The Magic of Ordinary Things: BIRTHDAY BASHES

I wanted to participate in the above mentioned Linky Party, so I thought I would blog about a few Big Birthdays that have been celebrated in our household over the last four years.

There is a unique situation in our family, in that my husband and I share the SAME Birthday. Because of that, we tend to go a little overboard on our Birthday Celebrations, especially when it's for an important Age.

The first one was four years ago when Marc turned 30. My husband is originally from Louisiana, so from there, a party Theme was born - Swamp Fest 2006.

This was the first time I ever "Made" invitations. And actually, I didn't "make" them - I bought them - blank ones, but I printed up the information and used Swamp themed stickers.

I loved the concept of the invitation slipping into the little pocket - something that could easily be replicated and become handmade.

As party favors, we had custom T-Shirts made from here, which we sold to the party goers for $10 and then donated all proceeds to the ALS Foundation in my husband's mother's name.

A local bakery made our cake, and did a really great job of incorporating the Swamp Theme. The only problem was that the baker forgot to put BOTH our names on it, so one of our friends ran home and printed out the little sign.

We served all of our drinks out of a friend's canoe.

The best part of the party, was all the fun our guests had participating in the games we had planned. We had the Egg Toss, Three-Legged Race, Running with Egg on Spoon, Beer Chugging Contest, and who could guess how many Jelly Beans were in a Jar. We gave away $10 Gift Cards and little Trophies to the winners. For the kids, we had a Jumping Castle, so all age groups were covered.

I think my husband will always remember his 30th Birthday, and still four years later, our friends ask when Swamp Fest the Sequel will be held.

Two years later, in 2008, two Big Birthdays were celebrated... my 40th and our first born son's First.

For Luke's party, I scoured the internet looking for 1st Birthday party supplies that were NOT Baby Blue. I finally found a party package that had a Graphic looking Cupcake, using Purple and other bright colors... the furthest thing possible from Baby Blue.

I made the invitations.

I'm sure someday he will hate me for using that picture.

For his cake, I stuck with the Cupcake theme. I got a piece of plywood that I painted to match the design on the party plates. I baked 60 cupcakes and iced 59 of them with purple icing. The 60th cupcake was iced with yellow icing and had the honor of holding the candle. I then arranged them in the shape of the number 1.

I know he'll never remember that day, but hopefully from the all pictures, he'll see what fun he had.

My 40th was a HUGE production!!!! I got the idea from watching the Ellen show, when some actress was talking to Ellen about an 80's party someone had just thrown for her. I started planning this party the week between Christmas and New Year, so I had four months to pull it off - an "80's Prom Night".

The first thing I did was send out a "Save the Date" card in January, which included a picture of me from my 1986 Prom.

Then the invitations followed at the end of March. These were handmade and very intricate.

The theme song for the "Prom" was "Holding Back the Years" by Simply Red. I thought it was appropriate, because after 40, you pretty much want to hold back getting any older.

They were a double fold-out.

The first fold showed fancy, star glittered vellum and a list of "All Things 80's" for inspiration.

The second fold opened the card completely, and gave all the pertinent party information.

The day of the party dawned sunny and hot. The "Decorating" committee got to work first thing that morning.

Everyone made fun of my Organization. I'm a Kitchen Designer in my real-life, so I had to be precise with every little detail.

I think my over organization paid off. The space looked Incredible!!!

Sadly, ten minutes after the party was to start, a HUGE thunder/wind storm came blowing through and blew away most of the decorations. I was mostly sad because not everyone had arrived yet to see it before it was gone.

When guests arrived, there were tissue paper corsages for all the ladies to choose from. I also had empty CD cases for everyone, that had a little booklet of paper inside.

They were to use it like a Year Book and have all their friends sign it. After getting all their signatures, they put their Family name on the back and left the case in a special box for me. In the days following the party, I asked everyone to e-mail any pictures they took - plus we had disposable cameras on all the tables. I then took ALL the pictures and put them on a CD. So each family, or couple, got back their Year Book, which now had a CD of all the pictures taken.

Being that it was a Prom, of course we had to crown the King & Queen.

Another highlight of the evening, was that I took "Prom Portraits" of all of the guests.

Before the storm, there was a GREAT Photo Vignette.

But that all blew away, so we had to make due with something not quite as elaborate. Some of our guests really went all out with the "80's" Theme.

One other favor that I did for everyone, was to print their "Portrait" and frame it in this card.

Despite the storm, my 40th Birthday 80"s Prom Night, will be a night to never forget.

This year, we celebrated another First Birthday for my youngest son, Grey.

I got a Cricut this past Christmas, so I put it to FULL use for these invitations.

The idea for the theme for this party came from "Family Fun" magazine when I saw the "Barnyard" cake. I thought I might like to tackle trying to make it.