Cooper's Circus Party Decorations

Today, I’ll share with you the decorations pictures.  I worked my rear off on these decorations, so I really hope this post turns out so that you can see them.  

Front Room Decorations
These decorations were pretty easy – and there weren’t too many of them.  Pulled Cooper’s cirus tent down from his playroom, put the bean bag toss out that I purchased,  and put some party hats, clown noses, huge clown sunglasses and punch balloons out for the kids and adults to wear/play with.
Hallway Decorations
Hallway – I put these circus subway art and sparkly stars up on each door in our hallway – since we have four doors – I wanted to give them a little “something.”
Living Room Decorations
I put a “Happy Birthday Cooper”pennant banner above our loveseat, and put alternating white and red streamers to the middle of the ceiling with balloons in the middle.  The kiddos treat bags were on the TV stand, along with their circus animal crackers.  That blue and white board to the left of the TV is that clown that is to the right.  We cut the head out – and the kids (some of them) stood and put their faces in for a picture.
Kitchen Decorations
I put some balloons up on the light fixtures another happy birthday banner above the sliding glass doors, and you can see the overall kitchen in the first picture, then the cake!  My mom and Shawn made that cake, isn’t it adorable?  Of course it was inspired by Pinterest, but they did a spectacular job of recreating the cake!!  I dipped some pretzel rods in different colored sugars, and then we had cake pops that hubby and I made and individually wrapped.  Then of course, popcorn and peanuts!  Circus food at it’s finest.  We had lunch too, but it wasn’t as circus inspired, so I didn’t take pictures.

Well, those are the decorations!  Tomorrow I hope to post pictures of the actual party time.  So, what do you think of the decorations?  Does everyone else spend an entire week getting ready for their kids’ birthday parties?  This party wore me out, I’m not sure I’ll be going this crazy next year, we’ll see!

Stephanie’s Baby Shower

The baby shower was on May 5th, (I’m only a month behind!!)  and it was a great time.  Steph’s mom and I had been preparing for almost 2 months for the big event.     

We decorated the place to the nines.      Here are a few pictures. The gift table had a banner above and below with “Congratulations Stephanie” with different colored elephants.  That was a fun banner to make.     

Above the food table we hung a clothes line with Kampbell’s onesies and three maternity photos that I had taken a few weeks prior.     

The picture of the entire room below shows everything.  The 20+ tissue pom poms, yellow tables with vases (baby bottles) & flowers cake table with streamers behind it.  It was so much fun to decorate and make the room come to life!    

Once the guest of honor and other guests arrived, we ate lunch, played games and got to the gifts.  Stephanie had lots of fun opening up the gifts.  One below is of Steph, her mom and me.  It was so fun and Stephanie and Kampbell got lots of good stuff!!! 

I had the best time throwing this baby shower, and I hope that I’ll get to throw another one in the future!  I think in another life I was a party planner, cause this was way more fun than I have in my day job!

Engagement Party!

We threw Stephanie and Ryan an engagement party a couple of weeks ago.  It was quite a bit of work getting ready for it, but everything looked great and the house has been pretty clean ever since, so I consider it all worth it!

Before the party, Tim and I worked a lot around the house on all of our projects.  I spread a record 55 bags of mulch, Tim worked hard on our bannister, the outside of our house, the upstairs kids bath and much much more!  An added bonus, we also had a painter come in and paint our stairwell and ceiling.  There is only one 1/2 bath in our entire house that hasn’t been painted in the last 3 years, ever other wall has been repainted.

Party Prep! VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Then the party prep – Stephanie and I were very busy the Saturday before the party getting things ready.  We made about 100 fruit kabobs.  Andrew blew up nearly 25 balloons, Stephanie put up lots of decorations and made a collage of her and Ryan’s wedding party.  I made 48 cupcakes, and a 3 layered “wedding” cake.

Sunday we had most of everything done, but there was still a bit to do with making sure the rest of the food was ready and finalizing decorations.  We had a good turn out.  We had planned on people using both the inside of the house along with the back deck, but since it rained that day, people were all stuck inside and crammed in.  It was ok in the end!  Tim made a short but simple speech about his “Pooky” growing up and getting married, then he had the happy couple cut their cake.  They had fun.  Steph wanted pictures with her entire bridal party, and she was lucky, 6 out of 7 bridesmaids made it to the party.  Check out a few photos!

The Party VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The happy couple:

Overall, we had a good time, but we were glad when it was over and we got to finally relax!

Cooper is ONE!

We had Cooper’s first birthday Saturday, the day before his actual birthday. Since most of our family lives out of town, we figured it would be more convenient for them and it was certainly more convenient for us as well.

Friday night I baked Cooper’s cake and cupcakes while Tim did most of the cleaning. I cleaned the kitchen, but otherwise Tim did it. He was a cleaning fool! I made Cooper a monkey cake. It actually turned out pretty well, I was so glad! Pictures will follow the text.

Family & Friends started arriving at 1pm. I was just finishing dressing Cooper and getting ready myself. Everything turned out pretty well. Cooper ate his cake, more like DESTROYED his cake. The video of the cake eating is below too.

Cooper got lots of funding for his college fund and soooooooooo many toys! Thanks to all who attended and for all of the gifts! It turned out to be a wonderful day and I’m so thankful for all of our family and friends!

Slide Show of Coop's Party

Below is Cooper demolishing his cake:

Cooper's First Birthday!

Today is Cooper's First Birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY COOP! MOMMY LOVES YOU!

More to come later! We're off to do something FUN for his big day!!!