Little J's Kitty Party

I think this is my last catch up post from 2014 :) We had a weekend of parties in December with Little J's 3rd birthday starting things off. Little J started planning her party back in March after Miss A's birthday. Initially she wanted a purple party, but over time she added kitties to it, so it was a purple kitty party. In the week before her birthday (after receiving some Hello Kitty things for her birthday) she decided it was a Hello Kitty party, so we added in some Hello Kitty decorations. 

I got a Hello Kitty popcorn maker in a white elephant gift exchange last Christmas, which came in quite handy for Little J's kitty party. She loves popcorn, so it's very fitting. We had a few other snacks, plus Little J favorites mac and cheese, ham and dinner rolls. I put up a few kitty decorations, and a 3 made of pictures of Little J as I have for previous parties. 

I found some kitty masks at Michael's around Halloween, so I got a bunch for the kids to decorate at the party.

Though in most ways Little J reminds me of her Daddy, she does share my love of chocolate. She requested a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I know that's not for everyone, and the 3 takes two cakes, so I made one chocolate cake and one yellow cake. Little J was really excited for everyone to sing to her, but got a little shy when it was actually happening. Such a little cutie!

Uncle B and Aunt S got Little J a Hello Kitty pinata as part of her gift and she thought it was really fun. It was cold the night of her party, so we let the kids do the pinata in our basement. Because my little brother brought the pinata, I made him hold it while giving the little people a broom to swing at the pinata. That might have been my favorite part. That or the caramel Hershey's kisses inside. They were really tasty.

Miss A's Tea Party

This year Miss A's birthday party was a little more low key than past years, and A LOT more girly.  After some negotiation, we decided on a butterfly tea party theme.  Miss A had a lot of opinions about her party this year.  Thankfully nothing was too crazy.  We ended up with 5 friends coming over to celebrate, for a total of 7 little girls 5 and under. There was lots of laughing, squealing and so much fun!

For the party, I only decorated the dining room, where we would do most of the activities, including the tea party.  I got some butterfly fabric from JoAnn to use as a tablecloth, a chalkboard paper banner from Target (I wrote Happy 4th Birthday), some paper lanterns from Michael's, flowers, balloons and lots of pictures of Miss A.

I found butterfly wings at the dollar store last month, and bought enough for all of Miss A's friends.  I also got plain white tea cups with plates for all of the girls.  One of the activities was for the girls to decorate their tea cups (I completely forgot to take pictures of the girls working on this because I was busy helping with the decorating).  I've seen the idea pop up on Pinterest a few times, and after looking at many, many pins, we used Sharpie Oil-Based Paint Markers to decorate the tea cups.  We rinsed them out after using the cups for our tea party, and sent instructions home with the girls for how to bake the cups (I thought this post was helpful. Miss A and I did a trial run in advance, and all went well).

The tea party itself was lots of fun.  We had apple juice for tea, and the girls were so cute drinking out of their fancy cups!  (I'm sure the cups will be used many more times around our house.) Miss A planned the lunch menu of hot dogs, chips, berries, grapes and string cheese.

Another activity the girls did was decorate butterflies.  Making "crafts" is one of Miss A's current favorite activities, so it seemed fitting for her birthday party.  I put out crayons, markers, puff balls, glitter glue, stickers and washi tape, and let the girls go.  The glitter glue was a HUGE hit, but it wasn't dry before the girls left, so we have some deliveries to make later.

Of course, we couldn't forget cake and ice cream!  Miss A really just likes the frosting.

Our annual picture with Mommy, Daddy and the birthday girl.

Little J's Minnie Mouse Themed Birthday Party

For Little J's 2nd birthday party, I had an owl theme in mind, but as her birthday got closer, Little J started to really like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  A quick search on Pinterest gave me plenty of ideas for a Minnie Mouse party and I was pretty happy with how it turned out!

For the invitations, I used a circle cutter and circle punch to a make two different sized circles to make the main mouse sillouette.  I cut the white paper with the writing to a slightly smaller circle and added a red and white bow.  (As much as I like pink, I really wanted to stick to a black, white and red theme, which is surprisingly difficult to find for Minnie Mouse things.)

I did a 3 in pictures for Miss A's party, and it was such a great
way to display a bunch of pictures that I had to do it again.  

My littles love balloons, so we covered the floor with red and black balloons.  I bought some red and white polka dot fabric to use as a tablecloth, made a TWO banner, and used a bunch of pictures of Little J from 1 to 2 to round out the decorations.

As the kids arrived, I took a picture of each one with Mickey or Minnie ears.  I found the Minnie ears with the red bow at Target and a friend gave me the pink Minnie ears and a set of Mickey ears.  Even E and I got to wear ears.

All of our family is out of town, so we did an evening party to give everyone time to get here.  We had hot dogs and some other snacks.  Little J's favorite part of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is the hot dog song and dance at the end, so it was fitting.

We had cupcakes (of course!) for dessert.  E and I had to be at a work dinner the night before the party, so we ordered basic cupcakes from my favorite local bakery, Roseville Bakery, and added Oreo Mickey's to the tops.  

I thought the cupcakes (and Oreo's) were quite tasty, Little J however wanted nothing to do with her cupcake.  I was a very disappointed Mama.  I had been hoping for a very messy 2 year old :)

The main activity for the little guests was to decorate cookies.  The girls and I made about 75 Mickey Mouse shaped sugar cookies and frosting, and bought a variety of sprinkles for decorating.  I think this was a pretty big hit.  Little J and Miss A both loved it, along with their cousins and friends at a variety of ages.  It also kept their attention for quite awhile.

We also had a flashlight dance party in the basement. Not easily photographed, but a favorite activity around our house.  We turn off all the lights, give the kids flashlights, turn on some music and dance.  I saw most of the kids (and even a few adults) dancing away.

 I kept my eye out for Mickey and Minnie Mouse coloring books, and managed to find enough for everyone at a dollar store. I picked up some crayons and tied a ribbon around each set as a party favor for all of our little guests.

We had such a fun day with lots of family and friends!  Thanks to everyone who was able to celebrate with us!

Secret Agent Josephine

As I mentioned a few months back, we used this book as the inspiration for Little J's 1st birthday party.  It ended up being a fun night with lots of family and friends there to celebrate with us.  We had a copy of the book out for people to sign as a little birthday guest book, and some disguises for people to pick up on their way in.  There were also secret agent rings (ring pops) and explosives (pop rocks).  All of the little secret agents got their own secret agent kit including a mini notebook, crayon rings, magnifying glass and kazoo.

I made Little J a birthday banner, just like the one I made for Miss A's 1st birthday.  I'm hoping to be able to use them again for future birthday parties.  I also displayed Little J's monthly photos like at Miss A's party.  It is crazy to see the change from 1 month to 12 months when all of the pictures right next to each other.

 

I had two main activities set up for the little agents. First, there were supplies to decorate their own secret agent gadgets, binoculars.  The binoculars are just two toilet paper rolls glued together.  Miss A made these at day care last year and played with them for weeks.  We also have a lot of Mr. Potato heads, so I set up a Mr. Potato head station on the other end of the table for the little agents to play with.

We ordered cupcakes and a smash cake from our favorite, the Roseville Bakery.  This is the same place we used for our wedding cupcakes, as well as both girls' baptisms and Miss A's 1st birthday.  They are oh-so-very tasty!

Below are a few shots of Little J enjoying her birthday party!

And, of course, the cake!  I prefer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for the 1st birthday party (and always), because it makes such a nice big mess!  Little J was much more willing to get her hands on the cake than her big sister was, but after a little bit, she still wanted to sit on Mommy's lap.  She still ate quite a bit of the cake by the time I put her in the bathtub.

For some reason, both with her birthday and Christmas presents, Little J thought it was necessary to be on top of the presents.  Not sure why, but it was pretty cute to watch her try to get the wrapping paper off of what she was sitting on (and luckily, nothing was breakable!).

Our Mommy, Daddy, birthday girl shot for Little J's 1st birthday.

And one of the whole family.  Miss A looked SO funny in her disguise, while Little J preferred to eat hers.