Nautical Theme Baby Boy Shower

Next party on the list- one of my best friend's is having a baby boy and the theme is Nautical. Will post more at the beginning of November!

Dad's Retirment Party

Sorry, some of the pictures do not line up with the description or text. Still trying to figure out how to format pictures and text.... :-(

After 3 months of keeping my dad's retirement a secret, we were able to have fun and celebrate his 30 years of working as a teacher.

First, I started off with the invitations that I made through Seehere.com.

For the theme we decided to do a "this is your life" where each table piece would represent a fun fact about our dad. In total, we would have 7 different "little known fact" centerpieces.

I also had to get a bit creative because as we were having the party at a restaurant I had less room to decorate, but I worked with what I had. I did take my own white tablecloths. What was awesome also, was that the decorations did not cost anything because I took items from my house and from my parent's house so that was a bonus and I used my picture frames that I already had a home, so the only thing I had to do was print out the summaries.

Here are pictures I took at home to get an idea of how I would set up at the restaurant.

Here is the "banner" centerpiece.

The "Culture" centerpiece.

The "Nativity Scene" centerpiece.

The "Marriage" Centerpiece

and
The "Children and Grandchild" Centerpiece

The "Graduation" Centerpiece

The "World Traveler" Centerpiece

Ohhhh... as always, my favorite part of the party planning and at the party is the cake!!! I LOVE my cake lady, Rosalinda which one of my best friend's, Alexis, introduced me to since my original cake lady is on medical leave. :-(

Rosalinda replicated the picture of what I wanted the cake to look like to perfection! Even people at the restaurant and the waiters would stop by and comment on the awesome cake!

For the favors, my friend Debbie went with me shopping at Michael's to get inspired on what cookie cutters I would use. We found a triple pack of cookie cutters that included a train, a plane, and a race car. It was perfect! I was a bit frustrated because the cookies when cut out looked like the mode of transportation.... when baked and frosted turned out to look a bit like the continent of Asia among others... but it helped that I was able to attach a label to each favor. :-) I made half of the batch sugar cookies and the other half gingerbread cookies.

The Train

The Race Car

The Plane

Now, what would a party be without some fun games. I'll be honest with you, it was a bit hard to yell over so much noise at the restaurant, but boy was it fun.For the first game, I had the "Name the New Hobby" They had 1 minute to complete the game. Whoever had answered the most, won a prize which was a ceramic treasure chest that read: "For Your Retirement".The funny part was collecting the game cards and having my dad read them that night. BOY.... were there some interesting answers! :-)Name the New Hobby

Write an activity that Rodrigo can do that begins with each letter

“The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.

A N
B O
C P
D Q
E R
F S
G T
H U
I V
J W
K X
L Y
M Z

The 2nd game was "Retirement Bingo". My husband and I had a great time one night thinking of what would go in each box. The game was so much fun and a hit that we played a couple rounds even though I only had one prize. Unfortunately, I am not able to post a picture of the game card, my computer is acting up a bit, but examples of what were in the boxes were such thing as: "Finding a 2nd Career," "Shaving off my mustache", "Learning to use the Microwave", "Throwing away his lesson plans," "Cooking a dinner for mom" etc...

Dad's Retirement Party

After 3 months of keeping my dad's retirement a secret, we were able to have fun and celebrate his 30 years of working as a teacher.

Lucia's Sweet Shoppe Continued....

So here are the pictures from my daughter's birthday party with family and friends. I was very happy with the way it turned out after so much planning and hard work!

Each of the tables for the centerpieces included a small bucket that I filled with either tootsie rolls or jelly beans and in the middle of it was a confetti looking branch which I bought during Christmas time at Target, as well as a lollipop and a paper lollipop that had the number 1 on it which I made on the computer and used lollipop sticks to hold it up.

In the middle of the tables as well as the cake and food table were giant "candies" which was simply one of my scarves wrapped up with the peppermint wrapping paper and tied at each end with curling ribbon.

Notice the "Pin the Candle on the Cupcake" and the Piñata that worked great as decorations when they were not being played with. I have to be honest, we did not get to play the "Pin the Candle on the Cupcake" because I was terrified that the kids would get it dirty... but we did play the Piñata and the first child after the birthday girl pulled the corresponding string and the candy came out! :-)

The decorations that I have hanging are both from the Dollar Store, that read, "Happy 1st Birthday" and Peppermint candies that I found at the same store during Christmas time. The big plastic candy hanging was found at Target during the after Christmas sales!





Aren't the cakes ADORABLE!!! One of my best friend's knows a lady from church that makes cakes and she thought the idea of making a mini-version was so cute! I added the lollipops to both cakes.

I also made two different signs using the candy cane font that you can find if you google it online to read: "Welcome" with the same candy and cupcake coloring cut outs that I used for the candy shoppe board and another that read: "Lucia's Sweet Shoppe is Open" and they were placed outside in the parking lot with more lollipops that showed the way to the hall where we held the party. With all the excitement... I forgot to take pictures of the signs... :-(

The picture frame that you see below is yet another fun freebie that I found online that Walgreen's was promoting about a month ago where you could put together a collage of pictures. I used pictures from my daughter's 1st year.

For my daughter's baby shower, I had the idea of instead of serving just slices of cheese for a platter, why not get creative and use a cookie cutter to bring them to life.... so, for the baby shower I cut out baby feet and duckies. This time, I borrowed my friend's "1" cookie cutter and the result is below. I didn't even remember to take a picture during the party, so I took one when I was home. :-)

We also had a D.J., which was my brother , who did us the great favor of ditching his genre of music that he usually plays and replaced it with kid theme songs for the first hour.

I also had a lot of great help from my sister-in-law, and my in-laws, and my youngest brother for coming to help me decorate the hall and get things in order!

We had such a wonderful time and I can't believe our beautiful daughter is now 1. I'll admit, my wheels are turning and I already have her theme in mind for her 2nd birthday... hahaha... it's a secret, wait till next February!

Lucia's Sweet Shoppe 1st Birthday Parties

For my daughter's birthday I thought it would be an adorable idea to have a Sweet Shoppe theme. Growing up planning birthday's with a theme was a must and so now that I have a daughter of my own, I am excited to do the same.

The idea came to me about 3 months ago.

I first started with the invitations and it just happened to be around the time that Seehere.com was offering 50 free photo cards and so I took the opportunity and that is where it all began. Well, actually that is not entirely true... Back in September I took a trip to the local CVS store to discover that they had two aisles full of party supplies on 90% off and it so happened that they had a lot of 1st birthday stuff which was awesome! The plates, napkins, goodie-bags, stickers and birthday hats had candy prints on them and that is when the idea clicked. I really wish I would have taken a picture of the plates...

During my CVS trip where I hit the jack-pot, I also found 1st birthday invitations... so, what I did was cut out the photo card and pasted it onto the invite to give it more color and Sweet Shoppe wording and attitude.

So, here is a picture showing the party hats that I purchased at CVS. The plates are the same print. I had also collected countless of lollipops and I used them as decoration both on the wall and on the centerpieces. These here on the wall were for Lucia's party at home. I later used the same lollipops for centerpieces for her big party which you will see a bit later. The lollipops wrapped in cellophane I made stapling two paper plates together, and then inserting a stick between the two paper plates, wrapping them in cellophane tying it off with curling ribbon. I was able to make around a dozen of these in different colors and it is waay cheaper using paper plates, then buying styro foam circles that cost up to five bucks a piece!

So... Lucia technically had 2 parties. One at our house, where her playmate friends came over and one back where family lives 3 hours away with family and friends. I was able to use much of what I had bought for both parties but on different scales. For this party, I made cupcakes instead of having cake, and as snacks, I had out small bags of pretzels, and Gerber Puffs, veggie-puffs, and dry snack food for the little ones. And for the bigger kids, I had popped bags of popcorn.

Now for the Piñata and the "Pin the Candle on the Cupcake" game! I instantly fell in love with these two items which I found on http://www.birthdayexpress.com/. Both were such great hits and adorable. What I love so much about the Piñata is that you pull on the string and one of them breaks the piñata open, which is awesome for little ones instead of handing them over a bat, and the pin the candle on the cupcake banner is great for future birthdays and for hanging up around the house as decoration for the birthday child!


Now, for the cute sign that I printed out and framed for the candy buffet. I wish I could take the credit for such a cute idea, but I borrowed it from http://hissyfitsphotography.com/blog/category/party-shoppe/ Be sure to check out her blog on her daughter's Sweet Shoppe party which was adorable! I also borrowed the wording for my daughter's invites. Along with the sign, I used my silver napkin holder and filled it with colorful paper bags for the guests to use at the candy buffet.

The peppermint candies that are attached to the frame were from a pack of Martha Steward place cards that I purchased at Michael's for 75% after Christmas sale!

Now, for my prize possession that I am so proud of! My Sweet Shoppe background. I put this together in a matter of two hours because I was so pumped! I bought a tri-fold science board, the heart foam hearts and the stickers all at Michaels. For the canopy top I purchased a big foam board and cut them out to form each panel and then I glued it to a piece of cardboard. The "OPEN" sign was made from real peppermint candies and I went online to print out coloring pages for the cupcake and candies that I glued to the background.

The bowls that I used to hold the candy were bought from Kohls. They had cupcakes and candy on them. Also, I had a framed picture of my daughter wearing her candy birthday outfit that reads, "My Little Cupcake" on the buffet table, also from Kohls.

I also made a birthday banner where I used peppermint candy wrapping paper that I had purchased from the Dollar Bin at Target during the holidays and then I covered paper plates with it. I then traced letters and numbers using pin and brown polka dot ribbon, glued them to the plates and connected them with ribbon.

Here is one more picture of decorations that I put up around our house for her at home party including the lollipops I made.

Now onto the favors for the kids. I had purchased the bags yet again thanks to the great Dollar Bin at Target and the goodies inside for the older kids was play dough, flavored lip balm, candy heart bracelet kits that you put together, pencils, and for the boys I had yo-yo's, stickers, bouncy balls and for the baby girl's I made lollipops out of baby leg warmers. I have seen examples of these made out of baby towels, but I thought I'd kick it up a notch. I was really happy with the way they turned out!

The candies that are attached to the favor bags were from the 99 cent store that I bought around the holiday's, they are Christmas ornaments. The place cards are the Martha Stewart peppermint place cards.

On the corner of the favor table you can sort of see one of the games that I made for the party. I used the peppermint wrapping paper to cover a Styrofoam square and I inserted three smaller sized lollipops and used cookie cutter shapes as the rings for the ring toss game.

The Purpose

I thought it would be a fun way to publish and share ideas for parties that I have completed and ones that are in the works. I enjoy googling party theme ideas for inspiration and I hope to contribute. Enjoy!