Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Birthday Party

My baby is getting ready to turn 5 in a few weeks.  I literally can not wrap my head around FIVE.  I just keep turning it over and over in my head wondering how it has went so fast.  (And then I read this by Katie and this by The Nester and I basically just sob because it never stops.  Parenting is so lovely and strangely hard. #bittersweet)  Anyways, back to the point at hand - Ninja Turtles!  When my nearly-5 baby was nearly-4 he desperately wanted a TMNT birthday party.   Because I take a long time to process my thoughts and am a terrible blogger who doesn't post things anywhere online in a timely fashion this post is a year late.  But somehow it feels ok to share this party in honor of his upcoming birthday, which I know makes no sense to anyone but me.  #thatsok

I love, love, love being a boy mama.  I love the loud, dirty, wrestling around, skinned knees-ness of boys.  But one of the things I struggle with HARD are characters.  Oy, the characters.  And boy characters pretty much all follow the same themes - they fight, they defeat bad guys, they have super powers &/or are weird.  So when TMNT came up I fought it.  I am fighting the good fight for all of us character-disliking mamas out there - and I am epically losing.  Bleh.  So when this came around as the toy/character of choice I decided that I would be ok with the fun-happy-silly turtles of the 80's, not the mean, aggressive, grunting TMNT of 2014.  (I'm hoping that I'm not the only mother out there who has grossly over thought this.)

But I digress.  So, how about if I actually talk about the party?  After over-analyzing if we should do this theme or something else I knew that our kiddo would love it the most and we went for it.  Honestly I had no idea how to make it fun.  I wanted it to be interactive and not just a lot of cutesy decorations. I decided pretty early on that I needed a few basics to do this party.

Pretty simple, right?  This party was very easy to set up.  We created a maze that had Turtle silhouettes on foam core at the entrances.  The maze was made of plastic electrical conduit that was cut in thirds, Dollar Tree pool noodles, and crepe paper streamers.  The whole maze cost around $20.  We had clothes line poles at our last house and we hung balloons at varying heights from the clothes lines.  That was the biggest hit of the whole party with the kids!  At the entrance of the maze we set up a tub with foam swords (also from the Dollar Tree) and DIY TMNT masks.  We didn't have many girls at the party but I can attest that the boys LOVED the swords and fighting the balloons.  Those things didn't stand a chance!  If you are throwing your own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed party this is the one thing that you have to do!

I wish that the pictures of the yard weren't so blown out.  But that's what happens when you have to shoot in full sun, you get the harsh sun/shade shadow.  To do the maze take your 10 foot electrical conduit and cut it into 3 pieces with a saw.  Then take a rubber mallet and tap them into the ground.  Slide your pool noodle over the tubing and then wrap the paper around streamers around different sections of the noodles making 'walls'.  Seriously, the possibilities are endless with this idea.  For the turtle silhouettes I picked up the black foam core from the Dollar Tree (#unofficialsponsor) and had my friend from Sprinkle The Kindness make me the turtle silhouettes.  She also cut the letters for the Happy Birthday sign behind the cupcake/gift table.

The rest of the party was just as simple.  I did paint the TMNT peg dolls for the cupcakes, but those were mostly for me because I thought it would be cute (my son declares that he 'hates peg dolls') and I wanted to do them.  For something similar you could look for something on Etsy or just use smaller figurines.  I had grabbed the green 'Pizza' banner after Christmas because I had a sneaking suspicion I would end up doing a turtle party.  I used some striped washi tape to spell 'Pizza'.  I used a scrap piece of wood to make a 'Mutagen' sign for a batch of green punch.  

And that's that!  If you are planning a TMNT themed party what are your plans for the day?  

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Looking for more birthday party inspiration?  You might enjoy these too:

Reading Themed Birthday Party

Little Mister Birthday Party

TMNT Pinterest Inspiration Board

Reading Themed 2nd Birthday Party

Davis LOVES books.  He had a favorite book at 6 months old.  So when we started thinking about his 2nd birthday party we decided to base it on his favorite thing - books.  Our alma mater, William Jewell College, has an adorable little schoolhouse on it's campus (the Dale Patton Schoolhouse) that is available for rent.  It was the ideal setting for the birthday party.  It's also when we discovered how great it is to host events not at your house!  

I decided on a red, white and blue color scheme.  I was thinking primary colors would work well - unfortunately Davis's birthday is a few days before July 4th so as I was buying all the things I was really afraid it was going to look like a big USA bash.  It turned out ok but it definitely makes me think twice about what colors I use for his birthday from now on.

We read two books during the party.  One was 'Little Blue Truck', which Davis was really liking at the time, and the other was an older book called 'The Traveling Coat'.  We made a book report for 'The Traveling Coat', but inadvertently made it WAY to hard!  I'm pretty sure that most of the guests gave up by the second question!  (Also washi tape makes everything more fun.)

I pulled together 2 banners for this party.  The one above is the easiest thing EVER.  We strung a piece of jute twine across the room and then used clothes pins to pin open vintage Golden Books.  Easy and adorable, just what I like :)  The other banner was a pennant that I quickly sewed together.  When I make pennant banners I use premade bias tape from the sewing department and stick the pennants between the fold as I'm sewing, no pins required.  The banner across the chalkboard was made with navy bias tape and vintage book pages from a book I found at the thrift store.

The party was at 2 in the afternoon so we served a handful of snacks.  I was very worried that we wouldn't have enough food but it ended up being the perfect amount.

My main mister and I waiting for our birthday boy to arrive.  I was about 5 months pregnant in this picture and look how tired I look!  Even though I look a little rough and we're dressed like an ad for USA it was a wonderful day spent with our family and friends celebrating our oldest little mister.  

Summer Party Inspiration

This post did not start out intending to be an outdoor party inspiration post, but one fabulous photo led to another which bred this post.

I have heard some flak about the whole idea of the 'outdoor room' or 'outdoor space' from several sources. Personally I like the idea of hosting events outdoors and making them feel like an extension of an indoor space. Some of these inspiration photos are more elaborate than others (they were to fab to exclude) but some of these are perfect in their simplicity. Hopefully you'll find inspiration for your next summer gathering!

From My Lifetime
What I like about this table setting is that it really does seem as if it could be put together from any home in America. There is nothing spectacular about any of the pieces here except that they've been artfully arranged. Remember when you're looking at an inspiration photo it is inspirational, not necessarily for reproduction. Any light throw or scarf could be used as well as any assortment of candle holders, vases, and white dishware.

From Southern Accents

I included this photo again because it would be easy to replicate. Many people have tiled patio tables - don't cover up all that gorgeous color - use it to jump start your table setting. A paired down dinner set lets the table top shine through with some well coordinating accents.

Mix & Match table setting from Madison Magazine

This looks like a basic picnic table with coordinating colored dinnerware and accessories. Perfect coordination sometimes is stuffy - this is much more casual and laid back.

Here are some more elaborate examples for weddings or larger scale events:

From Style Me Pretty

The lights on the ceiling could be replicated in any event. For a smaller event the basic principal of this photo can still be translated. The biggest thing to take away from this is to choose a unifying color palette and pattern and carry it through the entire event.

From Country Living

Being a country native and someone who has attended and helped execute many a hay ride in my day, I LOVE this idea! The set up looks pretty basic - but I would suggest a blanket over those hay bales when it's actually time to sit - no one wants those sticking their backside!

P.S. Many thanks to Jon for showing me how to create links within my posts so I don't have to copy & paste the web addresses any more! I'm SO tech challenged - I never would have figured that out on my own!

Birthday Film Festival

This past weekend we celebrated my husband's film snobbery with his very own film festival. 2 'theaters' playing 8 movies throughout the day. I didn't have my usual photographer photograph the event (sorry) so you'll have to do with my very lame photography skills.

Unfortuantly I didn't get many shots of the set up (very disappointing) because I starting taking some and then set up the tripod/camera for the photobooth and abandoned taking the rest of the actual party pics. Here are some shots of the event set up that I did actually get:

You can't see it but in the back there was a nostalgia popcorn maker and the boxes in the tray are popcorn boxes from a local movie theater. They also gave me drink cups which were in another area with the drink station. I didn't get any photos of the drink station.Movie collage above the theater screen in one of the viewing rooms. You can't tell in this photo but the popcorn bucket had a light inside of it that made it a really neat light feature.This was our 'side auditorium' the night before the party. This was probably my favorite part of the party. I hung a white backdrop up and set up our digital camera on the tripod for guests to take their photos. Kids activity table.Here are some of the awesome photo booth shots:

Clever thinkin!

So I was checking out the old MSN homepage earlier today and came across the link 'No-Money Home Makeovers' {http://lifestyle.msn.com/your-home/room-design/staticslideshowrs.aspx?cp-documentid=17178114&gt1=32001}. I was intrigued and had to click. There are a couple of cute ideas, but I thought this was kind of fabulous.


Repurpose Your Bracelets as Napkin Rings
Colorful plastic bangles are great for a casual table, while metal ones complement a formal setting. You can also pin brooches down the length of a table runner and lean a place card in front of each one.

Since braclets have a larger opening than standard napkin rings I really like the idea pictured in the middle with the flatware included in the bunch.

Spring placesetting

This morning my camera finally had batteries with power so I was able to photograph my spring table settings. I picked up the majority of this (minus the silver chargers) from Target on sale. I am still working on a centerpiece, but so far I'm pleased with the individual placesettings.

Paper-Source Love

I received my Paper-Source {www.paper-source.com} Holiday 2008 Catalog yesterday, and can I say L-O-V-E? So many fabulous ideas for the holidays & for entertaining. Here are just a few of my favorites:

I'm really into these "I am thankful for" cards. Perfect for sitting around the Thanksgiving table.





These are just a few of the really fun Christmas cards. These are some of the personalized letterpress cards, but they also have boxed sets.

I love these address labels! What a fun way to spruce up (already adorable) Christmas cards!

I love this gift! A wine tasting party kit - how fun!


And of course what holidays would be complete without penguins, clockwise from top left, penguin tree topper, penguin envelope seals, penguin gift book, and lastly penguin wrapping paper (these are for you babe!):