Teddy Bears Picnic Party

Before Marley's 1st birthday party, I had already decided on the theme for his second birthday. 

This was back in the day when I was convinced I was destined to be a mother of only boys. I just knew our next child was going to be another boy and a third was completely out of the question. 

So I figured my only chance to throw a teddy bears picnic, was going to be for Marley's 2nd birthday, while he was still little and cute and loved his teddy bear and was too young to care about batman or Ben 10. 

I went into a lot of effort for the party, like a crazy amount of DIY was happening all over the place. I partly blame it on the pregnancy hormones but the reality is, im just crazy like that. 

Party table

A couple of months before the party, I set about making and gathering decorations. The first thing I did was make this tree back-drop out of brown and green card. Took me back to my primary school days! And you can't beat cheap-as-chips for budget decorations like this red-gingham table cloth. I think it was about $2. seriously! 

Teddy Bears Picnic party cake with matching cupcakes

The cake took FOREVER! All those little fondant decorations, and that picnic blanket was certainly no picnic to make. And you wouldn't believe how bad my hands cramped up piping all that grass BUT the cake turned out alright in the end and the buttercream grass tasted so yummy and not like grass at all. 

teddy bears lolly bags

The lolly bags were brown paper bags, filled with lollies of course. Red and blue personalised labels with a teddy bear cut out and red gingham bows to finish.

Teddy Bear racers

Beehive pinata

My first and only attempt so far at a DIY pinata. This thing took waaaay longer than I expected! I buy them pre-made these days....

the teddy bears picnic

Picnic for the teddy bears....they must be running late!

Pin the bow-tie on the teddy bear game

DIY pin the bow-tie on the teddy bear. This was a bit cute!

My beautiful blonde boy (left) back when he still had a hint of curls

So that was Marley's 2nd birthday. Now, he is a big 4 year old! And the batman and transformers and lego talk has been going on awhile now. We've done Under the Sea, a Teddy Bears Picnic, a train party and a beach party. I have managed to avoid a character themed party so far, but im sure ive got one coming for the big 5 party this year.


 Lisa xx

Surf's Up-shared birthday beach party

Last weekend, {yep, I began typing this post mid-December...} we finally celebrated the kids birthday's with their joint beach party. I say finally, because I had to postpone the original date due to me being completely and totally utterly swamped with assignments. 

The weather wasn't perfect. It was windy. It was cold. It was rather crap really. But we all survived and had a good time. Wind burn and all. 

It was casual and laid-back. I was even in bed before midnight the night before the party! For those that know me well, that is just unheard of! 

It helped that I used buttercream instead of fondant icing to decorate the cake with and the simple fondant sufboard toppers took me all of 5 minutes to make-if that! My cakes are usually very elaborate and take days to complete and im quite often seen doing last-minute touches to them, well at the very last-minute. Not this cake!

 Easiest. Cake. Ever!

Blue ombre 'surf's up' cake. 

I kept the decorations really simple. 

The 'tablecloths' were a couple of metres of gorgeous, summery fabric I picked up at Spotlight which I plan on making into cushions, or a hanging tent for the kids, or adding some squares to the kids rag quilts that I WILL FINISH BEFORE WINTER. Or the fabric may just get added to the stash for a while...

I have been hanging to decorate with burlap so the burlap came out in full-force for this occasion. 

The netting and anchor are left-over decorations from Marley's original nursery which was  'nautical' themed.  

The burlap bunting I ordered from etsy. 

The invites I DIYed. I love graphic design and am seriously considering studying it along-side my interior design diploma. But then I slap myself for even considering adding more to my work load. But then I think how awesome it would be. This internal monologue continues.....

I didn't bother with games. We were at the beach! There was sand, there was water, there was kids. 

I did put up a volley ball net and bring some sand toys for the littlies. 

Here's a few more pics of the party food

And that was it. Done and dusted!

Im so glad I combined their birthdays into one party last year. It made my life so much easier! And Lila wasn't really into anything when I was planning it. 
But now that she is getting older and im discovering how incredibly girly she is, I can not wait to plan a super girly party for her 3rd birthday! I have been waiting soooo long for that! 

As for Marley, he starts kindy.....next week! eeek! And with that will come new friends and new interests so I cant wait to see what he chooses for his party theme this year. 

Check back in over the coming weeks to see some sneek peaks of the kids new bedroom...s. Yep, I changed them back in to their own bedrooms! It was awesome at first. Both kids in the one room. But bedtimes were a big challenge and would usually result in Marley staying up far too late whilst we waited for Lila to fall asleep. I also realised that more than them having a shared playroom (and me an office) they really needed their own space to retreat to. 

They both seem to really like having their own rooms again with their own stuff! As for my office, it has been temporarily relocated to our bedroom! Not a fan of this at all but until I can decide what to do in the living room, here it will stay.

 Oh the joys of living in a little house.

Lisa xx

Marley's 3rd Birthday-Choo Choo Train Party

My little man Marley turned 3 last year and to celebrate, we had a train themed party at this gorgeous little miniature train place. 

The day could not have been more perfect, the weather was perfect and everybody had such a great time, adults and kids alike! Admittedly, I was completely exhausted after spending night after night getting everything ready, but it was all worth it in the end. He is turning 4 this Friday and everyone keeps asking me if we can have his party at the same train place again!

I was too busy enjoying the party to get some really great blog-worthy photos but a friend of mine did manage to get some good ones for me.

PARTY DETAILS:

THEME

Trains! Blue, turquoise and red colour scheme.

VENUE

Morphett Vale Railway, South Australia 

INVITATIONS

little house inspired.

Train ticket invitation

I wanted the invites to look like train tickets but still be fun and personalized with his photo and in keeping with the colour scheme.

Thank 'choo'  thank you tags

Name labels for lolly bags

Cupcake circle toppers

DECORATIONS

Happy birthday banner and tissue paper pom poms-little house inspired. (and helpers!)

other round lantern thingys (?) were from Martha Stewart's party range at Spotlight

Balloons-Spotlight Sparty’s

Train decorations-Ikea

CAKE

little house inspired.

Marley's 3rd Birthday Train Cake

The cake was two tiers (bottom tier dark chocolate mud, top tier caramel mud). I like to have fun with my cakes and create a bit of a story with them, particularly for children's cakes. The bottom tier was covered in 'grass' (piped buttercream) and the top tier was a little landscape setting with a 'tunnel' carved in to it. I made the fondant train topper a few weeks in advance.

CUPCAKES & COOKIES ETC

little house inspired.

vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing. The lolly train decorations I made the night before by cutting up various licorice lollies and 'gluing' them together with leftover icing.

I also made train shaped cookies using a train shaped cookie cutter and red and blue cake pops with number 3's on them.  

Train and Number 3 Cupcakes

well that was Marley's 3rd birthday. This year, I am combining both birthdays into one party in the middle of both their birthdays (November 18th).

We first considered 'Neverland' as the theme, but Marley is just not into the tights *sigh*. We then fell in love with the Lorax movie so decided that would be our theme but then I thought, being the middle of November it would be so nice just to get all our friends and family down the beach together so....beach party it is!

Lisa xx