It's a Ballerina Birthday Party

Hello, hello.  Wow.  It has been a long time--too long.  It's been a crazy couple of months.  We had an unplanned move, a few trips, birthdays, and well, just life.  But here I am again.  I am excited for life to slow down a bit (hopefully) so I can get some more crafting and blogging done!

My daughter turned 5, and was dying for a ballerina birthday party.  We had so much planning the party!  What girl wouldn't love a party dedicated to dancing & twirling.

The invite: (I LOVE how they turned out)

 For party favors, I made these cute little cards for each of the girl to take home:

I decided to do cupcakes this year rather than a cake---best idea EVER!  Cupcakes are SO much easier.  I made these cute little toppers for the cupcakes:

 Here's a quick tutorial:

And of course, there was a pinata!  I made several tissue-paper flowers, and hot-glued them to my paper-mache balloon.  Pretty simple!

Simple little banners:

 Happy Birthday to my Halle Girl!

ONE {DIY Birthday Shirt}

My baby girl is turning ONE in a week!  I can hardly believe it.  Time has gone by WAY too fast.  But, I must say, I am getting excited to celebrate, and to start things off, I made her this little birthday shirt.  I am going to do a "Pinwheel" theme party--so here is what I came up with for the shirt:

 Do you want to make one?  Here's what I did:
--Grab a shirt (I used a cute little tank from Old Navy)
--Print out your number & then cut it out.  Pin the pattern to your fabric, and cut your fabric out.

 --Iron some double-sided Wonder-Under to the fabric.  **Make sure you read the instructions and iron the right side, or you may iron the paper onto your ironing board (not that I would make that mistake personally-haha).

--Cut the shape out now with the Wonder-Under

--Peel the other side of the Wonder-Under off your shape.  

 --Place onto your shirt into place and iron on.

 --Now you are ready to applique it on.  I used a small zig-zag stitch all around the 1.
--For the pinwheel, I used this great tutorial.  I used a 2" square of fabric.  This was SUCH A FUN TUTORIAL!  I made SEVERAL that I will use for the party.  So cute!

Then, to finish things off, I made this fun matching headband.  I am hoping she will leave it on longer than 2 minutes (She has discovered that she can pull bows/flowers/ headbands off her head).  I made the headband like I made THESE.

I am so excited for her big day!  Happy Birthday baby girl!

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting {A Ninja Party}

My son turned 6, and what better way to celebrate than with a Ninjago birthday party!  What 6-year-old boy doesn't love a little Ninja mixed with Legos!  Well, here is what I did for those of you thinking about throwing a Ninja party yourself.

The Birthday Shirt:

Cole of course wanted a "6" shirt, but I didn't want anything too cheesy or childish.  I decided on a throwing star with a 6.  Then on the back, I did his name.  I simply printed out a template, then cut out the fabric (2 layers of knit).  Then I stitched them on.  I used the font "Last Ninja" for the lettering and the throwing star.  It's free--so just google it.

Ninja Headbands:

I followed these instructions for the headbands.  But, to make it EASIER (much), I sewed the right sides out & just did a rolled hem at the bottom rather than having to turn the tube inside out (I tried one that way, and it was going to take WAY too long.)

Throwing Stars:

 Beforehand, I had made throwing stars for all the kids using these instructions.  The boys got to decorate their own star, and then they took turns aiming and throwing them at some balloon targets.

Ninja Moves:

 We let each of the boys take a turn showing off their Ninja moves.  My husband held the balloons for them to use as a punching/kicking bag.  It was pretty funny watching them each with their own little Ninja style!

The Pinata:

No party at my house is complete without a pinata.  If you are interested in making your own pinata, take a look at this past post.  It was funny though.  I made the pinata pretty strong (thinking we could have 15 boys needing to get a good whack at it).  Well, the strings broke after round one, but the pinata was still strong.  So, we decided to let the kids kick it, karate chop it, and even head-butt it.  Very funny!

 The Cake:

After looking online for different ideas, this is what I came up with.  It wasn't quite like how I had planned in my head, but I was happy with how it turned out.  I used 2 cake rounds for the bottom.  Then used a large pyrex bowl to create the dome portion of the head.  For the eyes, I just used tootsie rolls (regular flavor & vanilla).  I just rolled them out flat.

What a fun party!  I sure love that boy of mine!  It's hard to believe he is 6!