She's a Rock Star

     Yes, she is.  And my little rock star turned 7.  How is it possible that Mikayla is already 7?  It does not seem that long ago that I was changing her diapers and stroking her forehead to help her get to sleep.  But she really is growing up, and is most definitely exhibiting her own style and personality.  Every chance she gets she reminds me of just how old she is.  So this year I completely left the theme for her party up to her.  She decided she wanted a rock star themed birthday party.  The girl loves to sing and dance and with her recent love for all things peace sign, it was a perfect fit.  We found some invitations online from Shutterfly.  Lately I had been creating our own, but this was a nice change of pace as all I had to was input the party info. and we were all set.  We happened to find the plates and napkins on the cheap at Target.  Then while I was searching online I found that Party City had two different lines of girls rock star party decorations.  It was a big score for us when we actually found it in the store.  I also found some create-your-own rock star bracelets at Target and peace signs that the kids could decorate with glitter paint.  We also played a few rounds of freeze dance and gave the girls the opportunity to sing with their own microphones.  I was so busy helping the girls with each of the activities that I didn't take any pictures {bummer}.  The decorations were kept pretty simple.  I hot-glued ribbon around some cds and then we hung them up from the ceiling.  We also used the birthday banner that I created last year for Mikayla.  Then it was just the rock star balloons that were anchored by a vase filled with rock candy.  After the decorations, all that was left was the cake.  I found this guitar cake template on the Betty Crocker website.  I love the taste of a homemade cake and this was my first attempt at a cut cake.  I would say it turned out just okay.   Overall the party was a success.  The girls had a lot of fun and each went home with a goody bag filled with lipgloss, a pencil, their bracelet, peace sign, a rock candy, and candy from the pinata.  Happy Birthday, Mikayla!

Balloons, banner and cds.  The owls are from the daycare. 
And I wish we could have done something with that light.

Cake, plates and napkin.

Rock candy vase.

Cake.

Inspiration for the cake.  As a side note:  Who would have thought you could do a pinata
in January in Kansas and not freeze your bums off?

Birthday girl hitting the pinata.

Watch out for this one with a bat.  He was fierce.

Blowing out the candles.

3, Really???

    My little guy turned three a few weeks ago.  Is that right?  It seems so hard to believe that he could already be three.  Time has flown by so fast.  Seems like just the other day he looked like this:

And now he has grown into this:

     For his party he wanted a Toy Story 3 party {who would have guessed?}.  Which I think played perfectly since he was turning three.  So I went to work making his invitation.  I got inspiration for the invitation when I came across a site with a Woody origami shirt.  I thought it was a neat idea and would make a nice invitation.  I took the Father's Day shirt template that I used last year and found some coordinating paper and gold stars to complete the invitation.  I did have to create my own cowprint paper for the vest though.

     Since Noah was asking all winter to go swimming, we decided that a pool party would be a perfect venue for his party.  It ended up being a small party and we pretty much had the pool to ourselves.   So overall it was a pretty low key party, but the kids had a lot of fun and didn't want to leave the pool. 

The green alien cookies for the daycare and his preschool.

Blowing out the candles with the daycare.

Opening presents on his birthday.

Mikayla's birthday present for Noah.

Finally, a real Bullseye.

Mack and Lightning McQueen.

The birthday banner.

Woody cowboy shirt and vest cupcakes.

Making sure he gets all the candles.

Opening presents.  This card from my parents plays music which he loves.

Getting ready to hand out goodie bags.  He helped me put them together and kept
asking if it was time so he could have one.

Watching the torpedo in the pool.

These two were deciding if they wanted to dare go under the fountain. {Ava finally did}

Mikayla really wanted me to take a picture of her under the water.