This is a great book on how to plan special events!
Birthday celebrations are great fun around here! I am blessed to have a mom-in-law who loves to put on parties, a sister-in-law who is a trained pastry chef and therefore creates delightfully delicious and pretty desserts, and a mother who wrote the book on party planning, literally.
As you can imagine, my birthday parties (and those of my siblings) were pretty amazing. I remember a garden themed party, an ice cream themed party, a princess themed party, a mystery/detective themed party, and many others.
As the oldest child, I also remember helping my mother with the church special events that she coordinated. So when I was in high school and my sister was about to turn 13, I decided to take up my mother’s mantle and I planned and put on a Bed and Breakfast themed slumber party for her.
Therefore, by the time I had my children’s parties to plan, the bar for parties was set high! The first few years, we had mostly family parties or park play date type parties. I still selected a theme and often, my sister-in-law was able to bake amazing creations!
It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to!
Our very first first birthday party was X’man’s Zoo Party! My sister-in-law made amazing cupcakes and we invited lots of family and a few family friends to the party.
Zoo Animal cupcakes- adorable!
There were elementary aged children there, so I came up with a couple of zoo games. We tossed stuffed animals into “cages” (laundry baskets), depending on the type of habitat the animal needed (land or water). The other game involved a water relay- the children were the zoo keeper’s helpers and they had to take water in paper cups from one bucket to the other bucket for the thirsty animals!
X-man’s second birthday party was a Lightning McQueen party, as he loved cars (he had not yet seen the movie, he received the movie for his birthday). Again, my sister-in-law is absolutely amazing. Check out this amazing cake!
Lightning McQueen
The same year X-man turned 2, our little tiny princess turned 1! We went with an elegant pink and brown theme. My awesome sister-in-law made the desserts and my wonderful mother-in-law came up with the decorations. My contribution was K’s matching outfit!!
Beautiful party
Delicious brownies!
Little cupcakes for a little girl!
Raspberry macaroons
These were absolutely delicious!
It was such an elegant party, held in my mother-in-law’s backyard.
The birthday princess!
The next year we had a Safari Party and BBQ at the park for X-man with some friends from church. We were invited to a 4th of July BBQ at a friend’s house on K’s birthday, July 5th, so we offered to bring dessert and we turned it into her 2nd birthday party!
These are not nearly so fancy, as I made them! 🙂
Now she’s 2!
These were very tasty! Again, I made them, as you can tell! 🙂
She especially loved the ice cream!
The next year, I hosted birthday parties at my home for X’s 4th and K’s 3rd with their friends. They were delightful parties! That year our youngest son turned 1 and we gave him a Winnie the Pooh Party! My sister-in-law again made adorable and delicious pumpkin cupcakes, my mother-in-law handled the decorations and I came up with a few activities for the couple of children who were there. They decorated favor bags with stickers, tossed clothespin “bees” into paper bag beehives, and jumped in Tigger’s Bounce House!
These are so precious!
K’s “Hunny Pot”
X’s “Hunny Pot”
Honey candy and Pooh tablecloth!
Winnie the Pooh, the guest of honor!
Look, Ma! No hands!
Birthday boy and most of his family
Birthday parties are great fun! It is a joy to celebrate the lives of our children- they are amazing gifts from the Creator! I’ve been thinking about birthdays and birthday parties recently. They are a beautiful picture of God’s grace. A birthday party is a day where you have fun, feasting, and gifts because of an event-your birth- that you had no control over. Your mom did all the work! 🙂 In the same way, God’s grace gives His children the gift of heaven where there is glorious fun and feasting because of an event that we had no control over. Jesus did all the work.
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