although in hindsight.....in looking at our chalkboard....many people commented on Facebook and Instagram that they thought it read Tits or Tutu's and didn't know the gender difference. I guess it was a good thing that she ended up being female! Haha

I decided to go with a dessert table covered half in pink and half in blue. We had two different types of popcorn in custom boxes, caramel corn and kettle corn. (per daddies request) We made pink and blue chocolate covered strawberries, funfetti cupcakes with custom cake toppers, to fit the theme, and had candy, left over from our reveal. I made pinwheels and hung streamers in pink blue and white to complete the backdrop. I also made "Tie" and "Tutu" signs that were meant for a game that we didn't end up playing, so they just doubled as decor. We used them in our announcement photo and I will put the best ones in her baby book!

Custom Popcorn Boxes

The Dessert Table

"Tie" Game Signs

Cupcakes with custom toppers "Ties and Tutu's" of course

Pink and Blue chocolate covered strawberries!

Once everyone arrived we mingled a bit, got very few photos, and ate some SUPER yummy food made by my cousin, who generously opened her home to us, and my mom. They made pineapple Swedish meatballs, chicken wing bites, strawberry and walnut salad, and potato skins. I forgot to take photos, and need to get these recipes because they were Ah.Mah.Zing!

My outfit. We each wore pink and blue as to not give a hint!

Family mingling and my mom and cousin cooking away

Here are some shots of some more decor items, I made two pennant banners. One that is seen on the chalkboard above and this big one that is seen below along with more pinwheels. I also took our ultrasound photos and the bump shots to date and hung those for everyone to see.

After food we played a couple of games. I wanted them to be light and fun, since this wasn't a baby shower. We did the old wives tales, where I read aloud the old wives tales and we filled in the answers. When I did it for the blog it was boy all the way, but it ended up being a tie at the party. Haha. Then I passed out notecards and asked everyone to write down their best baby names and their worst baby names. We read them aloud and all had a chuckle. There were some doozies!

I figured after those two games we better just announce to everyone what we were having. I spent about 20+ hours making a pinata for our reveal. I wanted it to be cute and special but to be honest I will NEVER make another one. What a time suck! Lol. We filled the pinata with candy and the plan was to have the Great Grandparent's hit first, then the Grandparents and so on. We go four people in and my grandfather took a huge whack and it when flying. So I went and picked it up and told everyone that the answer was written on a piece of candy and they would have to look for it, when in actuality it was written on several boxes of pink Nerds. I dumped the candy on the ground and my brother and sister in law went scouring. In less than 30 seconds my B.I.L. had found one and shouted "ITS A GIRL!" Everyone started crying and hugging, and saying "I knew it." 90% of the people said we were having a girl. 

It was such a fun and exhausting day. I am so glad we announced in a fun and special way. I want to thank my cousin for hosting and helping with the food, my mom for helping cook and keep me sane during the planning process, and my hubby for helping with decisions and being overly excited to have a party. I wouldn't have been able to do it without all there help! Thanks to everyone who came out and celebrated the announcement of our little Baby Girl Kimball! We love you all!

Party Planning - Gender Reveal Style

Snacks: Macaroons, Pretzels, Cupcakes; Games: Handmande by me; Theme: Ties & Tutu's; Decorations: Popcorn, Pinwheels, Banner; Reveal Pinata

Oh my gosh you guys, I am so excited that we have solidified all the details for our gender reveal party!!! We set our date and got together to solidify the details. The hubby and I are so excited to find out the gender of our little one! Our appointment is approaching rapidly and I need to get my butt in gear getting everything in order! We sent out our Evite to immediate family, were trying to keep it small because parties can get out of hand quickly with our family size. I had such fun creating our invite though!

I have so many decor things to work on, that's why I started early! I am making two pennant banners, which I have started....just need to finish them. The hubby and I started our pinata last night also. It was surprisingly easy to do....just needed an extra pair of hands to tape. I will probably post a tutorial on both of these!

 

Is it obvious that we are doing the pink and blue theme? I requested that my baby shower not be pink/blue overload so I figured it was appropriate to do so here. Were doing bar themed appetizery snacks. Chicken wings, meatballs, chips and dip, popcorn.....and of course I am making cupcakes. We will have a couple of games and of course the big reveal! Sorry, we still don't know the gender so you will have to wait a couple of weeks! I still have a TON to make: cupcake toppers, ties/tutus game cards, finish banners, finish pinata, print out games & put the song game on a disc...I know there's more, but my list is at home! I also need to get the utensils and any other decor we need to pick up. My brain is on complete baby overload!!! I think this is normal though! I am getting really excited and I hope you all are too! Stay tuned for all things gender related!

Garden Party Baby Shower (NKoS)

This is kind of a long post with lots of photos! Its worth it though! What a whirlwind May has turned out to be already and its only the 7th! My mom, cousin B and I have been planning a meet the baby shower for my cousin's baby girl Maggie Rose who was born on Feb 23rd. Thanks to Pinterest we got tons of new craft and food ideas. My mom found a super cute invite which she handmade. We had so many handmade touches and really that's what makes parties special.....the details. After getting all our ideas in order, mom and I set forth to make the thank you gifts....I didn't get shots of the complete finished product (with the cellophane) but I will post the tutorial later.....when I find the dimensions. These things are SEW easy.

So thank you gifts were done, we needed to get them stuffed and put into bags. Then we ordered everything to complete the look. Friends of my mom drank the iced Starbucks coffee drinks so we would have enough jars to complete the look, we ordered paper straws, made paper origami flowers and signs, my mom made "cupcakes" out of onesies, receiving blankets and coffee filters. There was nothing left untouched. Throw in a little wildflowers and we are done with our garden themed baby shower.

Thursday and Friday of last week was a whirlwind of cleaning, prepping and shopping. Saturday morning bright and early we arrived to make the sandwiches and put everything together. We had Chicken Salad on Croissants, Roast Beef and Cucumber sandwiches on Rye and Pumpernickel. We had 2 types of salads; Apple Pear and a spring mix. My grammy made a jello salad and we had a chocolate fountain with strawberries and red velvet cupcakes (made by G. Wendy) with little roses on the top. A drink station with glass jars/paper straws awaited to be filled with Lemonade, Iced Tea or Cucumber water. Guests dined, gamed, and held the baby whilst watching momma open her gifts. At the end of a very long Cinco de Mayo we celebrated a wonderful occasion! The hubbs, my cousin and the rest of the boys took to the locale Chili's for beers, wings and of course chips and salsa. They had a great afternoon as well. All the pups had a good time too (Miss Shelby, despite having a hurt leg again, swam in the pool and played with the kids)

As a group gift we had my grandfather make a closet that said "Maggie's Rags" on the front in fabric lettering. We each put in something either handmade or purchased inside. I made some onesies; my mom made an afghan, little baby shoes, a taggie blanket and some pacifier clips; my grandmother made a couple of quilted receiving blankets, and my aunts and cousins filled the rest of it with clothes. For now it will hold her clothes, but when she gets older she will be able to put her dolls in it or make it a doll house. Whatever she likes.

Sunday, after all the shower madness had ended my mom and I made a trip back out to Simi for another party planning discussion. Her best friend's (from High School!) daughter is getting married in August at the Strathern Ranch. We stopped by to get an idea of what the inside of the barn looks like and the grass area where the gazebo is for the ceremony. They already had lots of ideas of what they want to do. Now to make it all come together and flow nicely for their country inspired wedding.

Inside of the barn

We have been joking that the 3 of us should have a party planning business and I came up with the name NKoS (In Chaos) Party Planning. Cause frankly that's exactly how it is planning a party, everything in chaos and our initials spell that out. Thoughts? Maybe we will one day. Right now we are just going keep doing what we love for those we love. Stay tuned!