benjamin is seven {birthday party}

I’m finally blogging my own child’s party! This little boy loves (LOVES) Star Wars, which makes his dad very happy. I found some great ideas on Pinterest, and I have a mom and mother in law who are helpful with my crazy ideas!

First, a couple handsome kid portraits! (Thanks to my mom for making the “B” shirt!!)

I had a lot of fun with the food!

The menu: Palpatine Pizzas (English muffin pizzas), Vader Veggies with Droid Dip, Boba Fruit, Wookie Cookies (I made star shaped sugar cookies), Light Sabers (pretzel sticks dipped in the colored candy melts from Michael’s), Tie Fighters (100 Calorie Pack Oreo cookies stuck to a mini marshmallow with melted white chocolate chips), Thermal Detonators (Whopper candy) with Bantha Blue Milk and Yoda Soda (1 pint lime sherbet and a 2 liter of Sprite) to drink. And we had to have Hoth Chocolate Cakes (just cupcakes with silver sugar on top). I found some free fonts online for the invitation, banner, cupcake toppers, etc (here and here).

Party favors: A bag with a Star Wars eraser, Space flash cards and 2 glow sticks (I found all of these in the dollar section at Target). We also gave each child an inflatable light saber (from party city) and a Jedi robe (made by my amazing mother in law).

My mother in law also painted this Yoda, who was a photo booth background and the “Pin the lightsaber on Yoda” game. We also played Star Wars Bingo (free printable here), did a Stormtrooper craft (free printable here), and played with Star Wars masks and toys.

The guests had a blast, as did the birthday boy!

jake, sam and carter are four {pirate birthday party}

These little boys got to celebrate their fourth birthday with a pirate party this past weekend, and it was super fun!

I love this cake!!

Jack Sparrow even came for some swordfighting!

Then it was time for singing and cake!

jack is seven {long beach, ca birthday party}

We spent yesterday celebrating our cousin’s 7th birthday. It was complete with a pizza-making firetruck and awesome printables by paper&CAKE. My boys had a blast exploring the fire truck and eating all sorts of yummies. (My personal favorite: the “fiery jello”!) Thanks for a fun day, Abby & family!!! Happy birthday Jack!!

hudson is two {los angeles, ca birthday party}

I do love a birthday party!! Hudson turned two last week, and his awesome fire truck party was Saturday. There were AMAZING cupcakes.

Pulled pork sandwiches, hot dogs, and other yummies.

A super cute birthday boy.

Who is going to be a big brother in September!!

A super sweet family.

Presents!

Cupcake eating!

Hudson is certainly a blessed little boy – he has so many people who love him!! I had a blast and can’t wait to photograph these wonderful people again soon!! 🙂

benjamin is six {agoura hills, ca birthday party}

My oldest son turns six tomorrow, and we celebrated yesterday with a president party! My sweet boy has been into presidents for quite some time, and the day after he turned five he said “next year I should have a PRESIDENT party, mom!” I was sure he would change his mind, but he was still talking about it over the summer so after the 4th of July I picked up some clearance paper goods (plates, cups, star-shaped trays and a flag tablecloth) as well as some small flags. I had no idea what a president party would involve, but thankfully I’m related to a bunch of super creative people! The wonderful Abigail of paper & CAKE sent over her two 4th of July party collections, and I used some things from each of them. I picked up some streamers and play money at the party store and added balloons and some president photos I printed, and that was all I needed to decorate!

Food: We ate grilled cheese sandwiches, apple slices, carrots, pretzel sticks, and everyone’s favorite (and the only thing my son asked for): a popcorn bar. It’s messy, but a hit! And of course, there was cake!! I made chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and red & blue sprinkles and a yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

Fun: My wonderful mother-in-law painted an Abraham Lincoln to use for photos and a ball-toss game. We also played “Pin the Cherry on the Tree” (I painted a tree on some cardboard, cut out a white circle for the “target” and cut red circles for each child). For a craft, I bought some $1 unfinished frames at Michael’s and some plastic coins, felt star stickers, and beads to decorate them.

Party favors: I found these cute star cello bags on clearance! For the big kids: President flash cards from the $1 section at target, and Washington, DC sticker sets and president pencils from Oriental Trading Company. For the littler kids: A patriotic rubber duck and star sunglasses, also from Oriental Trading Co. I added some ribbon and a paper & CAKE tag, and that was it!

The birthday boy in his super cute “B” shirt! Thank you to Chrissy at sewlux – he would like to wear his new shirt every day! 🙂

scarlett turns one! {newark, ca birthday party photographer}

scarlett is one famous little girl! her amazing parents have been through quite a ride this last year. if you haven’t heard her story, here’s scarlett’s blog. it worked out that i could go to newark for scarlett’s birthday party, and i’m so glad i could make it! every time i think of chris, brandi and scarlett and the journey they have been on together during this past year, i can do nothing but be thankful. thankful for parents who FIGHT, thankful for my kids, thankful that even in the hardest of times there are bright lights.

here are my faves from scarlett’s first {miraculous} birthday party. love all the rainbows…the beauty after the rain.

happy 3rd birthday noah! {agoura hills, ca birthday party}

 

Finally, I’m blogging my kiddo’s third birthday party!!

First, props to my friend Chrissy of sewlux who made this super cute 3 shirt for the birthday boy! She also made the train tote that I put the favors in (see the end of the post). You rock, Chrissy!!

All these uber-cute printables came from paper&CAKE. Aren’t they perfect?! I printed, added some red rick-rack and voila! a door sign!

Hot glue, skewers, and these train printables = great decorations!

I love these colors – red and light blue are so fantastic together.

The cake ~ I made it, and it was so easy. I baked 2 nine inch round cakes, cut one in half and stacked them, then tinted some vanilla frosting blue and green and added blue and green sugar and found this candle. Easy peasy.

I loved this find – these letters were on clearance at Michael’s for 29cents apiece! I painted and decorated them and they looked so cute on the food table.

Yum, popcorn bar!

I used the cupcake circles for chair garlands and the food table.

Juice box wraps I made with blue paper and some stickers.

Craft: I bought some foam door hangers, letters and shapes and let the kids go to town. It was a huge hit, and I had kids as young as 2 and up to 9 doing this project.

Another find – engineer’s caps on oriental trading company. I sent one home with everyone as well!

I set out all our trains/tracks and several kids had a blast with them!

Coloring table. {Those sweet pages came with the paper&CAKE set!}

Favors: lollipops and train whistles from oriental trading company. Super cute train bin by Chrissy at sewlux!

happy birthday evan {manhattan beach, ca children’s photographer}

Happy birthday, Evan!! I can’t believe this little guy is already a year old! I shot these fun cake smash photos at the end of the portrait session we did a couple weeks ago, and it was HILARIOUS! First, I have to thank Florence and Alex for being willing to let their child eat cake on a blanket on sand!

Florence found this bib and hat in an etsy shop – I love them!!

happy birthday hailey! {agoura hills, ca child photographer}

 

Hailey is one of Benjamin’s friends and she just turned five! We celebrated with her at the park with a garden party, complete with flower pot painting/planting flowers, butterfly/bee/dragonfly/snail cakes, and a piñata!

The birthday girl:

 

 

I love this – fruit on skewers! There’s a head of lettuce in the bottom of the flower pot, covered with kale – looks perfectly garden-y!

 

She was very proud of her first lost tooth:

 

The boys wearing the ladybug antennae might have been my favorite part:

happy birthday joey! {beaumont, ca child photographer}

 

Jen and James have been friends of ours since college (not that long ago, right? right?!) 😉 Now we each have two boys, and it was a blast to celebrate their older son’s fourth birthday this past weekend! He requested a spider party (and she added a bit of spiderman too). There were gigantic spiders all around, a piñata, YUMMY cake pops (should have grabbed more of those on our way out…), and lots of fun!