A Birthday Recap

This past weekend we celebrated my younger daughter's birthday at one of the hugely popular bounce places.  I find it difficult to plan her parties given her birthday is just six days into the new year.  I become overwhelmed with Christmas and all its wonderful distractions that planning a fabulous party doesn't happen.  I have learned to decide on a birthday party place and reserve it in October.  I'd love to have her party at our home but for now 20+ kids *inside* my cozy little home isn't manageable. 

Yet again hodge-podge could be used to describe her party.  There was no theme because neither one of us could think of something inspirational.  I used evite for the invitations to save time and money, and because its so darn easy to keep track of the guest list. 

I thought I'd take the easy road again with the cake and during one of our grocery trips we flipped through the cake design book.  Big mistake!!  She picked a Hannah Montana cake - my daughter has never seen the show or heard her songs.  I pulled out all the stops to get her to switch cake designs, even offering to make bumble bee cupcakes with her at home.  Nothing worked.  So I caved and we enjoyed a yummy Hannah Montana cake just like she wanted.

Now lets talk about the favors!  Another hodge-podge of things yet this combination turned out fantastic.  I found these adorable crayon rolls (pictured above) from Baby Bib and Boot on Etsy.  I like to give something useful as party favors and the crayon rolls were perfect.  Great for tucking away in your bag or car to color-on-the-go.

Heather from Chickabug (on Etsy, and check out her blog - lots of great party inspirations and great Etsy finds) sent me the cutest coloring book to include with the favors.  Big thanks again, Heather!!

I popped the crayon rolls, coloring book, and some candy into white party bags from the craft store.  I used birthday bubble circles from Living Locurto, a free printable that I downloaded over the summer, to festively mark the outside of the party bag and tied the top with a ribbon.  Super cute and fun!!

If you are planning a party be sure to check out the great finds on Etsy.  I honestly don't know how I would plan a party without Etsy!

ETS:  How could I forget to tell you about the applique shirt I made for the birthday girl!?!  I used the tutorial from Totally Smitten Mama to make a birthday number shirt for her and it turned out great ... from a distance, I can see all of my zig-zag stitch mistakes ;).