August 1st, 2010

Spencer’s Party

So, I (successfully, I think) threw my first kid’s party. There weren’t too many kids, 2 7-year-old kids, a nearly 3 year-old and 11 month baby girl and Spencer. Since it was mostly adults and I know how to stock a beer tub, we were all set. I made most of the food, the decorations and the favors, but I ordered the invitations from Etsy. I couldn’t be more pleased with how they turned out.

It looked better before my sloppy job and removing our address and phone number. The cute safari animals set the theme for the party.

The favors were set-up on the dessert table. For the favors, I took sidewalk chalk and slip-covered it in safari themed paper, tied with twine and added little tags that said either Be Wild, Monkey Around or, my favorite, Color Outside the Lions. I just threw in the last picture to show how the birthday boy knows how to pre-party!

I love the banner I made for the front door. Just 1s cut from craft paper and mounted on string. It was so simple, but set the tone. The rest of the house was mostly decorated with more paper 1s and safari animals that Spencer already owned. I also made a dvd slide show of pictures of Spencer through the year. It ran for about 10 minutes and cycled through.

I struggled with how to decorate the sliding glass door. I needed something double-sided and the outer side would be behind the food. I ended up making photo sheets that were really simple because they used the full-sheet of square craft paper and a full sized 4×6 photo. The only thing that needed cutting was the 1. I included the middle picture to illustrate just how bad my party pictures are. I didn’t even think to move the screen out of the way.

I failed to photograph most of the food, but the menu was brats, hot dogs, blue cheese vinaigrette potato salad, chili beans, and cabbage salad. For appetizers, we had chips, dip, watermelon and tomato-mozzarella safari skewers. The idea for the skewers came to me during a bit of insomnia. So simple. I made the skewers by placing a small bamboo skewer between an animal sticker and craft paper and then trimming around the edges. The cakes were made with a zoo animal cupcake pan and were hurriedly decorated by me.

We filled the fountain for the first time in forever and Spencer spent some time exploring in it. He ended up adorably soaked from head to do necessitating a mid-party outfit change. Luckily, we had another “on-theme” outfit. He liked his cake and I thought it was fine that he just had a little bit and he had a chocolate on his actual birthday, but I guess people were expecting a full smash cake, and I just didn’t do one. Presents were opened with some help from the other kids and I think a good time was had by all. Spencer had such a good time, he slept through the night for the first time in 4 months.

My favorite picture from the party.

Lessons Learned:

• No one drank soda. Don’t bother.
• Buy the cake.
• Don’t leave cleaning the house until the day of the party, even if the party doesn’t start until 5. I was a stress ball all day.
• Have toys out for all the kids to play with. Rookie mistake, I know.
• Put someone else in charge of taking the pictures. Mine are not too good.

Special Thanks:

• Suzanne sent me the paper used in the chalk wraps, the banner and the origami animals.
• Jody listened to me go on and on and on about the party for weeks. Weeks! She has the patience of a saint.
• My darling husband for enduring me.