One Thrifty Chick: birthday parties

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Golf Themed Birthday Party

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September was a busy month around here and part of it was due to a special Birthday, and part was due to Oregon Duck football, and they both fell on the same day.

Our youngest was set on having a Golf themed party, so we made the decision to have it at our local outdoor mini golf course, which I must say is pretty cool.

Before I go into details about the party, I want to share his actual Birthday and how we made it amazing!

Every birthday in our home is celebrated with a decorated hallway when you wake up in the morning as well as listening to The New Kids on the Block rendition of Happy Birthday.

The football game was an early one, in fact we had to be at the stadium at 7am to get the tailgater set up. So that morning the kids and I got up early had a pre-party birthday celebration and then we all headed out to the stadium.

Every game the Oregon marching band walks through the parking lot and plays at various tailgaters. Well on this day somehow my Dad was able to arrange for them to stop by and sing Jayden Happy Birthday.

This is probably one of the most memorable tailgaters to date, and I am certain it's a Birthday this boy will never forget. Check out this video!

I mean honestly, how cool was that? Then all he wanted for his birthday was to sit up in the skybox with his Papa, so he did just that! And his highlight was pointing out his dad all the way across the field!

After the game the whole family went out for dinner at his favorite Mexican restaurant.

The following day was his big party. He woke up that morning put on his Marcus Mariota Jersey (if you are not familiar with him, Google that name) and to his surprise he was playing on TV as well. This Birthday boy was happy at this point as you can imagine.

Jayden was fortunate enough to get to spend the day golfing with Marcus and other players a couple years ago. Ever since then, Marcus became is #1 man!

Alright, onto the party that you came here for. I knew that I couldn't do too crazy of a party at an off site location since I only had 30 minutes to get it set up. But I knew that I wanted one main table and I wanted it to be big.

I created giant golf balls on "tees" by using Soccer horns that I found here and paper lanterns that I found here. I spray painted the Soccer horns and then hot glued the paper lanterns to them. You can see in this picture that the tops didn't get covered, but from any other angle, you couldn't see that.

For the base of the tee, I used a plastic bucket , spray painted them with a brushed nickel spray paint and used a faux grass ball for the top and just drilled a hole through the center to stick the tee through.

For the table I used a indoor/outdoor turf runner that I picked up at Home Depot. You can also find turf here on Amazon. While at Home Depot I grabbed enough samples squares to use for coasters.

I grabbed solid colored plates, striped napkins and striped straws to create a simple place setting. Each child got a bottle of water to take out on the course, and a cup with a straw for soda or water with their lunch.

For the other two buckets on the table I filled them with golf balls, and created a flag using a painted dowel and some printed cardstock.

The goody bags were simple. The had a little bit of chocolate and a FREE round of mini golf at this course for a future date.

Cupcakes..... well the ones I made did NOT turn out. So the morning on his party our local grocery store saved me with plain green frosted cupcakes. I added these mini flags and a sixlet for a golf ball.

The venue was perfect. We rented this space which sits just off of the main course. The kids could come and go during the party.

The kids had so much fun golfing. It was a gorgeous fall day here in Oregon, we couldn't have asked for better weather.

That's pretty much everything there is to share about this sweet, simple yet very fun Golf themed party!

Be sure to check out all of my other Birthday Party themes here.

Thank you to my readers for stopping by today. Don't forget to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest, and you can find me on Instagram and Periscope @OneThriftyChick and on Twitter @JennJSheffler.

Come Join me weekly at the following Parties:

Monday: I should be mopping the floor, Home Stories A to Z, Sugar Bee Crafts, Carrie this home,

Mad in Crafts

Tuesday: The DIY Dreamer, The Winthrop Chronicles, Thrifty Décor Chick

Wednesday: Gingersnap Crafts,

Thursday: A Glimpse Inside, The Pin Junkie, The Answer is Chocolate, Imparting Grace, Meadow Lake Road

Friday: Remodelaholic, The Shabby Nest, Serenity Now, The Crafted Sparrow , Tatertots & Jello, Just Us Four, The Pin Junkie, My Turn For Us

Saturday: I heart Naptime, Flamingo Toes, Sew Many Ways,

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Cake Boss Birthday Party

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Who doesn't love the show Cake Boss on TLC? I know my daughter is one of the biggest fans which prompted her to choose a Cake Boss themed birthday party!

This has to be one of my favorite themes to date, and I've thrown some fun parties in the past, you can check them out here.

The weekend prior to this party we threw a Glow Party for my sons 12th Birthday, so it was literally tear down his and set up hers.

I started with a simple yet elaborate backdrop for one side of the room using plastic tablecloths strung with some twine and hung from the wall.

For $12 I had an amazing look and in less than 30 minutes!! I will be doing this again for sure!

I had an RSVP list of 9 girls and needed to come up with a table/seating solution that would keep the whole group together.

I pulled 2 six foot folding tables together and covered them with 3 red plastic tablecloths to allow more coverage on the sides, and then topped it with a white round. Who knew that the Dollar Tree sold rounds??? If you don't have a Dollar Tree near you, I also found there here on Amazon.

Meanwhile I was working diligently on all the fun details, and you may have seen some of them if you follow me on Instagram.

My amazing best friend designed this set of printables, along with the invites shown above!

I ordered plain white canvas aprons and decided to dress them up with a little personalized name tag and pom pom fringe. I LOVE these so much that I am planning on making up a whole set for the volunteers to wear at our school's silent auction.

And of course had to make matching bakers hats! These were purchased on Amazon and dressed up with some simple cupcake liners that I already had.

Each day of that week I would do a little more to get the party set up. I used my red polka dot runners for the table and made some DIY cake stands that turned out perfect!

I used some placemats that I had in my carnival stash as their rolling mats for using fondant, and it really helped to pull the table colors together.

On the other side of the room I wanted to create a "bake shop" feel and somehow put up an awning. I used the same method with twine and plastic tablecloths, and it turned out fantastic.

This is where all the finished cakes would end up after they are decorated, ready to be sent home with our guests.

I dressed up this window in the room with a garland that was used as a high chair wrap at a previous first birthday party.

Above the main table I made some fun garland to match their aprons and hung some dollar store oven mitts as the center focal point.

Now moving into the fun, messy and must haves in order to have an official Cake Boss party!

The Cakes!! My sweet Mom helped by baking 12 cakes at her house for me, so I only had to make 8. But I also had to make several batches of butter cream frosting and even more batches on fondant.

This is what my kitchen looked like the night before the party.

My amazing friend Daneille came to my rescue and stayed until about 10pm to help assemble all 10 cakes, and she is officially the fondant queen!!

Once the cakes were done, we wrapped them in plastic wrap and placed them on the tables. This was when it all started feeling ready.

After the cakes were done and set up was complete, it was bed time!! The next morning I woke up and it was PARTY TIME!!!

Each girl was welcomed with an apron on their chair, a hat on their mat, a DIY rolling pin (closet rod) a small bowl of water for attaching fondant and the perfect mason jar for a cold beverage.

I got on my gear and greeted every one of them at the door. So many parents loved how involved I was and came in to take pictures of all the fun.

Once all the girls had arrived we jumped right in and started decorating!

It is safe to say that they had an absolute blast! I took pictures of each of the girls with their cakes for our scrapbook, but for obvious reasons I am only sharing the picture of the birthday girl.

She got a little carried away when the girls realized her cake was the one we would end up eating, and they all wanted MORE FROSTING. This is a case where less is more.

Once the decorating was complete, we boxed up each cake in these cute pink cake boxes and added a sweet tag! It was then time to move onto some good old traditional girls sleepover fun!!