Hello blogworld! Here's a continuation from yesterday's
post.
So here's a little equation:
my love for the beach + my favorite animal is whales + good theme for a boy + Mattie's middle name of Kai meaning ocean in Hawaiian all led me to choose a NAUTICAL theme for his bday party.
Or as my dear friend, Mari, said "NAUGHTY-CAL" as he turned two (aka the terrible two's)!
I got a lot of inspiration online, but it all started when my one of my favorite bloggers posted her son's
high seas party. I just LOVE April and her creativity, talent, and ideas!
No nautical party would be complete without a boat so I wanted my hubby to build one like the cardboard one on this
post.
(I hope you don't mind my leaving lots of other links. I hope that when someone googles nautical party and comes across my blog, that I could provide other references as well).
G didn't have time so the task fell to me and my sis. I was really very grateful for K since my flexibility and movement were limited, and since working on big carton boxes only allowed the floor as the work area.
Here are the before pics of some carboard boxes:
As you can see, Mattie was quite satisfied with the boxes as they were. They provided hours of entertainment. Although when I sent these pics to my mom, she got mad and said, "He looks homeless! Why are you letting him sleep in there?" LOL!!!
The result was this:
We used some homemade giftwrapping paper from Anthropologie as the sail. Rope and yarn from Michael's. A hand-cut life preserver and flag. And a 4th of July lantern. The mast was from giftwrap rolls...i was also planning on making fishing rods but didn't have time.
Here's a pic of the two boats in the background during the party:
Next, I wanted the cake from April's son's party -- the one with the light blue airy frosting and chocolate inside. But time was a factor and I just couldn't execute
Martha Stewart's Sailboat Cake.
Plus, I wanted to make cupcakes as I had gotten a couple of stands from our housewarming party. Anyway, I also found these cute and (what I thought were) simple
marshmallow pops. Here's my version:
They were a hit at the party. Easy enough (but really messy) to make. They looked better than they tasted (too, too sweet!). Here they are wrapped & displayed on foam boards as I wanted a dessert table just like
here.
By the way, the life preservers were stacked flat because they wouldn't stay upright.
Here's a pic of our Sweet Parlour:
The banner, cupcake toppers, and favor adornments were purchased at Pin Wheel Lane's Etsy store. I don't know if those whales/ anchors were done through some kind of Cricut machine, but I just couldn't get enough of those whales! I even saved a couple to decorate a future scrapbook lay-out!
Here are my semi-homemade cupcakes (I love that show!). Bought a mix from Betty Crocker and used cream cheese frosting (my fave). Decorated with some sprinkles and voila! Because the party was on Memorial Day weekend and it was close to 4th of July, I had no problems of finding our colors of blue, red, and white! These cupcake holders with bunting were bought at Michael's as well!
I also adore these favor boxes from Pin Wheel Lane, although I picked half white boxes, half cellophane bags. Should've just gone with all white boxes. They were filled with fish tattoos, under the sea-themed crayons/ coloring booklets, Gold Fish crackers, and my fave, these sea life squirters from Birthday Express (on clearance!).
My sis assembled this wooden boat (from Michael's, $6). The original sails look too 'pirate ship-ish' so she made these out of Cardstock. She wanted to draw MK's face on the sail but I opted not to as I like the simplicity of it. It was displayed with the cake that my other sissy brought.
I included some sand box pails throughout the party. They housed utensils and the tin kind contained candy for the dessert table. I'll show you those another time as part of some future news!
Anyway, I'm getting kind of hungry so I'll just breeze through the rest of the party details.
Made paper boat bunting. Thought they would be fun for the kids to play with in a play pool (a whale!) but since it was cold, we decided not to put water in there.
For our kitchen/ family room area, I made paper bunting out of the DCVW Nautical line paper and yarn.
More kiddie fun with a sea-themed bouncy house and a crab pinata from Birthday Express.
And of course, I have to talk about fashion --
My striped, nautical blouse was purchased at Ann Taylor, from their maternity line. And this crochet anchor necklace was purchased at
Sloanester's Etsy store a couple of years ago.
I forgot where I bought MK's outfit from -- preggo brain? And I secretly wished all the kiddies & adults would've dressed up in Nautical-themed clothes. So that a group pic of us would be STELLAR!!!
Around the house, I left some sealife toys:
And lastly, I 'll leave you with some of the food that went along with the theme:
Some tea sandwiches:
The pic is blurry but here's a recipe I got from Jo -- mac & cheese with sea shell macaroni :)
Here's the table scape & those sand box pails I was telling you about:
And I like this pic although it didn't have anything to do with nautical stuff, he he!
There'll be a part three and maybe a part four (thank you cards?) coming to ya shortly!
I admit, I'm a bit of an over-achiever when it comes to parties but I just LOVE planning them! I am very detailed-oriented and could find inspiration in just about anything! Dont get me wrong, it was super hard, especially being 8 months pregnant -- I even got a bit sick from all the stress. But I had a lot of help from my family, who helped decorate and clean up. And my wonderful sis, K, who has always helped me, came and stayed the day before.
But, boy, am I relieved it's done!! :) Have a wonderful rest of your weekend!
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