Well, since then I wondered if a circus/carnival theme was too overdone ~ if he was too old since most of the parties I saw were for one, two and three year olds…I toyed with coming up with more of an original theme.
But, ultimately I decided to stick with the {5} ring circus theme with a side of carnival and I am obsessed with pinning, googling, bargain hunting and menu planning.
I recently came across this soiree which is breath taking…honestly there are bajillions of carnival parties out there on the interwebs that are magazine material.
My Mom/Gramma celebrated her 70th birthday over Labor Day weekend.
We knew all along, obviously, that we wanted to do something extra special to celebrate and toyed with the idea of a surprise party, a gathering at a fun Mexican restaurant overlooking Lake Hodges, a formal dinner party or appetizers at sunset. We decided {just 2 weeks before the party} that it would be a beachy brunch.
I sprung into action and set out to find all things turquoise, blue and green! I picked up these simple seashell notecards at Michael’s for just 75¢ a pack, quickly drafted up the inside, printed them and popped them in the mail.
The same day I found the invites, I also picked up four colored glass bottles at Ross on clearance for $2.49 each…
You can see a couple of them in the pic above ~ the other two were perched on the mantel and in the entry way. I also found a cute, beachy sign that said “Sands Of Time” that I leaned up again the bottle that greeted the guests at the front door {unfortunately no pic, but that was also just $2.49}. The turquoise branches were recycled from Elliott’s party in May.
The tablecloth was just a huge piece of burlap that I bought at Home Depot thanks to the idea from my good friend and fellow party planner, Lisa! It was less than $4 and fit the table perfectly. I liked the fact that it was rustic and wrinkled and gave the impression of sand on the beach.
I tried to keep the menu easy and delicious, of course. I chose to do a couple of the breakfast casseroles that can be prepared the night before and taken from the fridge to the oven the next morning for stress-free entertaining. I did one with sourdough, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes and feta adapted from here. Then I did one with the hash browns, sausage, onions, red peppers and cheddar. {see how it comes together in the link above} They were both a huge hit. I named the menu items after San Diego beaches ~ Coronado Breakfast Casserole, Wind N Sea Breakfast Casserole, Fiesta Island Fruit Salad and Mission Beach Monkey Bread.
We sipped on champagne drinks ~ mimosas {OJ} and hibiscus {cranberry juice}
For desserts I made the cake batter blondies, picked up some mini cupcakes and a mini new york cheesecake…
I used some coordinating ribbon {75¢/roll} and made some little picks for the desserts.
It was great to see so many friends from throughout the years…
{Playing “Happy Birthday” on the maracas!}
Singing, making a wish and blowing out the candles…
*****
I really did enjoy throwing this together at the {last minute}. I did what I could here at home like make the paint chip buntings, plan the menu, make the blondies and shop for a few decorations. I made my grocery list, shopped in San Diego and knocked that out the afternoon before the party via Trader Joe’s and Albertson’s. What I love about brunch is that it is extremely affordable ~ all the groceries for about 40 people were approximately $75. I decorated and prepped the casseroles the night before so all I had to do before the party {started at 11am} was put together the fruit salad {bought pre-chopped melon and added grapes} in the glass jar, make the monkey bread and plate the desserts.
Invites, paper plates, napkins, utensils, cups and decor were about $30…everything else I already had or utilized from my mom’s already beachy house!
It was the easiest, breeziest {to-go} party and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.
Mom/Gramma, we hope you enjoyed visiting with all your precious friends and neighbors. Here’s to a wonderful, fresh new year ahead for you! We love you very much and are fortunate to have you in our lives.
*****
I could never stay long enough on the shore, the tang of the untainted, fresh and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought. ~ Hellen Keller
The sea, once it casts it’s spell, holds one in it’s net of wonder forever. ~ Jacques Cousteau
Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
I wanted to share a snippet of a simple little something that I whipped up for my mom’s brunch next weekend.
It literally took less than 20 minutes and will make such a statement when guests enter the room. I am all about big WOW factor without spending a lot of WOW!
I first spotted paint chip buntings here. This is genius…free paint chips and some ribbon or twine and you’ve got color and whimsy and decor all in one ~ necessary for any party! And you can obviously tailor to ANY color scheme.
{sneak peek at [beachy brunch] decor}
1. Pick up some paint chips at your local home improvement store ~ I went to Home Depot and got Behr paint chips.
2. Print out this template ~ I used the large size, but there are four to choose from.
3. Trace the template on the BACK of the paint chip to prevent pen marks on the front of your bunting.
4. Cut triangles out.
5. Punch two holes at the top to string the twine through.
6. Arrange your cut paint chips in a row on the floor in a pattern of your choice.
7. Get your jute twine {that you purchased at HD to make you not feel so guilty about helping yourself to a handful of free paint chips} and unroll to the desired length. I like to have plenty on either end to make hanging easier.
8. String each triangle starting from the back and then through to the other side until you have all triangles strung ~ I used 12.
9. Decide how far apart you’d like your triangles and adjust accordingly ~ mine are about 2 inches apart.
10. Hang below your fireplace mantel, across a window sill or out on your front door.
*****
It really is a HAPPY, quick and inexpensive way to decorate for a party or season.
I {may} have picked up some Halloween and fall colors.
There are oodles of fabulous party blogs out there these days. Between these blogs and Pinterest, inspiration has no limits.
I look at some of these blogs and gush over these parties and celebrations and immediately want MY next shindig to rival what I see. I guess you could say that the pressure is there to {compete} with all these magazine worthy festivities.
Yes, I do feel the pressure, but I know that I cannot, single handedly pull off the equivalent of these parties. I have no idea what the hosts budgets are, but I know that when I do parties, I must stick to my budget regardless of what other people’s financial situations may be.
I am OK with this, of course. I would rather throw a modest celebration that is perfectly thought out, carefully planned and executed rather than nothing at all.
I remember Ina Garten mentioning on her show once that all you need is simple, cohesive decor and not a huge, over the top tablescape. That school of thought has stuck with me.
Normally I hunt for party goodies year round and stumble upon trinkets here and there when I see them on clearance or reasonably priced. However, while planning my mom’s upcoming milestone birthday celebration, I have come up with a theme and the date is less than a couple weeks away!
That puts me in panic mode.
Last night Jay got home early and I headed out after dinner to fetch invitations to get them printed and in the mail by tomorrow. I headed to Home Goods, Party City, Joann’s, Target, Pier One and Ross. NOTHING to my liking. I had several options in-hand ready to pay, but was not 100% happy with any of them. I came home empty handed and knew that I had to make my 2.5 hours of alone time this morning fruitful.
I’ve been feverishly planning a little 70th birthday celebration for my mom. In the process I’ve come across some fun ideas for an {out of the box} birthday party idea.
My mom’s celebration will be a little more substantial, but without giving too much away, I wanted to share these shots of cereal bar ideas. This would be a great way to host an early-ish morning bash and still have the rest of the day free. It’s easy enough to pack up for a celebration at the beach, lake, park or even just in your own backyard.
Virtually inexpensive and NO cooking or baking!
Here are a couple that I fell in love with on Pinterest, but have linked back to the original source.
Speaking of crunch{es}, today is day 30 of my 30 day shred. Not too sure exactly how much I have actually shredded, but I do know that I have enjoyed working this 30 minutes into my day for the past 30 days.
Going to start again tomorrow for another month and try to incorporate healthier eating this time. Ugh, so hard, but KEY!
Then I will move onto Ripped In 30. I’m going to be sore everyday for the rest of my life.
Rainbow layered cakes are all the rage these days.
Yes, they’re a little more time consuming {especially when you only have one pan and need to bake 4 separate cakes!}
But it’s all worth it when you cut into it and reveal this…
Your guests will “ooooh and ahhhhh”.
How can you not?
*****
For this cake, I used two boxes of white cake mix. I prepared the first box and then took 2 cups of batter and put it into another bowl. I used food coloring {gels} rather than regular food coloring as they are more vibrant. First, I put about 15 drops of pink and yellow, mixed well and baked those off. Then I repeated the process with the second box of mix and used the same amount of food coloring for the green and blue cakes and baked them off. Let cool and then layer them together with just a bit of frosting. Frost the whole cake, decorate, sing and then serve up a smile.
Happy 6th Birthday, Elliott!
Thank you for all the {smiles} you bring to our family!
When my little cake grows up, it wants to be just like this!
*****
{I found the Wilton gel food colors at Target {pink, yellow, green & blue}. You can also find them at Michael’s or Wal-mart in many different colors. These cakes are fun for holidays, graduations or sporting events. It’s fun to grab the school or team colors and bake up some spirited cupcakes or layered cake}
Placerita Canyon State Park was buzzing with little nature goers Saturday afternoon.
So many sweet friends came out and kicked up dirt or fell into the creek ~ all to help Elliott celebrate {SIX}.
{Mr. Owl, the party mascot}
Again, I kept the invites on the cheap and found some cute blank note cards and affixed the following message inside:
I wanted to keep the decor and food semi-simple since we had to transport everything. I decided to just provide grab and go type snacks…for the kids, I found some organic puffed rice bars with dried berries. I also had prepackaged Ritz cheese and crackers, Florida’s Natural fruit nuggets and frozen yogurt tubes.
For the adults, there were Larabars and some flax trail mix bars ~ chocolate coconut & pumpkin spice. I also threw together a HUGE 7-layer dip {refried beans, Trader Joe’s spicy guac, light sour cream with a little taco seasoning mixed in, raspberry & pineapple salsa, cheese, green onion and fresh tomato on top}
Beverages were just Lemonade Capri Sun, little Juicy Juice boxes and bottled waters.
I wanted to make my own trail mix, but then thought it’d be more fun to have the guests create it themselves.
I found the little green and yellow snack containers at Dollar Tree in the baby aisle. I thought they’d be perfect little containers to scoop the trail mix into.
{the frame says, “Not just for squirrels anymore…help yourself to some acorns & twigs!”}
For activities we had hula hoops, horseshoes and Pin The Fairy On The Flower…
We all did a mini hike and headed to a live animal presentation at 1:00…
Everyone sang Happy Birthday to our little nature girl.
Then they brought out a little falcon, a snake, a tarantula, a tortoise and an owl.
After the animals, we headed back to {camp} and had cupcakes….72 of them to be exact!
I went back and forth with baking my own cake, having one made, baking cupcakes, buying cupcakes…then I remembered the little {two-bite} cupcakes…I thought they’d be perfect for the outdoorsy picnic. No cutting, no serving, no plates. I bought 6 dozen at Smart and Final. Best. Idea. Ever.
Small enough to have a couple and not feel too guilty!
*****
I love how children’s parties kind of immediately take on their own agenda. You can have everything perfectly orchestrated in your head and then before you know it the little snack containers that were supposed to hold hand crafted trail mix are now home to tadpoles! And the big black sharpie that was supposed to be used to write names on water bottles was used to write “Allyson’s Tadpoles” or “Blake’s Tadpoles” on little green and yellow cups.
Love it. Never in a bazillion years did I think we’d be catching tadpoles!
I had to apologize to the parents for wet kiddos and muddy shoes {or muddy barefeet}!
Holden was so busy huntin’ tadpoles he missed singing to sissy and he wasn’t happy about it.
I loved seeing a majority of her classmates, dance friends and our oldest group of SCV pals come together and celebrate…
I kept the party favors simple ~ froggy yoyos, Ring Pops, pixy stix, fun dip and a little toothbrush and toothpaste combo!
*****
We couldn’t have asked for more beautiful weather.
Thank you to ALL {36 kids & 31 adults!} who crossed the creek to come party with us!
{and a special thank you to the friends who helped set up and break down and to my family for helping me get all the breakables to and from without a single thing being damaged…whose idea was it anyway to bring so much glass to an outdoor event? 😉 }
When I asked Elliott what her favorite part of the party was, she said “when we were catching tadpoles!”
Of course.
Please note: NO tadpoles came home with us. The {Park Ranger} said that they needed to be returned to the creek. {wink, wink}
