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Charlotte, Entertaining

Birthday Party Planning – The Final Product!

Welcome to our house! Happy Birthday Charlotte!
I made the banner with fabric’s from Hobby Lobby. The font for the letters was the Gentle Redhead font from Kevin and Amanda’s free fonts.
Grab a plate and fix some yummy food!
I made the paper flowers using this tutorial.  The tissue paper was from Nashville Wraps (I got three flowers out of each 24 pack of paper), the plates were springtime specials from Publix, and I had the food catered and these flowers brought in because I couldn’t do it all!
And check out the cakes!
 
Both were made by a local bakery.  I took them the invitation and they created these based on that. I loved the way they turned out and they were delicious!
Once you have your food, come into the kitchen and fix a drink!
The monogrammed glasses are from American Stationery and were the 10 oz frosted selection.  The Cherry Lemonade Punch was a variation of Kelly Stamps’ Cherry Limeade Punch only substituting lemonade concentrate and lemons instead of the limeade concentrate and limes.
You can sit down at the kitchen table to eat and look at Charlotte’s month-by-month banner while you’re there!
I made the banner using one package of cardstock glitter paper from Hobby Lobby, gold brads, printed pictures from MPix, and lots of Creative Memories gadgets leftover from when I made real scrapbooks in high school.
Charlotte needed lots of fun things to eat with too!
The hat and bib are from Blooming Babies Boutique and the plate is from PaperDoll Designs.  They were all custom made from my requests.
The kids had a table all set up and ready for them to eat and decorate paper and visors with foam stickers!
All crafts were from Hobby Lobby.  The table and chairs was one of Charlotte’s birthday presents and it’s from The Land of Nod as are the washable plastic placemats that are on the table.
You can go into the den to eat also and see Charlotte’s presents!
I decorated with the elephants that we had at our house and I had been searching for an elephant bank for a while also and I found one at Three Sheets in Homewood.  I made these floral arrangements by putting a cup in the middle of the container and filling around it with colored balls from the wedding section at Hobby Lobby.
Before you leave make sure you sign Charlotte’s Dr. Seuss Happy Birthday To You Book and pick up a favor!
My goal is to have a birthday book signed by guests at Charlotte’s birthday parties for at least the next few years until she gets “too cool” for it.  The favors were packaged in takeout containers from Nashville Wraps.  The little kids got finger puppets made especially for this party from Sweet Melly Jane, elephant whistles from Hey Yo Yo, and sunglasses from Hobby Lobby.  The families got an elephant cookie cutter and homemade elephant cookies.  I used the recipe and instructions from Cookie Craft to make and ice the cookies.  I got the bags for the cookies from Nashville Wraps and I made the paper toppers.
And here’s the birthday girl herself!
This outfit was custom made for Charlotte by LiviStitches.
Charlotte, Entertaining

Birthday Party Planning – Paper Items

Once I had my inspiration board I started playing in Photoshop Elements to design the invitation. I was so happy with my finished design.  I printed them from MPix Press and loved the finished product!

The back of the invitation had the time, date, etc.  I love that MPix lets you print on the front and back.
Once I had the invitation I started building paper products around it. I created toppers for the cookie bags that were going in the favors:
Stickers for the favor boxes
And drink labels
I love that little elephant! And the best thing about him is that he’s a stock cut out shape that’s already in Photoshop and so all I had to do was cut one out of a digital scrapbook paper and then use him on whatever I wanted.  For most of these items I used digital scrapbook items that I got from my two favorite online stores — Peppermint Creative and The Shabby Shoppe.
Also, a few months ago I won a giveaway from The Purple Pug on The Birthday Girl’s blog.  Kristy had a pink elephant design already and so I asked her to create some items for Charlotte’s party.  I used them throughout the party to add a little more elephant punch!
Coming up next….the rest of the party as a whole! 🙂
Charlotte, Entertaining

Birthday Party Planning – Inspiration Board

I have been working on Charlotte’s first birthday party literally since January. I love planning and organizing, especially fun events like this. Planning my wedding was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. So with that, please know that I’m aware that I’m kind of crazy but I had SO MUCH FUN planning this party. I know that Charlotte will never remember it but I will and hopefully one day she’ll look back on the pictures and video and see a tangible reminder of how special she is and how much we love her.

Since I planned this for so long I was so excited about how it came together and I want to show you how I planned it from start to finish as well as showcase some of my favorite vendors that I was able to use. I love how everything turned out and was so happy with the finished product. Hopefully you can use some of my ideas and products too!

It all started with the theme: pink elephants. You know that we’re Alabama fans so my love of elephants obviously originated from that but this really wasn’t because we’re Alabama fans. I thought elephants were cute and pink elephants even cuter and they seemed like cute, little girl animals that could work well into a pink and green theme. Once I had my theme I took a page from The Birthday Girl’s book and came up with an inspiration board. Here’s what mine looked like:

 
Here are the links for where the items on the inspiration board came from (left to right, top to bottom).
1 – Tutu-ed cupcake stand – Birthday Girl 
2 – Happy Birthday banner and canvas – Kelly’s Korner Blog, Laineybug Creations
3 – Flower letter – Hostess With The Mostess
4 – Elephant thank you’s – Polka Dot Design
5 – Custom sugar cookies – Kelly’s Korner Blog 
6 – Personalized Water Bottles – Birthday Girl
7 – Monogrammed shirt, bib, and hat – Bloomin Babies Boutique
8 – Party Favors – Kelly’s Korner Blog 
9 – Elephant Whistles – Bake It Pretty
10 – 1st Birthday Plate – Paper Doll Designs
11 – Birthday Banner – Bloomin Babies Boutique
12 – Pink Polka Dot Cups – The Celebration Shoppe
13 – Paper Flowers and Monthly Pictures – Kelly’s Korner Blog 
14 – Birthday girl outfit – Livistitches
15 – Elephant Invitations – Polka Dot Design
16 – Birthday banner – Wiggles and Giggles
17 – Party Favors – Style Me Pretty
Once I had my inspiration board it was easy to start planning.  I just had to start executing what I had found that I liked and build around that.  I didn’t end up using everything that I found but I found that putting together an inspiration board helped me get a feel for the kind of party that I wanted to have.  Turns out I wanted something girly, fun, and pink!
Charlotte, Entertaining, Family, Friends

Happy Birthday Caroline!

Charlotte is 364 days younger than her best friend Caroline.  Kelly and I are hoping that the girls will grow up to be as good of friends as their Mom’s are.  And right now they definitely love each other!  Today we celebrated Caroline’s birthday with her family and friends.  She had an Abby Cadabby birthday party that was so wonderful!  Thanks Kelly, Tripp, and Caroline for including us in Caroline’s special day!

Kelly made Abby pigtails for the girls.  Charlotte was the only one that would keep hers on! This is hilarious since as soon as she realizes she has a bow in or hears the word bow she pulls her bow out.  But the Abby pigtails and her bow stayed in for a long time! She also loved Caroline’s Elmo doll! Charlotte loves Elmo’s World on tv and this doll as just the thing to keep her occupied since she was sleepy since she missed her afternoon nap for the party.
Kelly let the girls make wands.  Charlotte LOVED hers!
Tripp, Caroline, and Kelly
With my sweet little Abby-Charlotte
She’s definitely my child since she adores eating cake!
She’s annoyed that Daddy’s interrupting her cake eating for a picture.  But look how cute!!
Best friends!
When she finally realized we had put the pigtails on her head they were immediately taken off!
The four kids at the party — William, Caroline, Charlotte, and Kate.  Kelly, I’m sorry I didn’t get a better picture!
Happy 2nd Birthday Caroline!
Entertaining

Surprise!

Last night we had the pleasure of getting together with friends to celebrate our friend, Tripp’s, 30th birthday with a surprise party.  Tripp’s birthday is actually on May 31st so he was definitely NOT expecting a surprise party and Kelly had been working for months to make sure he was surprised.  Seeing his face when he walked in was priceless.

We celebrated with another set of friends, Travis and Jenni, and Kelly and Tripp’s parents and siblings.  We were honored to be included in such a special celebration! 
The party was held in an intimate wine cellar below a restaurant downtown.  The location was perfect because it was a unique atmosphere and it felt very intimate because we were all seated at one long table.  We first enjoyed some fantastic appetizers — crawfish balls, tempura shrimp, and a few others.  I wish I had taken pictures to show you how good they were because they were fantastic!  Once Kelly and Tripp arrived we sat down to enjoy our meal.  Kelly had even arranged for custom menu’s for Tripp’s birthday giving us our dinner options and announcing that for dessert we would be enjoying Tripp’s birthday cake and ice cream!  No detail was overlooked.
Kelly and her sweet, and beautiful, mom
Kelly and her Daddy
Kelly was the best party planner!
We enjoyed our night out celebrating Tripp!
One of my favorite parts of the night was after we had ordered when Tripp’s Dad and then Kelly’s Dad toasted Tripp.  Their toasts were sweet and funny and showed how much they love Tripp and Kelly.  It was so touching to be able to hear them talk about Tripp.  While we already knew he was a great guy it really touched my heart to see these thoughts verbalized from his Dad and father-in-law.  So sweet!
After our wonderful dinner and a recounting of our favorite Tripp stories (I seriously think he might make some of them up because I don’t think it’s possible for someone to have all of the unbelievable stories happen to one person that Tripp claims have all happened to him!) the cake was brought out.  It was great! A golf course design celebrating Tripp’s love of golf and showing that he is turning 30.  The only thing funny about the cake was that the golfer had a cigar in his mouth and Tripp definitely doesn’t smoke!
Another great moment of the night was when Tripp got to Kelly’s present.  A new Macbook!  He was so shocked and so excited!
Overall, it was one of the most fun and special birthday parties that I’ve ever been too.  We are so thankful that we got to share in it with Kelly and Tripp’s families.  Thank you so much Kelly for including us.  Happy Birthday Tripp! We’ll look forward to celebrating a little more low key at the end of the month when you actually turn 30!
Entertaining

Celebrate Art

Last night we went to an art benefit and had so much fun.  I loved the decorations….

 
  
  
It was so nice to get out of the house and mingle with adults for the night.  And it was such a bonus to get to admire beautiful art all night!  There was a silent auction and there were so many pieces that we wanted (most were WAY out of our price range!).  We did up winning a piece even though the stress and confrontation of those last minutes of the silent auction almost did me in.  It was definitely cutthroat!  
Here’s the piece that we won:
It was our first time to leave Charlotte at home with a non-family babysitter but we weren’t too worried because Katie has been babysitting Caroline for a year now and is long time family friends with the Smith’s in Jackson.  She told us that everything went well so we think Charlotte had as much fun at home as we did!  It was really nice to get all dressed up and go out!