Minecraft Birthday

As the children are getting older, they are starting to ask for more elaborate things for their birthdays and Christmas. For Camden's 9th birthday, we told him that we if he did not have a "friend" party we would take him to New York City with just us. Well, he didn't like that, he wanted his brother to come too! So a few weeks before Camden's birthday, over our spring break, we traveled to NYC. The photos below in this post, are pictures I took with just our family and a few neighbor friends who joined us for a small celebration. 

This cookie cake was made by one of my dad's friends at work. It was delicious!

Camden's birthday shirt is from Etsy and his cake was inspired by a pin I found on Pinterest. Find links on my Minecraft pinboard HERE. I used several of the Minecraft legos we had as accessories to the cake display. 

I printed the food labels from a link on Pinterest. 

Party masks from Party City. Gosh I should've written all these things down.

 I promise I will be better next time. 

As you can see, everyone got in on the mask wearing fun! Hopefully in one of my future posts, I can tell you about our trip to NYC. It was a memorable time and hopeful not the last trip we will take to NYC.

Michelle 

FORE- Nope 5

Carson's 5th birthday had a golf theme. Carson is our child who wants to learn about every possible sport. It seems like each season we are testing out a new sport and surprisingly/not surprising, he is pretty determined and works hard at each one. As I sit here typing I am thinking how I should be in bed as the 6:00 am wake up call for swim team is going to come all too early. Anyways, back to the sport at hand-GOLF! 

Our photo session with Kelly Ring Photography had some great action shots. We even managed to get some family photos this time. However, this post is about a golf birthday party so I won't bore you with our family pictures. 

Birthday shirt from Etsy. I am sorry to report that I cannot find my receipt to give specific shop details but I will update if I find them. However, after doing a search there are so many great ones you could still chose from on Etsy. 

Carson had his party with his friends at a sportsplex that wasn't too far from our house. This place was amazing! The kids (and adults) were able to play putt putt golf, mine for treasure, play basketball and if they wanted to, they could hit in the batting cages. 

We were given a little pavillion where we could have our party. I was able to bring some snacks and crafts to keep the kids busy between activities. My friend from work made me some amazing cake pops that I still dream about to this day! My neighbor even called me after the party to ask where they were from. I used a few of his birthday photos as party decorations. You can see one below in my IKEA frames. These were seriously one of the best purchases I have ever made. 

Carson's birthday book was "Curious George Plays Mini Golf." Purchased on Amazon. 

I bought some foam visors and stickers at Hobby Lobby for the kids to decorate. 

The mining for rocks was very cool. The kids were even given identification cards to distinguish which rocks/gems they had found while mining.

Here's a crazy crew having a grand old time. 

This older crew was trouble. They were celebrating Pop who got a hole in one!

Time to shoot some baskets and play a round of Pig or Horse.

What a great time we had at the sportsplex. After the party, we came home and Carson opened his presents. His favorite gift was his skateboard, helmet and safety pads. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing some great golf ideas. If you are interested, you can follow me on Pinterest for more great golf party inspiration. 

Michelle 

BA-NA-NA

It's funny to name a blog post after something that Camden would never eat. However, I am sure that you know the connection between the Minions and bananas. If not, I would highly recommend watching the Despicable Me and Minion movies. Next summer, the new movie will be coming out, The Rise of Gru. If interested in hosting a family movie night, I am sure that several of these party ideas can help you. 

Camden's 8th birthday was one in a minion...haha!! I am so bad at puns but they make me chuckle and make my kids roll their eyes. We had a party for Camden and his friends at the local rollerskating rink and then had a family get together at our house. This seems to be a good option for minimal chaos. It does however take strategic planning of food preparation so as to have enough for both events. 

Camden's minion cake.

Food tags and cake inspired by Racks and Mooby.  Eyeball candies found at the local supermarket baking section or craft store baking section. 

On display you can see Camden's birthday book for signing from Amazon. I actually bought the seek and find as well as Dracula's Last Birthday but liked the seek and find better for signing. 

Twinkies covered with Minion paper from Tonya Staab.

Minion glasses and Happy Birthday sign were from Party City. I found Minion bags in the dollar spot section at Target and each friend took one home filled with Minion goodies like the glasses and Minion snack. 

Camden's birthday shirt was from the Etsy shop Lily Grace Boutique. She was so easy to work with and even made me a white version for Camden's birthday shirt quilt. That will be coming in the next year. Stay tuned for more on that. 

 

When I look back at these photos I can't believe how much they have grown in just 2 years. Time needs to slow down. I know we say that a lot but I am truly enjoying these days of fun birthday parties, theme nights, and watching them grow up. 

Michelle 😊

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