Party Tips

You know you're a Pinterest addict when you tell someone about an idea you've had, they say "that's a really good idea" and the first thing that pops into your mind is, "I should go home and make a graphic for that, JUST so I can put it on Pinterest and share it with others!" LOL! If that means I'm a Pinterest addict, I guess I'm guilty as charged.

These probably aren't original ideas, but is there really such a thing anymore?!

I think I probably actually read this one in a parenting magazine a long, long time ago... but still, when I tell people that's our rule of thumb for the kid's birthdays, you can see the light bulb go off in their head! It really does help keep the party from becoming too overwhelming for the little ones. I mean really, how many friends does a 2 or 3 year old really have anyway? People tell me I'll regret this rule when they are teenagers, but I like to throw parties... so maybe not. ;)
 

Our two kids are 2 years apart and their birthdays are 3 weeks apart. I suppose the odd/even thing really only works if they are both odd/even ages at the same time. The reason I say have the smaller individual party on their odd years is because then when you use tip #1 from above, they will even out the kid count. For instance, my daughter is turning 3 and having 3 friends over for a princess party. With her at the table too, I can buy and even 4 of everything like party favors and tableware. My son is turning 5, so we'll have 6 little Jedi running around at our Star Wars party. It makes it simple. As they get older, we'll probably do some of those bigger joint parties, you know the kind.... the bounce house place, the skating rink, etc.

I'm not planning on holding hard and fast to these rules throughout their whole childhood. Obviously, I know there will come a day when they think it's no longer "acceptable" to share their parties (which is good news for me because I have more party theme boards on Pinterest than they have birthdays as it is! hah!) and I know sometimes it might be that they get to take a couple of bff's to Six Flags instead of a party... but I hope these two tips help you calm the chaos of planning your next kid party!

Valentine's Playgroup Party

I normally like to plan my parties out WAY in advance, but for whatever reason, that just didn't happen with this one. I literally started working on it last night, pulling things out of my stash, digging into things I've recently purchased for their birthday parties later this spring... and add in a little sprinkle of pinspiration and what I ended up with was this:

The mirror, dress form, pink daisies, and rose petals were things I've picked up for her soon-to-be Disney Princess birthday party. The black table cloth was bought for his soon-to-be Star Wars birthday party, and I already owned the rest of the red stuff, like the round placemats, red rimmed plates, napkins and cups left over from previous parties, and the artwork hung on the wire to the wall light was all masterfully done by my kiddos. ;)

 I already had a couple of the metal mailboxes from Target and my friend brought hers over too. The heart paper chain is a little art project the kids and I did a couple of weeks ago, and the "so I think I love you" embroidered notebook paper is something I made for dh last summer.

 I can't take credit for the heart sandwiches, or the sugar cookies... I can take credit for eating most of the cookies, after everyone left, though. :-\ oops! I did make the heart shaped veggies and chocolate drizzled pretzels.  

 The envelopes on the wall were both a matter of necessity (to cover some ugly scuff marks along the wall there) and to emulate a wall of envelopes I'd seen on pinterest a few days ago.

 Printed off a freebie valentine subway art and plopped my daughter's 1st valentine teddy bear on the shelf to call this area "done".

 The decomesh over our patio door was from our Christmas tree and I'm sure dh will be happy to see it gone after this week. ;) The heart canvasses were from my baby shower, but I did buy the heart wreath a few weeks ago to fill in the hole on this wall (I normally have 3 prints of spiral staircase photos here)

As usual, I remembered to take pictures of stuff before the party started and didn't really pick up the camera again until it was over. Thankfully Sarah got a picture of Carly and I together!