Nixon's 2nd birthday: A Circus Party

It's so cliche but I can hardly believe my little baby Nix is two!  Nixon loves elephants, bears, zebras and most days our home feels like a circus so it seemed like the perfect theme for his 2nd birthday.

Here are the invitations I designed:

This has probably been my favorite party to plan thus far.  It had more of a carnival feel to it but it was still soo fun!  

 For the marquee letters I used the cardboard letters that Michael's sells.  I cut off the front of the letters, spray painted them and drilled holes for the lights to plug in.  This was very time consuming but it looked awesome!!

 I designed little tags for the animal crackers and put coordinating stickers on the cotton candy holders.

 There were a few games for the kids to play.  Once they won they got a ticket and could turn it in for a prize.

There was also face painting.  This was a huge hit!

 And what's a party without a jumpy castle!

 

Kash's 4th Birthday: Bowling Time!

Anytime I tell Kash I have a surprise for him he says, "Are we going bowling?!?!"  Almost always I tell him no.  But can you tell him no on his birthday? Of course not.  So we gathered up his friends and cousins and had a bowling birthday party.

Here's the invitation I designed for the party:

The cake.  I'm NOT good at decorating cakes, but for some reason I keep trying every year haha.

This was a very easy party to plan.  We ordered custom bowling shirts with the kids' names on them, brought the cake and then just let them have fun!

Nixon's 1st Birthday

The minute Nixon was born the nurses were calling him a little man.  His scrunched up face and sideburns, I suppose, resembled an older man vs. a newborn ha.  So it felt like the perfect theme for his 1st birthday. 

These are the invitation I designed:

front of invitation

back of invitation

Since 1st birthday parties are all about showcasing pictures from the first year of your cute little baby's life, I took advantage of inexpensive engineer prints and used my son's pictures for most of the decorations. Engineer prints are a great way to make a huge impact in decorations for very little money.

As always I made or designed everything for this party.  If there's something that you see on here that you would like to use for your own party please email me at eggs.turnbow@gmail.com

Nixon had the best time a one year old can have at a party haha.  He loved ripping into his presents and trying cake for the first time!  We are so blessed to have this baby in our lives.  I remember when we decided to have a second baby both Blaine and I were scared out of our minds!!  And Nix has not been an easy baby.  But he's always the sweetest and snuggliest baby, and I know without a doubt he was meant to be in our family!

Here are some of the pictures from his 1 year old photoshoot.

baseball themed party

***YOU CAN PURCHASE THE INVITATION HERE***  TO PURCHASE THE SCOREBOARD please email me at eggs.turnbow@gmail.com

Six months leading up to Kash's birthday he started talking about his party, the friends and family he wanted there and the theme...I was surprised he even got the concept of a birthday party.  Every time I asked him what kind of party he wanted he said baseball, baseball, baseball.  I was willing to do any party he wanted but was more than happy to do a baseball party because I knew it would be easy.  And it was, I think this was the easiest party I've decorated.  Now, having it be a friend party and eight little 2-3 year olds in my house was another story!!!

Here are the invitations:

One of Kash's favorite parts of having a baseball party was getting to dress up like a baseball player and take the pictures for his invitations!!!

Here's the treat table and really the extent of the decorations. I had big plans to decorate other areas of the house but with a 4 month old and a 3 year old to tend to every waking minute of the day I was proud that I just got this table done!

I had a lot of people have ask how I created the score board.  I first designed it in Illustrator and then made it into three separate pictures and printed the three pictures at Office Max using their engineer prints.  To print all three I think it was less than $10. Then I just rounded out the top of the middle one and cut a little off of the top of the side prints to give it more of a vintage ballpark feel and taped them all together.

As the boys, and one girl, started to arrive Kash grew more excited with every guest.  He loved that it was his party and his friends and family were there for him. 

We started the party off with a little pitching game.  Which turned into let's all just run around and act crazy haha. Followed by baseball pinata, (that was impossible for 3 year olds to break.  Luckily big cousin Kitt came to the rescue on that one), the messiest hot dog lunch you ever did see, some bouncy castle time, presents and finally cake and ice cream.

sitting by his BFF of course

Nixon actually letting the grandmas hold him!!!

Kash was slowly backed into the corner of the room as his anxious friends "helped" him to open the presents. haha

These were the party favors filled with baseball crayons, baseball bouncy balls and other treats and goodies that I can't remember now!  

Team Turnbow...our attempt to get a family picture. 

Kash had a great time at his party!!!  He loved the baseball theme, he LOVED that everyone came to see HIM, he loved the games and the free access to the Redvines and he loved all of the presents.  I think it was everything his little 3 year old heart had hoped for!  It was really fun to plan and have all his little friends over and of course our close family.  And as always I couldn't have done it without my mom flying in and helping organize the last minute party planning...she's awesome!!!

And without further adieu, here's Kash's 3 year old video.  Set to the music of Michael Jackson's Bad because that was his favorite song this past year.

Happy Birthday Kash!!!

Kash's 3rd Year from Erica Turnbow on Vimeo.

the celebrations

Well I have to let you all know after that last post that my friends and family didn't let me down and I had an AWESOME birthday!

The day started with lunch with some old friends, who surprised me with Better Than Sex Cupcakes....MY FAV!!!  I was planning on making the cake for myself that day but didn't need to after that little surprise.  And good thing too because in reality my house is hot, I'm pregs and turning on my oven wasn't sounding all too appealing.  And when I got home another friend surprised me with more treats on my doorstep!  Yes, another reason not to bake in the heat!

these cupcakes were GIANT and delicious!!!

First on the official request list was that Blaine take me to a restaurant called Cheddar's.  I had never been there before but heard great reviews and wanted to try it out.  It did not disappoint.  Blaine and I both loved our food...I had the pot pie he had the ribs.  Yes pot pie.  Odd, but it's one of my top fav dishes and one of Blaine's least favorite so I never make it.  I really do have a grandma sense of taste when it comes to food though...I'll blame it on my Muttie :)  But Blaine is normal and had the ribs and chicken strips and said they were good, so based on his review alone you should go try it.  This was also a much needed date just the two of us, also a birthday request.  It's so funny when Kash was first born and even when I was working I dreaded the thought of ever leaving him even if it was for a few hours.  But now days it's nice to just have a little time alone with my husband!

crappy phone pic...but I wanted to document the pot pie! 

When we got home I was surprised by Blaine's sweet family with a heart attack on my door.  I love little surprises like this.  LOVE THEM!  And it totally made my birthday.

Sunday we went to his parent's house for a little birthday dinner and celebration.  Blaine's mom was so sweet to fulfill my request of her yummy enchiladas and s'mores for my birthday treat. There are still fire bans across the state so we had to roast the marshmallows over the grill.  There were still awesome.

the bell and I roastin' some mallows! 

And to top it off every one in our family chipped in to get me the camera I've been drooling over for the last 6 months!
I seriously felt so loved by all my family and friends.  This birthday totally made up for the disappointing 4th of July!