Party Planning

07 Feb 2012 1 Comment

Planning the Small Fry #2′s 1st Birthday Party

I can’t believe that Jayden is already 6 months old. In just another six short months, we’ll be celebrating his first birthday so you guessed it, I’m already in birthday party planning mode! I know some people think it’s way too early, but time just flies by. Besides, I’m trying to get a lot of my planning out of the way so I’d have more time to enjoy spring and summer.

Right after Jayden’s Baptism in November, I’ve decided to have his first birthday party at the same clubhouse where we held his Baptism party at, simply because they’re so easy to deal with. It was also the same clubhouse where we had Jordan’s 1st birthday party. To my disappointment, they’re not accepting reservations for the entire summer!  Since November, I was looking for a place where we could have the party and it literally took me 3 months of research, and calling places to find one. Michael and I checked it out & put a deposit right away since July is a busy month for events & weddings. Whew!

I think our theme this time will be Barnyard because I considered that with Jordan’s party and I already have lots of ideas in mind with that theme. I’m thinking “festive” barnyarnd theme. I’m plan on combining the classic barnyard stuff with some bright, summer colors.

The inspiration board is pretty empty since I’ve been putting everything on Pinterest. I’ve also designed the invitations already which I will be making using my new Cricut machine! I have a bunch of DIY projects which my husband is a little excited about so we’ll see how everything goes.

by Joy in Birthdays, Celebrations, Party Planning

10 Oct 2011 12 Comments

Jordan’s 2nd Birthday: Thomas the Tank Engine Party

I can’t believe our Jordan is TWO! I know everyone says this but really, where has the time gone?! He turned our world upside down two years ago and continues to do so with his love.

He is crazy about trains of all kinds, and like what I said on my previous post, he is madly in love with Thomas the Tank Engine. Obviously, Thomas the Train was the natural choice for this 2-year old’s party.  Everyone knows I am not big on character themed parties but with Jordan’s obsession with Thomas, I just had to give in. He had an absolute blast at his birthday party – Thomas the train all over the house, what more could a little boy ask for?

With Jayden’s Baptism and party coming up next month, I wanted Jordan’s birthday party to come together with minimal stress. I know that non-stress has to do with me deciding I was not going to make all these D-I-Y stuff so I just designed a simple train ticket for the invites. It was as simple as cutting and mailing them. I also started shopping for Thomas the Train balloons, banner, cups and plates on Amazon.

I baked his birthday cake myself. It was supposed to be just  a simple cake but while I was looking at his Thomas the Train toy and books for some design inspiration, I just knew it was going to get complicated. I just found myself at my local baking store buying some fondant and a new cookie cutter!

Needless to say, planning my 2 year old’s birthday party had literally taken up all my free time for the past two weeks. By free time, I mostly mean the few hours I can bear to stay awake after we finally put the boys to bed.

Friday loomed with the weather forecast not looking too good so Michael laid out the train tracks on the walk way leading to our front door the night before the party in case it rained a lot in the morning.

It was our luck that the weather would break, but we didn’t expect it to break quite so spectacularly though. Saturday turned out to be bright, sunny and unusually warm!

Everything turned out great and Jordan just love, love his cake & the Thomas cookies that I made.

I also made cake pops train and food train. I covered boxes with wrapping paper and filled them with styrofoam bricks and then placed the cake pops in each box. 

I borrowed a Thomas the Train toy from Big J’s toy box and placed it in front of the line. 

I bought Thomas the Train plastic cups and filled them some goodies as favors for the kids.

For the food train, I added wheels on the boxes and Jordan just loved it. It was hard setting up the table because he kept grabbing the trains and playing with them!

To welcome the guests, I created a Hequibal Station & Rail Road Crossing signs and put it on the door and on top of the stairs.

A few weeks before the party, we practiced blowing out  birthday candles but Jordan just wouldn’t do it. He would ask me or his dad to blow out the candle for him. He would blow his food if it’s hot but he just would not do it with a candle. To my surprise, he was super excited when everyone started singing Happy Birthday and he knew exactly what to do! He patiently stood in front of his cake, smiling and blew out his candles as soon as we were done singing!

He was so happy that he asked me if he could do it again!

All the kids but most especially the birthday boy had so much fun opening the gifts. He got so many Thomas the Train toys to add to his train table!

If there was something that I regret not doing, it was to take a video of him blowing his candles! Honestly, we were so busy that we just totally forgot. As usual, Michael took some great photos, but we should have had someone there to take a video.

To all our friends and family who came, we loved getting to spend time with you. I know Jordan had a blast. And for the ones who weren’t able to come, we sure missed you and hope to see you soon at Jayden’s Baptism!

by Joy in Birthdays, Celebrations, Party Planning

31 Oct 2010 13 Comments

Jordan’s First Birthday Party

The birthday party post is finally here! I know it’s long overdue but I just didn’t have time to write since we went to Hawaii after his party. Our Small Fry’s first birthday party  was a great party even though he wasn’t feeling too well. He was running a slight fever from his 12-month shots the day before so we didn’t get to take as many pictures of him smiling. More

by Joy in Birthdays, Celebrations, Party Planning

08 Sep 2010 4 Comments

More on Birthday Party Planning

It’s almost mid-September which means I have just barely over a month to plan the Small Fry’s first birthday! It just snuck up on me because since my last party planning post, I have been very busy with work and haven’t really made too much progress on the rest of the party planning (though I’ve been constantly thinking about it). More

by Joy in Birthdays, Celebrations, Party Planning

02 Aug 2010 5 Comments

Planning the Small Fry’s 1st Birthday Party

I started thinking for my Small Fry’s first birthday party right after his baptism in January and I kind of started planning when he turned six months old. Yes, you read that right – 6 months old. I hate to admit but I’m a little obssessive compulsive and  my philosophy is that you go all out for the first birthday. Some people would ask why does it have to be a big celebration if he will never know the difference or won’t remember it anyway? Well, it’s because it’s our baby’s first birthday and it’s an important milestone not just for him but also for me and my husband! More

by Joy in Birthdays, Celebrations, Party Planning