DIY Beach Fun Birthday Party

Every year we try to do a fun outdoor party for our middle daughter's birthday since it's the only one out of five kids that is in the summer.  With all the 'rona related hassles, and being short on party planning & prepping time, it needed to be simple.  It was just for us and a few other extended family members.  She said she just wanted it to be water themed and left it to Mom here to put together. 

I started by throwing together a quick digital invitation with a few free clip art files 

and iPiccy:

I spent about 15 minutes planning a week ahead by shopping online & another 15 minutes to lay it all out just before things started (with my 2yr old playing outside so as not to yank it all apart before anyone saw it).  And despite the no frills approach, we had decent a beach party display:

I've gone all out in previous years with DIY-ing every little decorating detail, but if you don't have a lot of time or open budget, that just gets super stressful.  Keep It Simple was the mantra this time.  I found a set of paper plates, cups and napkins on Amazon that were perfectly themed:

My toddler is obsessed with beach balls so I used a few we had in his toy bin as decorations.  A little galvanized metal planter blended right in an was ideally size to hold the treat bags:

I had a yard of the sand print cotton fabric in my stash so it was perfect as a table runner:

We did some sandwich trays, coleslaw, potato salad & chips from a small local deli for the eats to keep food prep easy.  I barely have time to tidy up and get dressed so elaborate themed, hand prepped food is too time consuming!  I went for some easy, water themed, ready made snacks instead. Goldfish crackers & Swedish fish candies in some colorful bowls we already had that were perfect matches to her party supplies:

Part of our gift to her was this jumbo 10'x6' pool and the red, white & blue inflatable speaker in it so she can splash and soak while listening to her favorite songs.

And since there were teenage brothers & a cousin who we knew wouldn't be as excited about splashing in a wading pool with the smalls, we got a jumbo package of 420 water balloons and got all the squirt toys out so they could all get wet & wild and have fun.  Even the adults joined in.

 Normally we splurge on an elaborately decorated cake from a local bakery, but we kinda spent the cake budget on the pool instead, so we went with a basic sheet cake from the grocery store that was about 1/4 the price. I sprinkled on a bit of brown sugar for sand and pipped on a bit of blue frosting for some waves and added a few Swedish fish.  Adding in a couple of paper drink umbrellas to act as our beach umbrellas and some Happy Birthday shaped candles and the cake was good to go.  

Our indoor table centerpiece, a shark shaped piñata I got from Hobby Lobby, was also part of the festivities.  

Even our little guy got in on the action since he'd napped through her previous two birthdays and not had the piñata experience before:

And for the sunblock police (because there's always someone on the internet who feels compelled make a judgement & comment on things like this), he wore a sunhat & rash guard all day and was only without them for the 30 seconds he hit the piñata so he could see and swing the bat freely.

All in all it was really fun and the birthday girl was super pleased.  For the first time in 11 years we didn't have a day of rain or sweltering 90+ degree weather either, so it was a real blessing.  Everyone had a blast and it felt so good to have one thing seem normal this summer.  It's hard to believe it's now September and summer is winding down, but we got to wrap it up with some good water filled fun!

DIY Flower Garden Birthday Party

Last week my daughter turned 10, so it was extended family party time.  As my only summer birthday kid, it's hands down the easiest one to host, which means doing themes is more fun (and almost always requested). 

My goal for this party was to make it pretty, but not break my neck.  I was determined to use as much as I already had in the house so I wouldn't have to spend a lot on single use things or have lots more stuff to store.  Amazingly, it actually worked - nearly everything was reused from parties past!

I had a couple of jumbo faux flowers that I'd bought years ago to use for photoshoots for my shops.  They'd just been sitting in the corner of my craft room, so they were perfect to put out as table decor.  I added a few giant tissue paper flowers to fill things in.

Smaller foam roses were from last year's Sewing Themed Birthday.  The beautiful branch and floral frame was from our Fairy Garden Birthday the year before that.  My husband had made it from fallen branches in our backyard to use as a photo booth frame and it had been too beautiful to toss out.  I'm so glad we saved it!! 

Pretty pastel paper straws in a mason jar served as extra functional decorations too:

Some galvanized tins I've used for past parties served as a perfect mini planters.  I added some faux flower stalks and felt dirt. 

I had some mini silicone baking pots that I filled with Raisinets to make edible dirt and threaded some silk flowers onto round suckers to make flowers to "sprout" from them:

At the eleventh hour I decided to make some modeling chocolate roses.  I only had orange candy melts in the house, but it worked out great since there were some orange flowers on the party plates.  

For our lunchtime spread I wanted to keep it easy prep-wise, so we did a sandwich making station.  I already had a flower shaped tray to lay out the meats & cheeses and some nesting flower shaped bowls for the other fixings (which we use all the time for salads & chips).

I made some pasta salad and a fruit salad to complete things.  The healthy foods, meant plenty of room for the treats after.

Our kids love having a birthday piñata, but I didn't have a bunch of piñata-useful materials on hand to DIY one.  I found this flower one on Amazon that was fairly inexpensive.

It held up great - the birthday girl, plus 4 teens got to give it some good whacks before all the candy fell out:

I worked with our local bakery to design this beautiful flower basket cake to go with everything else I'd put together.  They've always done a great job on cakes and everyone loved all the delicious frosting flowers and the faux basket sides.

 Apart from the cake, candy, paper plates and piñata, everything was a repurpose, which kept things inexpensive and easy, but still turned out beautiful.  My daughter loved her party and already said she thinks she wants another flower garden party next year.  If she does, it'll be even easier next year!  

Looking for more party ideas? 
Check out these past party tours:

   

 

Sewing Themed Birthday Party Tour

We recently celebrated our daughter's 9th birthday and it was an extra special one since she asked for her party to be sewing themed.  That was totally in my wheelhouse and my birthday budget.  I'm thrilled to be able to share how I put it together and the final results, which were a big hit with the birthday girl - and didn't result in utter exhaustion for me.  So, c'mon and join the party!

I didn't want to stress out trying to DIY an elaborate party (which I have done many times before as seen here), so most of what I used was stuff I found around our house.  When I was looking for party ideas I actually saw a party-planner styled sewing party where each child guest was gifted a $30 kiddie Singer machine as a "favor".  Um, what???  $300+ just on favors?  Get outta here.  Ours was an extended family party, so I kept it pretty, but more realistic.    Most of us aren't looking to spend a wedding level budget on a kid's party.  

For the invitation I used some free clip art I found online here (obviously free for personal use only) and made this digital email invite using iPiccy (also free):

For the party items I utilized a lot items I already had like my great-grandmother's sewing basket and a sewing machine pincushion from my craft room.  A quick trip to Hobby Lobby got my paper products, foam flowers and felt table runner (which I scored on clearance for just $1.49!).

I found some colorful plastic button assortments that were perfect table decoration and useful since they became part of her gift of sewing notions.  One of my biggest party peeves is spending a bunch of money on themed decorations that are literally useless after the party is done.  Not this time!

Extra buttons went into this DIY'd mason jar pincushion, with a set of matching thread spool pins:

I used other glass jars I had around the house to hold some color coordinated candies:

I tweaked my Sculptable Frosting recipe to make some sweet edible button candies:

A mini dress form my daughter plays fashion design with (a gift from a few Christmases ago) plus a paper covered wood button shaped wall decoration that I'd bought years ago and never used served as other decorations, as well as a giant thread spool I crafted up for the occasion:

In keeping with my goal of saying no to useless post-party items, I made the big thread spool actually open to be a handy lidded storage container (find the tutorial for making it here):

I ordered a sewing themed cake with her party colors and a white background from our favorite local bakery and asked for it to just be frosted - no fondant.  They've always done an amazing job on previous cakes so I didn't feel like I needed to get picky with copying a cake from a photo.  That was a mistake.  They made it cream colored with brown icing and, weirdly, put black ribbon all over it. It looked a bit odd with the fondant pink and mint buttons they stuck on it. 

So at the 11th hour I peeled off the ribbon, replaced it with pink one that did match and put my silicone sewing machine usb drive on top as a decoration to help tie it all together.  Much better!

Her extra special gift from us was her own sewing machine.  She'd been wanting one for a long time and I wanted her to have a machine that will last her through adulthood.  I decided to purchase this New Home Janome model because it was all metal parts inside (= solidly built), like my Janome HD1000, and the set up and features are nearly identical.  Added bonus was that it came in her party color, Arctic Crystal! 

I also crafted up this quick heat transfer shirt present with a blank tee I had:

And since she's all about jewelry these days, I made an easy necklace with this sewing-themed silicone bead set from my shop:

Our lucky girl was also gifted this amazing sewing chest that my sister and brother-in-law put together.  He took an unfinished chest and created a custom pull out tray for it and stained it inside and out.  Since my daughter loves Legend of Zelda, they created a vinyl Zelda emblem for the outside and gifted her some Zelda-themed fabric too:

I kept waffling on making a piñata or not, because I know the kids love them, but I didn't want the hassle of an elaborate crafting project.  Literally the day before the party I caved and made one from stuff we had in the house.  On principal I can't see paying $20+ for something we're planning to destroy.  That & there are no ready-made perfectly themed versions knocking about.  It was basic, but fit with the theme, came together in 15 minutes and was sturdy enough that even a couple of teenagers gave it some serious whacks before it spilled the treats.  Win!

Each year we either get weather in the 90s and/or full on rainstorms on her party day, which isn't ideal.  I got smart this year and set up the majority of things inside.  SO much better having a pretty set-up indoors and a lot easier than hauling everything outside and then drag it all back in later.  This may be my favorite party to date!