John Deere Party (Part 2)

So... here is part two of Harri-Hedgehogs fifth birthday.  We had the grandparents over for dinner, which gave me another chance to execute all the ideas I had had for his party with his friends but didn't have the time to pull off...

It had to start with balloons!  I sourced this idea from Pinterest.  You can find the original idea via here

It is so cool dining under a canopy of balloons!  I fully recommend it.. and who said you have to have a party to do it?  I'm a firm believer in coming up with any excuse to decorate!

I made use of the sweets that weren't finished, and some extra pinwheels I had made to serve as the table centrepiece.

Harri-Hedgehogs cake was chocolate with buttercream icing.  I used a little 'grass' nozzle thingee on my piping bag to make the grass.  Talk about easy (and it covers a multitude of mistakes too, heehee).  The 5 calves are schleich toys - they are brilliant (and serve another purpose)!

Of course he had to cut the cake with a saw!  Such a boy..

Blossom loved the balloons...

and the tractor...

but not as much as Harri-Hedgehog loved his truck!

 

 



He is one happy chappy!  And I am one happy mum with another party done and dusted!  What do you think?  I said in the last post that I would link in the sources of some of the things that I bought on-line, so here is the list below.  Have a fun time cruising the net for party ideas.  I hope you enjoyed viewing my take on a tractor party.


Lilybel Studio
Poppyseed
Pocotots
Vanilla cupcake
Sweet Pea Parties


See ya,
Steph

John Deere Party

So... what do you get when you cross a farm mad boy with a fifth birthday?  A tractor party of course!

Harri-Hedgehog was close to reaching his first big milestone (turning 5) and so, in true Steph style, I started planning the big one.  And a big one it was.  The old cogs started to churn a few months out, and with a little inspiration from my beloved Pinterest a party was born! 

I love love love planning my kids parties and it was so easy this time around because Harri-Hedgehog is so obsessed with the farm, the cows, the tractors... so it was no problem coming up with the ideas.

So began the nights lying in bed with 'ah ha' moments and ideas whirling.  I tell you no lies; it was like I was transported back to those days as a child waiting for my own impending birthday parties, only this time I had the control and the joy in putting it all together!




The production line!

So where do I start?  Well I open my trusty 'Big Black Birthday Idea Book' (excuse the alliteration but its another love of mine!) and I write down the basics: What, when, where, time, guest list, games & activities, decorations, table & settings, party favours and, of course, food.  Then I slowly add to the list over time. 

I am a scrapper so it was awesome using my love of all things papery and coming up with and executing the invitations.  I scoured splitcoast stampers and used an idea from one of my scrap pages to make these invites.  The little wheels are embossed in black and the split pins allow them to spin around freely.  There is a little bunny in the cab too, which means something to Harri-Hedgehog as he has a special rabby that he can't live without!

Inside I wrote 'Start up your tractor and put it in gear...  ***'s fifth birthday is nearly here".

 

The goody bags/party favors

I had great fun making the goody bags for the kids to take home.  Next to farm stuff and his rabby, Harri-Hedgehogs favourite thing is Lightning McQueen, so a couple of squinkies and "Cars" stickers made it into his friends goody bags.  I wanted everything to tie with the theme though so I made American fudge brownie cookies & decorated them as a tractor wheels with pebbles and popped them in a cellophane bag tied with string too.  I also bought mini old-fashioned green, white and yellow lollipops from sweet pea parties and added those too.  I filled cellophane bags with the 'food' goodies & tied them with bakers twine and attached tags stamped with a message for the siblings of Harri-Hedgehogs friends.

All ready to go.. and in a farmy basket too!

Almost everything I make is made with Stampin' Up products.  So the DSP, stamps, ink, punches, brads, embossing folder and bakers twine are all from them.  I bought the brown bags online to tie in with the theme, and I glued DSP (Designer Series Paper) onto wooden pegs from Spotlight & used it as an added embellishment.  The sticks for the windmills were actually lollipop sticks a friend bought me from London. 




Hard at work... so hard in fact that closing cupboards didn't factor into my day! lol.

The party table

This was so cool to set up.  Everything had to be farm related, hence the table cloth and checked fabric.  All of the tableware was made of biodegradable wood (I'm a bit of a greenie).  The placemats were made of card covered with cow print table runner paper.  I also used it to wrap presents for prizes at game time and around the milk bottles, which I then decorated with a punched out label (to write a name on), twine and mini bull clips. 

 

Milk bottles ready to fill with flavoured milk!

Wooden cutlery - love it!



The jars had green, yellow, white and black treats.  One jar was layered with green and yellow jellybeans, and one had my Mums favourite lolly - milk bottles!  The lollipops are the large ones from sweetpea parties.  We had to pick out only the green and yellow licorice allsorts from the bins at Countdown and still it wasn't enough!  We ended up at New World supermarket too!  I will never forget how Little B said that we might get in trouble for pilfering them - he kept a lookout better than any hawk!

I had soooo many balloons - cow print ones, brown, two shades of green, yellow and white.  We filled a few black rubbish sacks with them at the end of the day!  I had plans for them but that had to wait...

The buffet, lol, just about ready.

I really like making food for parties/get togethers.  I will think about it for ages before deciding on the 'perfect' feast.  I wanted everything to be farm related, so it was all go for dairy products.  Yogurt, cheese and every flavoured milk possible was there.  Then we had the 'meat' side of the menu - ham & egg sandwiches, southern style chicken nibbles and mini hotdogs on sticks.  Then the fruit!  But what is a party without treats right?  My bestie came out and spent the day helping me to prepare this feast - she made all of these gorgeous farm bike cookies and she made the cupcakes!  My world is a better place for having you in it Bex, and I am so grateful for your friendship!  Check these out..

These little blackboards are great.  I got them online.  The 'sand tarts' really did look and feel sandy.  The haybales were lamingtons that I iced with lemon icing (and a little colouring) and coated in thread coconut.  The motorbikes are gingerbread.  I had fun icing them I tell ya!

These eggs are seriously cool.. they are just marshmallows stuck together with lemon icing!  Yummo.






Bex did a way better job of baking these than I could have, and it was quick and easy for me to ice and decorate them.  Go the internet!  I bought just about everything online, I don't think I will do it any other way in the future.

Sorry for the lopsided picture - I guess that is enough cupcake photos anyway!  You get the picture.. heehee.


And now for the cake...

Is that dirt?  Noooo... its dirt cake!  I made a chocolate fudge cake, then crumbled it and added brown pebbles and m&ms.  Then I crushed up a couple of packets of chocolate oreo biscuits and added that.  Then I added a pack of big jelly snakes 'cause what is dirt without worms?  And whala (how do you type that?) a birthday cake fit for a king/farm boy.

The kids helped themselves to the cake along with chocolate mousse, icecream, dairy whip cream and fudge sauce.  Total sugar overload, but hey, there was a lot of fruit and veges on offer too remember?  Hehe.  And, it gets better.. the cake doubled as the birthday present.. well, the tractor and trailer did anyway.  So this was the first time Harri-Hedgehog saw this, his present!  Check out his face...

Is that face not worth it all?  The culmination of all the work (said tongue-in-cheek since I loved every second of it) is written in the delight and excitement highlighted on his face.  That alone is worth more than a million thank yous.  He is so happy, his heart is full and that alone is the reason why I will do this again and again.

There is more to a party than food though aye?  (gasp gasp!)  It's the fun games too...

We had a treasure dig in the sandpit to start with, and then I drew a tractor in sidewalk chalk for the younger siblings to colour in.  I also made a big blob each of green and yellow playdough for them.

Pin the wheel on the tractor was a hit.  I was asked to recreate it for one of Harri-Hedgehogs friends party too so that was awesome!  (And I had heaps of time to draw it - unlike this one - so it was cool!)

The kids got some serious air.. watch this space Nike!

 The sack race!  It's a must for a tractor party isn't it?  It looked like so much fun that...

... I asked the Mums to have a go too!  It was a blast, I would've gone for another go again and again, but then I am really just a big kid at times!




 What is that flying through the air? (Just under the goal to the right?)







Lets play "Where's Wally" only change it to "Where are the gumboots?"  Look closely!



And that was that!  Some worn out kiddies (and Mums too no doubt), but hopefully a lot of fun had by all.  Harri-Hedgehog was a happy boy so I reached my goal and hopefully helped to create a wonderful memory for him to ponder on in the years to come.  And if not, well, he has this post and a scrap album to look back on aye?!

We had a special 'family night' for him too.  Remember the balloons?  Well, more on that in another post I think.  Thanks for reading and sharing in a celebration I will treasure forever!  I will hunt out the sources of the things I bought online and post the links soon.

Steph

Pinkalicious Party

We recently celebrated Blossoms first birthday, and what kind of party do you have for a one year old girl?  A pink one of course.  I told everyone, "It will be pink, pink, pink with a little bit more pink; and when you think you've had enough pink there will be more"!  And true to form, it was. 

I scoured the net (and pinterest in particular) for all things birthday/pink for a couple of months leading up to the day and Voila! Pinkalicious party no.1 was served up for all to enjoy.  I hope you like the photos. 

Things that inspired me are on my pinterest birthday board, so flick on over there if you want to replicate a pink party for your little princess.  Anything you see here that is not on my boards is my own idea (just thought I'd point that out!).

Here is the table in progress.  I had so much fun putting this together.  Seeing all the pieces come together that I had worked all week on was so cool.  And it didn't cost a bomb either!  You can see out the window that I have balloons dangling from the magnolia tree (that was a Pinterest idea)!

 

These tissue pom poms seem to be a really popular thing at parties now.  They are so easy to make, and they don't cost a lot.  I found out how to make them by typing 'tissue paper balls' into YouTube and watching a video that a sweet young girl had made. I've since found out that Martha Stewart has instructions on her site too.  You can find them here.

My only advice would be to use good quality tissue because it doesnt tear quite so easily.  It is only $4 so it is worth it.  Have a play with the number of sheets you use too.  I used six for mine.

 

 

 

I'm big on food, especially birthday food!  I save recipes and ideas in a special 'celebration' folder, all in anticipation of an event.  We don't have big birthday parties every year in our clan.  The kids get to have a big bash every five years (1, 5, 10.. you get the picture) so I go all out for it.  The rest of the time we have family celebrations and just a friend or two.  I just find it easier with four children to organise it this way.

 

 

I started making the food about three days before the big day arrived because there was soooo much I wanted to do.  I also wanted to make sure everything was pink so a lot of planning had to go into it.  Blossoms cake was the red velvet cake that I wrote about here.  The meringues are Pink Rosewater Meringues - a recipe that Jo Seagar shared on an entertaining show hosted by the lovely Sarah Bradley.  The show ran for about six weeks a few months ago.  I also made pink sweetheart biscuits, pink marshmallow rice bubble slice, pink rosewater coconut ice, pink strawberry macarons and flavoured waters from Jamie Oliver.  One was flavoured with strawberries, raspberries & blueberries, and the other was lemon, mint & cucumber.  On top of that was every pink lolly/treat I could find - jellybeans, pink licorice all-sorts, eskimos, berry marshmallows, pinky bars, lamingtons and pink 100 & 1000's mini biscuits - all washed down with pink lemonade!  My sister made pink and white cupcakes and everyone else bought something pink also.  You can imagine the food overload!

I actually started to feel bad about the amount of 'treat' food so I threw in waffles, fruit (the healthy bit), icecream and chocolate fudge sauce too.  Ok, thats treat food too!  But, what the hang, it's a party right?!

I don't have a photo of the table when it was completely laden, but I do have a photo of the birthday girl tasting the culinary delights..

and here is one trying out her new bike.. (good colour choice Nana P)!

and of course two of the siblings helping to open the presents ...

And finally, the centrepiece I made that didn't fit on the table once all the food was on it!  Little B and I had to sort through three large bags of jellybeans just to get the pink and white ones!  Why, oh why, can't you buy single coloured jellybeans?  It would make life so much easier... but then we wouldn't get to chomp through all the 'surplus to needs' ones would we? 

The card on the right is from Colleen. One of my most favourite scrappers and a lovely friend.  Thanks Colleen.

Thats it folks.  Roll on November and the next big birthday!

Red Velvet Wonder

Have you heard the buzz about Red Velvet Cake?  I may be a bit behind the times and the craze may have passed, but not in my family!  We just celebrated Blossoms first birthday and because I was going for a Pinkalicious theme I knew I had to try out this luscious looking, and by all accounts, delicious cake.  So thanks to this site I found this gorgeous recipe and voila! the perfect first birthday cake.  Not one person partaking in this sweet treat was left wanting.  It is everything, and more, than you would expect.

I used Queens pillar box red colouring for the colour; white ganache for the crumb coat and icing between the layers and basic butter icing for the piping.  I took inspiration from Jamielyn at iheartnaptime for the design of the cake and I'm so glad I did.  It was a real hit.

The next time I make this I will definitely give the cream cheese icing a go.  I hope I've inspired you to give this cake a go.  It was a no-mess, no-fuss, no-flop winner!