Bunny Themed Birthday

Our 8 year old has fallen in love with bunnies.  She ended up with two bunnies as gifts for her birthday including a male Lionhead and female Holland Lop. They are 1 year old and bonded (plus already spayed and neutered which makes bunnies a lot more sweet.) Here is Marshmallow:

And here is Brownie!

For her party we mostly got out Easter decorations, plus added some things from Oriental Trading Co., which turns out has awesome sales on Bunny Decor in September!

Her cake was a very delicious carrot cake recipe we found on The King Arthur website. Everyone was amazed out how good it tasted.

These cute bunny lollipops were from Oriental Trading Co.

We found several free bunny printables the kids colored as guests arrived.

The bunny gift bags contained bunny necklaces for the girls and at the end of the party they got to pick additional items from a "Carrot Patch" that included plastic bunny eggs filled with jelly beans, lollipops and bunny shaped rings.

Because we were facing Hurricane Florence here in NC, the day of the party we were basically short of fresh food.  But we did manage to pull out carrots and grapes and some Annie's bunny shaped snacks from the pantry.

One of the games we played was "Bunny Bunny Fox." Essentially Duck Duck Goose.

Another game we played was called "The Farmer and the Rabbit."  In this game each child had a section of ground that was their bunny patch and they were the bunnies. My husband was the farmer and his vegetables were balloons. The bunnies had to come up and take a balloon without being tagged and put it back in their bunny home. My boys played weasels who could steal the balloons from the bunnies and put them back in the Farmer's garden. The bunny with the most balloons at the end of 5 minutes was the winner.  This game really got the kids excited and having fun.

The party was a great success, given Hurricane Florence's impending doom.  And best of all, there are two cute bunnies in our family now that my daughter is absolutely in love with.

xo
Cathleen

A Unicorn 7th Birthday

My daughter is officially obsessed with horses. And unicorns.  She really wants a pony, not sure what little girl doesn't.  She does have a true love for animals like her momma so the best I could do was throw her a party with Unicorns and give her horseback riding lessons. Her first lesson came the day after her party - she was over the moon! I think it's safe to say this love may last a while. Here are a few pics from her party and lessons.

Her roses and Meri Meri Unicorn pics from her cupcake set adorned our dining room table.

The name banner was made quite a few years back and it's the one thing that makes an appearance year after year.

Our Jonathan Adler Unicorn seemed like the perfect addition for this party.

I lucked out finding this Unicorn wrapping paper at Home Goods one day.

Meri Meri Napkins and Plates.

I'm still refining my flower arranging skills. Lilly's, White Roses, and White Hydrangeas can look beautiful together.

This was a cute little activity for the kids. "What is your Unicorn Name?" The kids thought it was pretty funny.

The goodie bags were from Target and were filled with Unicorn necklaces, Unicorn sticker sheets, Unicorn stampers, and Unicorn Poop Lollipops (they looked like rainbows.) All of the contents were found on Amazon.

Pin the Horn on the Unicorn was a fun game.  Even the older kids enjoyed it.

I found a great recipe online for Vanilla Cupcakes. I always seem to try new ones but this one I'll probably go back to because they turned out really yummy! The buttercream frosting recipe you can find here. I doubled the recipe and I still didn't quite have enough for 24 cupcakes, but I piped the frosting on so there was probably also more than was needed.

I printed out a few coloring pages for the kids to color when they first showed up. I feel like it's always a good idea to get them working on something right away so chaos doesn't ensue. The tablecloth was from Amazon.

The kids played three games (Pin the horn on the Unicorn, a fun Scavenger hunt in which they all worked together to find a treasure of Rainbow lollipops, and the Unicorn shoe toss.) Oh and I can't forget that my oldest son stuck a horn on his head toward the end of the party and had all the kids chase him to "catch a unicorn!"  The games seem to be a hit and the kids loved getting prizes too (who doesn't?)

I forgot to take pictures of all the food, but we had Veggie dogs on Hawaiian buns, Rainbow pasta Salad, Veggie chips, and a Rainbow fruit platter. Oh and Unicorn Raspberry Bubble punch (Raspberry Lemonade.)

This adorable (and HUGE) Unicorn balloon and confetti balloons were also from Amazon. I swear it was so easy to just order everything from one place this year.

My son snapping a quick photo of me and the birthday girl before the party started.

She loved all of her gifts. She of course got a horse barn, a Unicorn (of varying kinds), art sets, Fashion plates, Roller Skates, horse stamps, and of course horse back riding lessons. Lucky Lucky girl.

Happy 7th Birthday to my little horse lover and Unicorn dreamer. She is unique and special in every way and we love her to the moon and back.
xoxo
Cathleen

6th birthday Bird party

Another great birthday in the books.  The birthday party for my daughter who just turned 6 was a bird themed party. Based on her real desire to some day own parakeets. Well, luckily a friend bought her a bird that sings. Here's how we decorated and went with her theme.

Simple tassel garland across the hutch.

Martha Stewart paper lanterns and wheels.

Her name garland across the mantel.

I made simple vanilla cupcakes with a TON of frosting. The bird picks and cupcake liners are designed by Meri Meri.

The chocolate bird nests are super easy and fun, especially for a bird party.

I found little bird cut outs for the food area.

Each child decorated white paper bags with foam circles to make a bird body with feathers and eyes. They wrote their names on their bags and used them later on for a "bird egg" hunt.

E. waiting for her friends to show up. She's wearing an owl dress from this cute line at Target called "Cat and Jack."

Fruit kabobs. My daughter had fun making these and the kids loved them.

Lots of crackers, cheese, and things to nibble on.

Bird Nest with eggs in it (pretzels and marshmallows.)

I don't know why, but I thought ants on a log would be something a bird would eat, so it seemed to fit.

Deviled eggs make another good bird themed food.

The bag making activity took a good 15 minutes. We did this first so they would be dry for the egg hunt.

Had to sneak in for a quick pic!

The finished bird bag.

Joe cut out 15 birdhouses from fence pickets. The kids each painted one and they happily painted for a good 30 minutes.

I wish I had taken a photo the whole basket of eggs, but they turned out really cute. We used plastic Easter eggs and I spray painted them with stone spray to give them a speckled egg look. We filled them with felt bird stickers, jelly beans, plastic balls, and tootsie rolls. One special egg had a silver bird charm.

 A bird theme party was super fun and super easy.  Her love of animals must come from me. We'd have a whole zoo at home if my kids had their way.

 xo
Cathleen