The Daily Fuss

Rainbow Dress Up Birthday Party

Leighton turned 3 last week. {SIGH} And, to wrap up the Freeman kids' birthday season with gusto, we had a party.

As soon as Mairin's 1st birthday party drew to a close, Leighton began spewing unsolicited themes for her own impending extravaganza.

She landed on "Rainbow Dress Up with hearts".

We had six weeks to turn her vision into reality. I think we did a decent job.

  

I made the invitations with paper from Paper Source and cut the hearts on my Silhouette. All but a few of the tutus and dresses are from Leighton and Mairin's personal collection.

I decorated my Ballard Designs wreaths with a rainbow assortment of cocktail parasols.

I'm not sure why we have so many pairs of glasses.

Happy little girls!

The Martha Stewart 70's revival tissue pompons made the cut once again.

Favor boxes included boas, glasses, jewelry, purses, gloves and rainbow hair extensions. I bought a Fuji Instamax camera and took instant photos during the party of each little girl. I used them to designate each guest's favor box.

I used my silhouette to make signs per Leighton's instruction out of adhesive vinyl.

Once again, amazing cookies by the Darling Baker - Kristine Borzych. (847) 322-3610.

I used a few tablespoons of Jello to flavor each cake layer and then added food coloring to brighten it up. The rest went into the rainbow cupcakes. The frosting is homemade buttercreme. It was delicious. What was left by the end of the party toppled over, but it still tasted just fine the next day.

Since this was our first kid party and none of the parents had ever been to our house, I decorated the flower boxes outside so they'd know where to go.

I promise myself after each party that "next time we'll tone it down" but I have a feeling the girls will never let that happen.

Bridal Shower: Equal Parts Sweetness and Spice

I've been busy getting ready for Leah's shower, which we threw last Sunday. Since everyone seemed to enjoy Mairin's birthday post, I tought I would share some of the invitations and decorations I designed for the bride-to-be.

The printed pieces were inspired by a silhouette I made of the couple from an engagement photo. I added profile silhouettes of each of them to the invitation.

The favors were chocolates "sweet" and a spice "spicy" which was wrapped in brown paper to form the base of the individual topiary place cards.

For the centerpieces, I used topiary forms and tissue paper pom pons. I cut the base of the forms to fit in mint julep vases and covered the forms with potting moss.

I used my Ballard wreaths again and decorated them with ribbon. I also made "flower arrangements" from tissue flowers pinned to styrofoam ball forms.

The booklets contained a "tips and recipes" card for the corresponding spice, as well as a blank recipe card embossed with the bride's soon-to-be new name. Guests are to fill out the card with a favorite recipe and mail it back to the bride in the envelope provided.

We played The Purse Game and left right game and had a blast watching a video of the groom answering questions about the bride. We had her guess what his answers would be and, of course, it seems the two know each other very well.

Kristine from Darling Baker once again provided the amazing sweets. Look at those cookies!

What an amazing and wonderful and fun-filled day.

At this point, I am still suffering from PPD (Post Party Depression) and will likely be forced to turn my attention to another Pinteresting project to occupy my time.

Until then ... enjoy!

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Please share your bridal shower inspiration and any other ideas you've hatched or executed for an amazing event. Please post a comment and share your fuss with us.

Mairin's First Birthday: Book Party

Mairin's first birthday was incredibly fun. And, due to my growing obsession with Pinterest, I went a little overboard on the whole affair.

This post is a collection of pictures, inspiration and vendors that helped make the party a success.

For the theme, we decided on a book party. We have a ton of toys and Mairin loves books, so it seemed like an obvious choice. I tweaked Martha Stewart's book baby shower clip art for a first birthday. You can download the shower clip art here.

The girls wore pink and green BabyGap to match the rest of the pink and green decor.

I settled on pink and green tissue pompons to mimic live carnations mixed with faux boxwood wreaths and topiaries. (I had purchased the boxwood from Ballard Designs several months ago for my Christmas decorations). I ordered three hundred carnations from Fabulous Florals and they were delivered the wednesday before the party.

See some additional pinspiration for the party here.

Kristine Borzych of Darling Baker prepared the color and theme-coordinated sweets: Cookies, cupcakes, marshmallow pops, krispie paddles, lemon puffballs, chocolate brownies and milk and cookies.

Kristine also made the amazing smash cake that we all sampled after Mairin had her way with it.  The sisters shared cake with one another and eventually with mom and dad too.

Leighton's third birthday is coming up in five weeks and I'm not sure I have the energy to try to top this party. Little Lei has already declared a rainbow theme.

A very special thanks to:

Carol Deanda of Bella Photography and Deanda Photography for taking amazing pictures.

Kristine of Darling Baker Chicago for the gorgeous sweet table and desserts. (847) 322-3610

shopsweetlulu.com for festive party accoutrements and lightning-fast shipping.

fabulousflorals.com for selling beautiful wholesale carnations in small lots.

Potbelly Sandwich Shop for catering.

Mary Poppins and Grandma Freeman for wrapping books and pomping.

Have you ever gone overboard on a kids party? Did you have a special theme or exploit your DIY capabilities? Please post a comment and share your fuss with us.

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