4 is ROAR-some

We officially moved to our new home at the end of September in 2017. Carson's birthday is October 15th so in order to get a party together, it took a lot of "to do" lists for Ryan and the family but we pulled it off. We even had pictures hung in the house! Since we were in our new house and in a new area, we decided to host Carson's party at our home so family and friends could see it.

Carson is still interested in dinosaurs but when he was 4 they were his life. We even decorated his new bedroom in a dinosaur theme, this helped with his photo shoot and party decorations. You will see some of his wall art in his 4 year old photos below. There are so many great ones! 

Photos taken again by the amazing Kelly Ring Photography.

Inflatable Dinosaur from Amazon HERE

Dino birthday book used for photos as well as guestbook for signing. HERE

Banner from Amazon link HERE

Wooden dinosaurs and dinosaur sign from Hobby Lobby and were taken from Carson's room decor. 

 Planning the food is always fun but we kept it simple. We ordered pizza, Chick-fil-A nuggets and had some finger foods. I downloaded the food labels from the amazing Hunny I'm Home DIY blog.

    

PARTY GAMES

For fun I ordered dinosaur masks from Amazon. HERE I also made dino feet out of foam but they didn't last long. Both were cute for some fun photos.

Dinosaur eggs relay- I made the eggs from a baking soda recipe. The relay involved the kids using vinegar to make them dissolve. There were plastic dinosaurs inside. You can find the recipe from Growing A Jeweled Rose. Another relay was taking dino bones on a spoon relay. I made the dino bones with salt dough. 

The kids also had a great time in the bounce house. 

The best surprise was Carson's best friend from pre-school making the trip to see him at his party. 

Carson's birthday shirt was from Tuckeroos on Etsy which has since closed shop. My friend Melissa at BugBuddy Creations made our Mom-a-saurus and Dad-a-saurus shirts.

For more fun dinosaur party ideas, head over to my Pinterest page. 

I hope you enjoyed our memories! It was a ROAR-ing good time!

Michelle 

Sock Monkey inspired 1st Birthday

As a lover of sock monkeys (mainly the colorful ones), I started planning Carson's party oh about the time I knew I was pregnant. Just kidding! I was however inspired by the newborn photo of Carson taken by my friend Kelly Ring shown in my older post. The photos below are the ones I used at the sock monkey party. How cute are they??

               

                          

As the months went on I started planning and found amazing inspiration on Pinterest. The printables I purchased on Etsy were from the creative orchard.

Party decor- Many of the party things such as colorful tablecloths, platters, etc. I recycled from previous parties. On the walls, I used colorful paper plates and attached some buttons to them to create my own larger button look. The colorful monkeys that I already had in my home were used as accents around the house. I ordered the book 10 Little Sock Monkeys from Amazon to have party guests sign. I also created a time capsule (pictured above) for guests in attendance and those who could not attend, to place notes and items for Carson to see and read on his 16th birthday. I am sure I will be more excited about that than he will.

Candy bar with lots of yellow candies and treats.

I purchased a large number 1 from one of my favorite places, Hobby Lobby and then I hot glued on some (or should I say a ton) of colorful buttons

Party guests were asked to have their picture taken photo booth style with sock monkey accessories. It was a lot of fun!

One of my favorite things from the party was when I used Carson's monthly onesie stickers to create a cute timeline to display his photos. It is amazing how fast time flies.

 

Kid activities were bunches of fun bag toss, create your own sock monkey, 

and of course, the bounce house. 

Food- Our menu was typical cookout food with hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. but the snacks were the big hit. My monkey cupcakes turned out great. I am glad I learned how to color frosting with special coloring from the craft store. My mom's famous sugar cookies went fast, but I snagged a photo before the party guests arrived. I used orange m&m's to create the button look on the circle, sugar cookie.

photo by Kelly Ring Photography

Carson's birthday shirt was also purchased on Etsy. I can't wait to one day have a quilt made with all of his birthday shirts and baby clothes.




I am so pleased with how everything came out and can't wait til October for birthday #2.

Michelle :)