For the Joy of Life.: birthday parties

So, if you haven't figured it out by now... I'm kind of obsessed with party planning and party throwing. I love hosting guests, making holidays extra special, decorating anything and everything and always, always making all the above extra. Once I get a theme or a general color scheme going in my head, I can't stop! I know how silly this sounds, but it honestly makes me feel alive! I've always loved creating with my hands and mind. Sitting in a classroom and learning all things science or math... not my jam. Choosing the linens, centerpieces, and backdrops for a party... I'm all in! Having kids gives me several really good excuses to throw parties. Holidays, birthdays, special occasions, you name it! Last year I went a little overboard and really tired myself out. It was a really great distraction for a pretty tough year, but I promised Hunter this year would be cheaper, ha! Because even though party throwing is sooo fun, it isn't cheap! Oaklyn is just like me and wants any excuse for a party. When she found out her birthday was coming up, she couldn't stop talking about a party! I asked her what kind of birthday party she wanted and it was an easy choice, a ballet party! Not only do pink and gold seem fitting for this kind of party, but I also already had a bunch of decor with this color scheme, score! That is one of my biggest tips, reuse decor! Save all forms of banners, centerpieces, and backdrops. Usually you can recycle them in some way or form. Anyways, since this is a "cheaper" year, we decided it would be at a time where a meal doesn't need to be served and we would just have treats. We also invited significantly less people. Previous parties have been a family affair, but Oaklyn made the guest list for this party which consisted of her little girly besties. SO cute! The girls came dressed in their tutus, we decorated crowns, danced with a ballerina, hit a pinata, played in the backyard, and ate lotsssss of treats! Seeing Oaklyn's smile was soo worth blowing up over 100 balloons and baking a million treats!

The treat table was the focal point of the party. The backdrop stand is from amazon, linked here. We hung white curtains on them from IKEA to create a clean slate backdrop. I made the balloon arch with leftover balloons from Cambria's birthday party and a couple more packs from the dollar store. I don't know a for sure number but I think there's over 100 balloons in there. I did the threading method which I showed on my IG stories! Saved under the party prep highlight! The pink tablecloth is from the dollar store and the gold sequin one is from Amazon, linked here! Some cake stands were borrowed from my mom and others are mine, but cake stands are seriously the best thing to collect if you plan on hosting! They are perfect for every party and look so cute! The treats were funfetti cupcakes, gooey rice krispies with sprinkles and pink chocolate drizzle, oreo truffle pops, cheesecake cups, pink goldfish, and donuts. I made the cake and it was so fun! I actually made the cake and cupcakes a few days before and froze them. It made frosting the cake way easier and made for saving time the day before and day of. I frosted the cake and decorated it the day of. It started to lean because the lollipops were so heavy, oops! But a little more cardboard saved the day! I love baking cakes from scratch but it honestly is just too time consuming with everything else so I've started doctoring up boxed cake mix with a packet of instant pudding mix! It's the best! Just add a little more oil and water and you're golden!

We pushed two 6 ft tables together for the girls to sit while they ate and decorated. I rented the chairs from Allie's Party Rental and always love their service! The plastic pink tablecloths are from the dollar store. They're super thin and lightweight and honestly I love that we can just throw them away once everything is done! The sequin runners are from Amazon, linked here. The centerpieces were mason jars painted pink then distressed with twine hot glued to the mouth. I used my cricut to cut out the numbers and the ballerinas. How I made the poof balls are also on my party prep highlight. I made the gifts banner years ago for Oaklyn's first birthday and have kept it since and reused it 3 times! The tassle banner is also from her first birthday and has been reused several times! On the drink table we had pink lemonade, pasta salad, and onion dip with potato chips.

The girls had lots of fun decorating little crowns with jewels and stickers. The crowns were found at Hobby Lobby and were like $5 for a pack of 8! Don't forget that 40% off coupon! Then they danced around with a "real" ballerina with some ribbon wands and it was the cutest thing ever! The ballerina was my brother's girlfriend... she's the best and the girls loved her! I played some Frozen songs and Baby Shark and it was too cute! Then they hit a pinata and went crazy over all the candy! In their pink bags were little jewel rings from the dollar store and more plastic crowns from Party City. They also used those bags for grabbing the candy.

After that we sang, ate cake, opened presents, and played around in the backyard. It was a fun little party and I'm so glad Oaks had a blast!

If you have any more questions about where anything came from or how it was made, feel free to message me!

All my love,

Aleigh Joy

Our sweet baby Cam turned ONE on the 14th and I truly cannot believe it! I honestly feel like her first year went by in a blink. She made the first year so fun and pleasant and we are all so smitten by her. I knew I was going to throw her a first birthday party, but until a month before I honestly had planned on not doing a super big one. Suddenly all these thoughts and ideas flooded my brain and suddenly I found myself at Hobby Lobby like every day and crafting every night. I honestly can't help myself! The first year is such a big milestone for the parents and the baby so even though she won't remember the party, I love throwing a big celebration. I also love that at this age it's a family party and I'm honestly always looking for an excuse to get together with friends and family. I had a lot of questions about this party and how it all came together. This post would be way too long to read if I touched upon all the things I want to explain and talk about so I'm going to do this in different parts. This first post is just going to reveal all the photos and tell you which brands were involved/ a review on the brands involved. Sooo here we go!

Alright, so I was asked how I come up with the theme of each party. To be honest, I have a vault of party themes stored up in my head and I just use them as the time comes haha. Generally I come up with themes from scrolling through Pinterest, seeing a display at a store, really anything sparks my imagination and then I write it down in my notes of my phone and just pick one out when it's time to throw a party. I've been wanting to do a pineapple, flamingo, hot pink and coral tropical party for like a LONG time now. I really wanted to throw a summer blogger party in Utah with this theme but never really had access to the right location. So when I was scrolling through my list of ideas for Cam's party I was so excited to finally use this theme since she has a summer birthday. My mind went crazy over all the different possibilities for decor and I honestly had so much fun with it all.

I had the party in my parents backyard. I've been really lucky being able to use their yard. There's tons of space and areas to decorate. The first thing I did was think about everything I wanted there. My must have's to begin with are always good food and good entertainment. At Oaklyn's third birthday party we had a bounce house and it was a huge hit. This time I opted for a water slide and it was seriously SO fun. We had Chick Fil A at Oaklyn's third birthday party also and it was devoured by everyone there so I thought, hey that would be perfect again! We also had corn hole set out, a time capsule to write cam a note, a pinata, and baby pools. The next thing on my list is always to go through the different areas I want to decorate and try to figure out what to put in each are. Soo let's take a walk through the party, shall we?

We had everyone enter through the side gate because it's just a clear shot into the backyard which is where the party was. When you walked in, I had an Aloha sign i found at Hobby Lobby (always use a 40% off coupon no matter what the price is) and a chalkboard that said "Party Like a Pineapple." This was how I let guests know to enter that way. When guests walked in, the gift table was right there. That way, they could just drop their gift off and then mingle. At the gift table I use glass cylinder vases with rock and long wooden dowels to hang a first year photo banner in a spot without a backdrop. There was also a gifts banner that I had leftover from Oaklyn's first birthday, a large framed photo of Cam as a little baby, a little pink letter board that said "I want to be forever ONE", and a cute welcome sign! The letter board was found at the Target dollar section a little while ago. The welcome sign was from A Touch of LA. I'm going to touch upon her awesome business a little more in this blog post!

After dropping off the gifts, the younger guests headed straight for the water slide and the older guests headed straight for the food, haha! Gotta have something for everyone, right? ;) Let's head over to the food table. Over here we had a six foot table full of Chick Fil A. Guys, Chick Fil A is hands down the best food to have at a party. It ALWAYS gets eaten and everyone is always excited to have it. We had original sandwiches, nuggets, cool wraps, and fruit with tonssss of Chick Fil A sauce because everyone loves the stuff! Their catering is so easy and there is always plenty for everyone. My dad went and picked it up before the party came and it was nice and warm for guests to eat when they arrived. We LOVE our local Chick Fil A and how involved they are with the community. If you're in the area, make sure to stay up to date with all their fun family friendly events! Also on the food table was Cambria's smash cake. I wanted it to be the focal point of the table so I put it on a white crate, taped some palm leaves I bought off amazon, and stuck it on a cake stand. It was a six inch cake made by me. The AMAZING cake topper was made by A Touch of LA and I was legitimately obsessed with it. Like, would it be weird to save it as a decoration in Cambria's bedroom?? Haha she nailed it. It was exactly what I wanted! To either side of the cake was a vase with a little handmade decor. I used the vases for Oaklyn's first birthday. I just bought thrift store vases and used painters tape to tape off fun designs and then used gold spray paint to make them fun. I've used them several more times since then. For what's inside the vase, I just used scrapbook paper and cute out the circle shape, the flamingo, and the one with my cricut. I used a wooden skewer and attached it and just stuck it in the vase. These were in other spots of the party as well. On either side of those were ADORABLE signs made by A Touch of LA. Guys, I'm not kidding when I say she killed it on all the decor she made. Like, it was all so perfectly put together and added such a fun touch to the party. Prints are such a fun, cheap, and easy way to decorate at a party. These exact prints are available to purchase in her shop! The flamingo banner was made with my cricut and I just used tape to attach it to twine, the tassel banner is old but I want to say it was from My Paper Crush, and the photo banner was also from Oaklyn's first birthday party. It's super easy to make. I got the decorative paper doilies from Pebbles in my pocket and folded them in half. Then you stick them on twine. Then print out your fav pics and use a clothes pin to attach them. A cheap and easy way to add personalized decor.

Next to the food table was the "tiki hut." Or in other words, the drink table haha. I originally wanted a snow cone machine here but that seemed like an extra $70 I didn't want to spend to rent haha. Instead we did lemonade, water, and capri suns. I bought a ton of Capri Suns and they were completely gone at the end of the party! Turns out they're still as popular as I remember! The decor for this table was a pennant banner made with my Cricut, the actual drink dispensers, a galvanized bucket to hold the capri suns, more palm leaves taped to the table in the back, and fresh pineapples on cake stands with sunglasses. The drink dispenser and bucket were borrowed, I used a plate and a candle stick with heavy duty glass glue to make the small cake stands, and the sunglasses were cheap party favors from walmart. I used an old fence my mother in law had to make the little tiki hut. I wish I would've taken step by step photos but basically I used and old box that was really big and used like an L bracket to attach it to the fence. It naturally curved like an overhang but I cut it down quite a bit so it wasn't too heavy. I then used grass hula skirts from Hobby Lobby to give it more of a tiki look. I just used a staple gun to attach them. I made the sign in photoshop and got it printed at Costco. That was also attached with a staple gun.

Next to the drinks was the cake smash wall. AKA the whole inspiration behind this party haha. I found tons of balloon arch inspo on Pinterest and really badly wanted to recreate it. I'll do a post on how to make it a little later, but let's just say this was my absolute favorite part of the party. What is it about balloon garlands?? They're just adorable and mesmerizing! All balloons are from Shop Studio pep and for real you guys, I'm obsessed with the. they came in adorable packaging, they were great quality, and literally the exact color scheme I wanted. Like EXACT. I was legitimately giddy when I saw it go up. Shop Studio Pep has several different color schemes and they are all so darling. A balloon garland is a great way to create a really dramatic statement at a party and it makes for an awesome photo back drop. I HIGHLY recommend getting your balloons from Studio Pep! These balloons were from the Candy collection and the Dream collection. Those confetti balloons are seriously to die for! The banner for the backdrop and the high chair banner are from A Touch of LA. You guys, another huge win for her! I mean seriously, how is it that everything she made was perrrfectt?? Magic I tell ya. I loved that these two pieces matched so well and brought in some hot pink into this backdrop. Also, the quality of these banners can't be beat. They both laid perfectly flat because they were made with high quality materials. After the cake smash, we served cupcakes that I made and they had the cutest cupcake toppers also from A Touch of LA. So basically, I can't recommend her enough. She clearly made tons of the cute decor and it was all great quality. I sent her a little mood board to begin with and she took it and ran with it and I couldn't have been more happy. Lindsay makes custom party decor and works with you til it's perfect, then delivers it all straight to your front door. She really helps you nail down that "pinterest perfect" party and it's so convenient and easy. She has several different packages so go check them out! Also, check out her blog post where she styled all the decor she made for this party :)

My parents recently built a pavilion in their backyard where they're going to create an outdoor living room. They're doing that in phases so currently there isn't much under there which gave me a ton of space for extra decor and shaded seating. I used four round tables and just got hot pink plastic tablecloths from walmart. That's something I absolutely always take the cheap route on because they are super cheap and then you can just throw them away. I used a large round mirror in the middle of each table which was borrowed from my mom's shop and then I stuck a fresh pineapple with sunglasses on it in the middle. It was all around super cheap and I thought it was cute and easy! I love choosing colored tablecloths because it's an easy way to add a pop of color. When I was first planning out what I wanted to do for this party I envisioned lanterns hanging from the ceiling of the pavilion so I bought a bunch of them. Hobby Lobby had a great selection of them but I chose the coral and hot pink ones. I seriously went there like everyday for a week because I wanted to use the 40% off coupon, haha! They came in a three pack so I got 6 packs and grouped them together in and hung them using fishing line. At the back of the pavilion I hung Ikea mesh curtains with hot pink tulle to give a soft pretty look. I also took a wooden C covered in glitter and hung it in a decorative frame. This was also hanging on fishing line. At this table I had Cambria's month board that I used to use for her monthly pictures. I stopped because I packed it away and then couldn't find it but we went through all of our stuff before the party and found it, yay! I also made a time capsule for her. I did this at Oaklyn's first birthday party as well and it was so fun. I still have all of the letters. Basically guests can take a card and write her a note. Then I lock them away until she turns 18. She then gets to read them! I've wanted to read Oaklyn's so many times when I come across them but I always end up waiting haha.

Cambria's outfit was made by me! I used a crochet headband from walmart and cut strips of hot pink tulle then looped the strips through the holes to make it. It was kind of tedious and time consuming but it was really easy. I just used a plain white carters onesie and used my cricut to create and cut out the design. I used gold glitter iron on vinyl and loved how it turned out! I bought the bow from Hobby Lobby (did you know they have a really good bow selection??) and hot glued it on to a piece of rolled up old tights. She also wore hot pink Freshly Picked moccs!

Alright, last but not least let's talk about the water slide! The water slide came from American Bounce Company and I was really impressed with their service! It was super easy to book and they sent the contract, tips for ahead of time, and came early. The slide was a HUGE hit. A lot of the kids didn't leave it the entire time. I got the 18' water slide and it was honestly a blast. Kids, adults, even grandparents went down! Every party needs entertainment, and I feel like this definitely did the trick! It was a really hot day so it felt really good to be in the water. For the littler kids, we had baby pools set up. Cam LOVED hanging out in the baby pool and it was perfect for Oaklyn since she had a broken foot. Adults sat in lounge chairs under the shade and talked and some adults even came down the slide in their clothes, haha! One of the last festivities was the pinata. I found a pineapple pinata at Walmart and thought it was so cute! We hung it from the tree and let the kiddos go to town. We passed out bags and they filled them up. I then gave each kid a chick fil a free kids meal card courtesy of our lovely local Chick Fil A. People stayed and hung out for a little while longer and all around it was a great day.