Over the past week my husband and I have logged a lot of hours trying to win a photo shoot for our family with a friend of mine's "Cutest Kid 2012" contest. Kristen Gainey photography was giving away the chance to win a photo shoot valued at $400 to the family that could get the most votes. We were able to rally over 220 votes for our son, but in the end it seems our efforts just weren't enough to take the cake. So even though we were not able to win the contest for our little guy, we were able to throw him a fantastic birthday party, that he shared with his sisters and they were all overwhelmed with lots of great gifts.
I did have a lot of fun making the cakes and decorations for the party. There was one big sheet cake for the guests and then a smash cake for each of the kids. I was able to find tiara's to represent each girl on the cake, but I just couldn't find anything that went with the royalty theme to represent Aiden. I looked for golden kings crowns, small play swords and small plastic sheilds to no avail. So I had to get a little creative and make my own. Since I was having to get crafty I decided to go with a sword and sheild for Aiden which I created with cardboard, some black tape and some tin foil. Here's what I created....
I found out the hard way that my husbands family is actually early to parties, so instead of the 30 minutes I planned to have to set things up, I actually only got about 10 minutes. We went to Burger King across from Pinkerton Chevrolet on 419. They gave us a party deal, where we got a free kids meal for Aiden as long as we spent $40 on food and drinks for everyone else and there was no fee to reserve the tables in the play room. Even though we were not technicaly gauranteed to have the room all to ourselves the only people in the room for the 3 1/2 hours we were there we part of the party. They have a very large room with a play area in it and about 15 tables. We were able to pull two tables together for the cakes and the party favors, and another two tables for presents. I got plastic tableclothes with a balloon design from the dollar store to cover the tables (one covered two tables). In all the rush I don't guess I got a picture of the cake table, but it was decorated with the homemade crowns that went around the homemade balloon anchors. I was able to get 15 balloons for about $11.66 from Fun Times Party store on Colorado St in Salem and we put them in 5 groups of 3 for decoration.
Aiden helped me make flag banners out of some yarn and paper placemats that we hung on the play area. Here is what they looked like when we first made them....
Emma and Isabella got to have their cake and eat it too, but they constantly amaze me with their differences. Isabella dug right in and had cake everywhere. Though Emma eventually also had cake up to her elbows and all over her face, she was much more prissy about the whole process. Aiden joined in the fun and ate his cake with his fingers as well, and while we have video of that, I am waiting to see if anyone else caught it in a photo. We put trashbags over the girls and the high chairs they were in to protect their clothes from the mess, but it still took a lot of wipes to clean up that mess afterwards. The first two pictures below are Emma and her cake followed by two pictures of Isabella and her cake.....
I want to take a moment and send thanks out to our friends and family that were able to make it to the party. We had a blast and so did the kids. I haven't had a chance to see all of the presents that the girls received, we chose to let them open what they would at the party and save most of the rest of them for next Saturday when they actually turn 1. (I will prolly cheat and pull out the clothes before then, just because I want to see them all, but I will make sure they get to unwrap all the toys ;) ) As for Aiden, he made out like a bandit. Thank you so much to each and everyone of you, Dan, Tisha, Aly, Katrina, Cooper, Al, Luke, Phillip, Mom, Dad, Momma, Gramma Peggy, Uncle Jay Jay, Tammy, Uncle Mike, Nicole, Jessica, Little Mikey, Aunt Nee Nee, Brittany, Anthony, Larry, Lisa, Logan, Barb, William, Victor, and Grace for coming out to the party and for all of the wonderful gifts that you brought as well. It was great to see all of you and get to spend some time with you again.
I don't want to leave the birthday boy out of this post, so I would also like to share my favorite picture that I got of him at the party as well. Our good friends, Dan Tisha and Aly spoiled Aiden with 10 new monster trucks and this picture is of Aiden showing them off to his new friend Cooper.....
So even though we did not win the photo contest in first place, it looks like we at least brought home a third place finish and we were able to throw a fun, thrifty birthday bash. In the end it was a good day. :)
I did have a lot of fun making the cakes and decorations for the party. There was one big sheet cake for the guests and then a smash cake for each of the kids. I was able to find tiara's to represent each girl on the cake, but I just couldn't find anything that went with the royalty theme to represent Aiden. I looked for golden kings crowns, small play swords and small plastic sheilds to no avail. So I had to get a little creative and make my own. Since I was having to get crafty I decided to go with a sword and sheild for Aiden which I created with cardboard, some black tape and some tin foil. Here's what I created....
I found out the hard way that my husbands family is actually early to parties, so instead of the 30 minutes I planned to have to set things up, I actually only got about 10 minutes. We went to Burger King across from Pinkerton Chevrolet on 419. They gave us a party deal, where we got a free kids meal for Aiden as long as we spent $40 on food and drinks for everyone else and there was no fee to reserve the tables in the play room. Even though we were not technicaly gauranteed to have the room all to ourselves the only people in the room for the 3 1/2 hours we were there we part of the party. They have a very large room with a play area in it and about 15 tables. We were able to pull two tables together for the cakes and the party favors, and another two tables for presents. I got plastic tableclothes with a balloon design from the dollar store to cover the tables (one covered two tables). In all the rush I don't guess I got a picture of the cake table, but it was decorated with the homemade crowns that went around the homemade balloon anchors. I was able to get 15 balloons for about $11.66 from Fun Times Party store on Colorado St in Salem and we put them in 5 groups of 3 for decoration.
Aiden helped me make flag banners out of some yarn and paper placemats that we hung on the play area. Here is what they looked like when we first made them....
Emma and Isabella got to have their cake and eat it too, but they constantly amaze me with their differences. Isabella dug right in and had cake everywhere. Though Emma eventually also had cake up to her elbows and all over her face, she was much more prissy about the whole process. Aiden joined in the fun and ate his cake with his fingers as well, and while we have video of that, I am waiting to see if anyone else caught it in a photo. We put trashbags over the girls and the high chairs they were in to protect their clothes from the mess, but it still took a lot of wipes to clean up that mess afterwards. The first two pictures below are Emma and her cake followed by two pictures of Isabella and her cake.....
I want to take a moment and send thanks out to our friends and family that were able to make it to the party. We had a blast and so did the kids. I haven't had a chance to see all of the presents that the girls received, we chose to let them open what they would at the party and save most of the rest of them for next Saturday when they actually turn 1. (I will prolly cheat and pull out the clothes before then, just because I want to see them all, but I will make sure they get to unwrap all the toys ;) ) As for Aiden, he made out like a bandit. Thank you so much to each and everyone of you, Dan, Tisha, Aly, Katrina, Cooper, Al, Luke, Phillip, Mom, Dad, Momma, Gramma Peggy, Uncle Jay Jay, Tammy, Uncle Mike, Nicole, Jessica, Little Mikey, Aunt Nee Nee, Brittany, Anthony, Larry, Lisa, Logan, Barb, William, Victor, and Grace for coming out to the party and for all of the wonderful gifts that you brought as well. It was great to see all of you and get to spend some time with you again.
I don't want to leave the birthday boy out of this post, so I would also like to share my favorite picture that I got of him at the party as well. Our good friends, Dan Tisha and Aly spoiled Aiden with 10 new monster trucks and this picture is of Aiden showing them off to his new friend Cooper.....
So even though we did not win the photo contest in first place, it looks like we at least brought home a third place finish and we were able to throw a fun, thrifty birthday bash. In the end it was a good day. :)
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