"Under the Sea" Mermaid 4th Birthay

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Pin It (I'm catching up on parties from this summer and spring! Enjoy!)

We all want to celebrate what our children love and what makes them special, but they often love popular cartoon characters, and the idea of a party filled with pre-packaged, commercial, plasticky decorations and favors can be unappealing. Camilla loves The Little Mermaid, and her mom wanted to honor that but in a less commercial way. We decided to take the party in a more general "mermaid" direction, with some fun nods to her favorite movie. We settled on a pinks and aquas for our color scheme, with seashells and watery details.

I used 36" balloons with tassel tails and small paper lanterns trailing ribbons to evoke jellyfish. Camilla's name was printed in pink glitter cardstock on a watery blue background, with a glittery pink "4" on a seashell announcing her birthday, and some glittery bubble accents.

Camilla's mom Kara kept the snacks simple and adorable. Clamshell cookies, starfish sandwiches, coral cupcakes, bubbly bite fruit kabobs, and crustacean crisps. 

We hung some more of the jellyfish lanterns in the trees, where the breeze really made them look lovely.

For games, we had a mermaid sack race, so the kids could "test out their sea legs." I cut simple mermaid fin shapes out of craft foam sheets and hot glued them to some thrifted pillowcases in our color scheme. I loved how they turned out!

The kids looked so adorable hopping through the grass. And the birthday girl won!

We followed that up with a treasure hunt, with a couple fun nods to The Little Mermaid. We did indeed hide dinglehoppers (plastic forks) and snarfblats (bubble pipes, in this case), and we threw in some candy items for good measure. The kids collected their treasures in beach pails.

After games, the kids happily grabbed their cupcakes and snacks and settled down for a round of "Happy Birthday" and some present opening. My peacock wicker chair seemed like a perfect seashell throne for the little birthday mermaid.

 Happy birthday to the sweetest, bubbliest little mermaid I know!

All photos by Stella Dolce Photography.

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My Dean-O-Saur's 3rd Birthday: Dino Trek at Nashville Zoo

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Rawr!

(I'm catching up on updates from this summer and spring! Enjoy!)

We've all heard the saying that the cobbler's children have no shoes. Sometimes, when I spend so many weekends throwing parties for other folks, the thought of planning my own children's parties can wear on me a little bit. In fact, when my seven-year-old opted to skip his birthday celebration this year in lieu of taking a couple friends to the big trampoline park, I was pretty relieved. But back in April, I found a happy medium between the stress of hosting a bajillion people at my house and skipping the party altogether: the zoo! 

The Nashville Zoo has a wide range of party options, starting at the bare-bones option of just showing up and putting your own food on one of their many picnic tables, all the way up to a catered affair with a personalized tour. We opted for the former, buying tickets for any friends and family members who did not already have memberships, having them meet us at the zoo entrance, and treating them to a low-key picnic and Dino Trek exhibit. It was the best of both worlds: personal, but low-stress. The beautiful weather definitely helped.

When everyone had arrived, we entered the zoo, set up our picnic table, and took turns visiting the Dino Trek exhibit, an amazing walk-through experience featuring many lifelike animatronic dinosaurs. For dino-obsessed Dean, it was heaven. 

I handed out foam dinosaur hats I had found at the Dollar Tree (!) and we explored the prehistoric trails. 

The kids really enjoyed the adorable mini archaeological dig at the end. 

                          

At the end of the Dino Trek tour, we reconvened at the picnic table for some very casual snacks and cupcakes. This part was a bit of a test of my resolve, but my desire for low stress won out. I threw a blue sheet over the picnic table, tossed some of Dean's wooden dinosaurs on the table, simply opened up my plastic containers of sandwiches and snacks, and told everyone to dig in.

Well, I mean I still had to label everything with dorky names. This is me we're talking about. Herbivore snacks (carrots), Pternadon Ptalons (Bugles), Dino Bones (cheese sticks), Velociraptor Eggs (grapes), Brachiasaurwiches, and Tar Pit (chocolate) cupcakes.  

My sister made some adorable dinosaur coookies, too! I love all the bright primary colors. 

 

Dean was a pretty big fan of the cookies, too. 

You can't go wrong with Bugle claws/fingernails.

After the snacks and gift opening, everyone was free to leave or enjoy the rest of the day at the zoo. We hauled our things back to the car in our wagon and had a little fun watching meerkats and riding the carousel. When we went home, there was no mess to clean up. It was a wonderful, stress-free day.

Happy Birthday, my little Dean-o-saur. You are the cheeriest, funniest little guy I know. Thanks for making me laugh every day.

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Smart and Sassy Science Party

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Pin It I had so much fun styling this bright and beautiful science-themed party for a sweet (and smart!) seven-year-old girl over the weekend.

I designed her name banner to resemble elements of the periodic table. The significance of the "7" is that it's her seventh birthday! The significance of each "element"? I have no idea. I am your stereotypical English major, I'm afraid. The backdrop is a sheet of foamcore covered with aqua fabric (I bought a sheet set specifically for this party--it was actually less expensive than buying yardage of aqua fabric, and I thought it would look better than painting the foamcore). The lettering is Cricut's "Short Stuff" font from the Extreme Fonts cartridge, and I cut the big Erlenmeyer flask freehand, with one-inch and one-half-inch hole punch "bubbles."

We went with simple orange- and aqua-frosted cupakes, with a special fondant sculpture inspired by the birthday girl. The cupcakes and fondant work are by the talented ladies at Nashville Sweets.

The rest of the dessert table was chemically inspired. Molecular gum, crystallized sucrose (rock candy), potential energy pellets (Nerds and Jelly Bellies) and (not pictured) molecular chocolate (blue sixlets). I filled labware and other science-y shaped glass bottles with colored water just for a little extra color.

If you follow me on Facebook, you may have seen me working on this atomic mobile. I think it came together nicely--it's just spraypainted Dollar Tree hula hoops, zip ties, and balloons! I wanted to make two, but thunderstorms kept me from getting outside to spray paint the night before the party. I thought it looked pretty cool hanging over the kids' table:

Each place setting had a pair of goggles, and in the middle of the table were some foam letters, stickers and jewels, with instructions to customize them.

I created  a little photo booth for the guests/"future scientists," with another backdrop, a lab coat, some wacky oversize glasses, test tubes filled with colored water, and the hosts' own fabulous vintage chair, which was conveniently within our color scheme.

For drinks, we had Citric Acid Solution (lemonade) and H2O (well, even I know what that is) labeled to coordinate with the theme. Speaking of this theme, I had the idea of molecular models in my head, and I was delighted to find that I could make a number 7 out of "molecules." This little design sort of became the party's logo and inspired a lantern-and-dowel version, pictured below.

I had planned to make a few of these and hang them, when we had planned to have the party outside. However, the rain drove the party inside, where there were no handy hooks and nails, just lovely white walls that I was afraid to damage. But I think the "molecular seven" looks pretty awesome in this window, if I do say so myself.

The guests were entertained by someone from Mr. Bond and the Science Guys, and I myself learned a lot about dry ice from her presentation.

My talented friend Niki had left at this point, so I snapped this blurry pic with my iPhone.

Little scientists took home their goggles and a test tube full of candy from the dessert table.

Excuse the hurried iPhone photo here.

This party was stylish and smart, two things that Smarty Parties always aims for. I really enjoyed it, and I think the birthday girl did, too!

Photography: Stella Dolce Photography, except where noted
Party planning and styling: Smarty Parties
Cupcakes: Nashville Sweets
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