A Simply Sweet "Baby Girl" Baby Shower

This last weekend, I helped throw my beautiful friend Rachel a baby shower.  Rachel had requested a laid back co-ed shower at the park where family and friends could relax and play some games.  Of'course, we still had to highlight that sweet little girl growing inside her, so we went with a simple "baby girl" theme and tried to not get too stuffy with the decorations.

I think it turned out beautifully.  We were blessed with gorgeous weather and some good food, thanks to the mom to be's grandpa (can you say carne asada?).  And I think our decorations were just enough to make it feel like a baby shower without making the men uncomfortable.

These napkins were picked out by the grandma-to-be and became my inspiration for the decor.

I made a simple burlap "baby" banner for the unnamed baby girl as well as some cute fabric flag bunting to hang across the gazebo.

I also strung up some onesies and outfits for the baby girl over the cupcake table.

Little pink bows went in between the onesies.

The cupcakes were made by one of the hosts' mother and were adorned with pick chocolate booties.

My good friend Kerri (who you can find over at The Creative Side) was in charge of the centerpieces and decorated the picnic tables with Mason jars wrapped in burlap and twine.  Little plastic pacifiers finsihed off the look.  I thin kthey turned out so cute!

For the pink table runners, we had the great idea of buying cheep plastic table cloths from the dollar store and cutting them in half to make a simple runner.  It was so much easier that my first idea which was to sew table runners from fabric!

Finally I decorated a basket for the baby's library since we had asked guests to bring a book in place of a card.

Here is a shot of the beautiful couple.  They are sporting the pacifier necklaces that Kerri made for the shower game.  You know, the one where you can't say certain words, or your necklace get's stolen?  The guys and kids loved the game.

And here are the beautiful ladeis that made this shower come together.

And me and the beautiful mom to be.  You can't even tell she's 8 months pregnant!

   

Doily wrapped inviations

Here are the invitations I designed and put together for my parent's anniverary party.  I chose yellow and lace for the party because of my mother's lace wedding dress and yellow bouquet.  I thought the paper doilies added a romatic touch.  I added a sticky paper heart that I cut out of circle labels using my cricut.  And used my new letter stamps that I found at Walmart of all places for $.99 to add their initials. 

I made the invitation using PicMonkey. If you havent discovered picmonkey yet, you need to ccheck it out. Its a free online photo editing program, but you can also use it to design your own creations, by just covering your photo with a plain background.

 

I look exactly like my mother... :)

Oh Boy! Mustache Baby Shower

This summer I had the privilege of throwing my friend, Randa, a baby shower. I joined forces with her sister-in-law, Caitlyn, and friend, Rachel, and it was a great trio. The party was beautiful!

 

The beautiful mom-to-be loves to have fun, so this theme was perfect for her.  We stuck to the colors and patterns that she picked for the nursery.

 

For lunch, we served bow tie pasta, pretzel cigars with beer cheese dip, and mustache fruit skewers among other dishes.

 

 

 

The mama's gorgeous maternity photos were the perfect backdrop for our food table. 

 

 

 

Fun onsies made by using HeatnBond on left over fabric scraps were used for decoration.

 

For activities we had a onsie decorating station with fabric markers, paint, and iron on decals.  The decals were made by printing images on to iron-on transfer paper.

 

 

We played two games at the party.  For the first game,  guests guessed which parent would be most likely to...

The guest of honor choose her answers by holding up the photo of dad or mom.

  The second game was "Name that Stache" you can get the gist by from the photo below. :)

 

Mason jars with striped straws gave a nice touch of class. 

 

Grandma made outfits for the kiddos in attendance.

 

 

Favors were chocolate mustaches in chevron paper bags.

 

It was a beautiful and fun event for a beautiful and fun mama :)  Thanks to Caitlyn and Rachel for making this blog worthy.  Seriously a good idea to team up with other creative people!

We're Back!

This summer was a nice break from blogging and gave me extra time to spend with my family and work on some projects around the house.  I am excited to be back and want to share with you a sneak peek of the 3rd and final party i threw this summer.  My parents celebrated their 35th anniversary today and my brothers and I threw them a big party over the weekend.  It was a beautiful event for my parents who are always doing something for other people.   I had so much fun working on the details for this party and can't wait to share with you.

 

 

In other news, Wesley turned 15 months old today! Whoa, where does the time go?  My little toddler is climbing on everything, talking up a storm, throwing impressive mini-tantrums, and loves to read.  The cutest thing he does is when we ask him to say something (he'll try to repeat almost anything) and if he can't say it right, he giggles at himself afterward.  I love it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He is such a big boy!

Wesley's Nautical/Fishing Birthday Party

Here are the pictures from Wesley's 1st birthday party.  I am so thankful for our family and friends who were able to join us.  We had a great time and felt so loved.

I had a fun time preparing for the party and all the little details.  I decided to go with a nautical/fishing theme because Jeff's favorite thing to do is fish, and I've been obsessed with red and blue stripes.  We also incorporated lots of Sweedish Fish since they are Jeff's favorite candy and after all, he is 1/2 Sweedish. :) 

This is the invitation I designed.  I got a lot of inspiration from THIS blogger's inviations to her son's birthday party.

I love the way the birthday banner turned out.  This was the food table, eventually. My friend Kerri cut out red fish with her cricut and I taped them to Jute string to drape across the table.  The table cloth is actually just some fabric that I picked up at a gargae sale a while back.  All the linens are actually.

This white board is usually an art piece I painted, but since it was green, I just turned it around to display the monthy pictures of Wesley.  I just printed out my favorite pictures of him, added a number in the corner and strung them on some jute.  This was everyones favorite thing at the party.

The dessert table! I had Jeff make me a custom cupcake stand to display the cupcakes that his mom made for the party.  The "W" cupcake toppers were made using the font "Backspacer Tribute".  Its an awesome font because it somes with the circle frame around the letter.

We also put out jars of red candy, including Sweedish Fish.

Jeff also made several signs that we painted with chalkboard paint.  Jeff drew the desserts and drinks signs.  He is quite the artist!

In this next picture, you can see the labels I made for the food that matched the invitations.

Wesley wasnt so sure about the cupcake, but he loved the frosting!

We served blueberry and strawberry lemonade along with old fashion coke and Dad's rootbeer.

I saw these huge balloons at Party City and just knew I had to get some for Wesley's party.  They are so whimsical and fun.

I cleaned and reused some orange crush bottles that we originally bought from Sam's Club and then tied a ribon around them for guests to drink the lemonade.

the red straws were from Ikea.

The tabe decor was simple with cans of gold fish and red vines to snack on. 

These white frames are simple, cute, and cheap from Ikea.  I printed tons of my favorite pictures of Wesley and put these double sided frames all over the party.

For activities we had Wesley's sandbox, a water fight area, a fishing station, and a photo booth in the sail boat.  The kids' favorite was the fishing station.

The party favors were more Sweedish Fish and white chocolate fish in tiny fishing buckets we found at the Dollar Tree.  We mde the chocolate fish using an ice cube mold from Ikea.

Thanks to everyone who joined us and made it a truly special day!

***All pictures taken by THIS awesome lady.