How fun is this PENGUIN THEMED 2ND BIRTHDAY PARTY submitted by Holly Lasha of Mimi’s Dollhouse! So adorable with so many ideas! Such a cute winter party.
Holly said this about planning the party- ”Theme: Emma, the birthday girl, LOVES penguins or “pem-gins” as she calls them. She carries stuffed versions of her favorite animal all around the house. Whenever she sees a penguin on television or at the zoo, she gets so excited. When she started walking, she even waddled like a little penguin as she totted along. I was clear to me very early on that her second birthday party HAD to be penguin themed.
When I set out to design the party, I really wanted to capture the playful feel of the penguins, but with little girly touches. And what says girly better than huge bows? Using fun black and white patterns, big bows and aqua,hot pink and yellow accents, I designed my Penguin Party Package and styled the party to match my little penguin’s personality.
Decorations: When I set out to style this party, I started with my Penguin Party Printables and sought to keep everything fun and bright. For the dessert table, I used black and white patterned fabric and cupcake wrappers to accent each of the “penguin” treats.
The table backdrop was made using black foam board. I cut out the penguin in silhouette as well as the penguin details from white, aqua,pink and yellow cardstock and created penguins to hold the birthday banner in their beaks and hands.
I used chalkboards and chalk markers to create signs for the party and used several of Emma’s stuffed penguins. I even found adorable pink and aqua bag clips in the dollar aisle at Target to accent the penguins and the table decorations.
For Emma’s name on the table, I got unfinished wooden letters from Wooden Letters and painted them black. I then used the patterned paper from the printables set to cover the front of the letters in the party patterns.
For the Hot Cocoa and Coffee Bar, I made a backdrop using fabric and tulle in the party colors. This helped break the kitchen area up and also really accented the bar and all the coffee extras.
Drinks: To drink, we made hot cocoa and coffee for the coffee bar. The hot cocoa mix is one of my favorite (and super easy) recipes that I share on my blog. For the add-ins, we had marshmallows, cinnamon, sugar, creamer, peppermint syrup, pumpkin syrup and chocolate stir spoons.
The kiddos enjoyed regular and chocolate milk (keeping with the party colors) in glass jars with cute striped straws and ribbon and party circles wrapped around them. The chocolate milk was a big hit!
Desserts: We had chocolate cupcakes with pink buttercream frosting, vanilla cupcakes with bright aqua and pink coconut frosting,and chocolate cupcakes with cookies and cream frosting all made by The Cupcakery. These delicious cupcakes were made even sweeter with the addition of penguin and snowflake 3-D and flat fondant cupcake toppers made by Brittany at Edible Details. I could not be more impressed with how fantastic her toppers looked and how well they matched the party.
We had penguin cake pops made by Candy’s Cake Pops. They were cookies and cream flavored and were as moist and yummy as they were adorable. Beth at Sunshine Bakes made us some amazing penguin, snowflake, and monogram sugar cookies.
We had yummy pink raspberry and blue almond coconut macarons from Le Bonbon and some fantastic coke float and peppermint flavored fudge from Jewel of the Lion. I used black and aqua striped straws and ribbon to accent the macarons and fudge and also make them easy to pick up and eat!
Everyone snacked on plenty of penguin foods like fish shaped tuna and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and goldfish crackers, veggies, fruit and cheese.
Favors: Each little one who came to help celebrate Emma’s party got an adorable Penguin hair clip made by So Cuties Boutique attached to some S’mores Flavored gourmet popcorn for mom and dad from Popped. The favor tags said “Thanks for POPPING by my Penguin Party”!
Fashion: For Emma’s birthday outfit, I had the cutest custom shirt made for her by the super talented Rachel from *golden*. She completely blew me away with the details on the shirt…it was perfect!! I also had matching black and white chevron pants made for her by The Trendy Baby. She wore one of the little penguin clip in her hair that were part of the favors.”
Party Styling, Printable Decorations and Theme: Mimi’s Dollhouse
Photography: Rachel K Photography
Fondant Cupcake Toppers: Edible Details
Cupcakes: The Cupcakery
Penguin Cake Pops: Candy’s Cake Pops
Fudge: Jewel of the Lion
Sugar Cookies: Sunshine Bakes
Macarons: Le Bonbon
Gourmet Popcorn: Popped
Custom Penguin shirt: *golden*
Wooden Letters: Wooden Letters
Chevron Pants: The Trendy Baby
Penguin Hair Clips: So Cuties Boutique
Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop: Striped Paper Straws Ribbon Cupcake Liners Polka Dot Nut Cups Lollipop Sticks Gumballs Milk Bottles Apothecary Jars
Oh what a cute MARY POPPINS 5TH BIRTHDAY PARTY submitted by Danielle Arcese of Cutie Putti Paperie! I adore the chimney smoke clouds {cotton candy} and kite cookies! The whole party is just adorable.
This Mary Poppins Tea Party by Jenny Keller of Jenny Cookies is absolutely adorable! What a fun birthday party theme! There are so many creative elements. So many things could easily be adapted and used in a Spring or Easter party as well.
Jenny said– “My sweet daughter Ally turned six last month. I say it every year, but I can’t believe she’s already another year older. Time really does fly. To celebrate her special day, we threw a Mary Poppins Tea Party at the Woodland Park Zoo Vintage Carousel.
Seattle was taken by snowstorm the entire week before her party, literally dumping snow night after night. Each morning I’d wake up hoping the snow was gone, but nope, it’d still there. The day before the party I decided I just had to go for it and pray the weatherman was really going to be right when he said it would melt by Saturday.
Lo and behold the weatherman was right for a change! The snow was melted, and Jesus even granted us a few rays of sunshine as we unpacked the car and loaded the party into the zoo. As I’m sure most of you have party people have experienced, most venues don’t allow much time for set up. The Woodland Park Zoo was one of them. It was almost a deal breaker when I received the zoo contract reading that you are given a half hour to set up. Yikes! So with only 30 minutes to decorate the room and tea party table, my girlfriend Nazra and I had to move fast! (Thank you Naz!)
I hadn’t planned on doing a dessert table for such a small party, but I couldn’t help it, it’s what I do. Instead of a giant cake like I’ve done in the past for my children’s birthdays, I made Ally six small cakes in different colors and textures. This was really fun to do. Of course 15 people couldn’t eat six cakes, so guests were sent home with bakery boxes filled with treats and cake! Out of all the fun desserts, my favorite had to be the spoonful of sugar cake pops!
My friend Elaine, seamstress extraordinaire, made Ally a Mary Poppins Jolly Holiday dress to wear to her party. I am literally in awe every time I ask Elaine to sew something because not only does she do it, she does it beyond my wildest dreams. I emailed her a photo, not a pattern, not instructions, nothing but a simple photo from the internet of Mary Poppins’ dress. She whipped the dress up without a hinge and little Ally looked practically perfect as Mary Poppins.
The little girls absolutely loved the party. They sipped apple juice “tea”, nibbled on way too much sugar, played musical chairs to Mary Poppins songs, balanced tea cups on their heads, rode the carousel, and fed the penguins. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect party. And to top it off, my girlfriend Molly of Molly Vaden Photography captured every detail and smile of the day. It was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!”
And up next, an adorable COCOA & S’MORES PENGUIN HOLIDAY PARTY submitted by Jennifer Rogers of Cio Prints. Oh, I just want to squeal at the look of this. So, so, so cute. How fun is a S’mores & Hot Cocoa Bar?! LOVE the dipped spoons.
Here is what Jennifer said about the party- “This party was a perfect fit for a little girl with a love of all things penguin. It was a small get together for a few friends before the winter break. We did something small that would entertain and include some traditional holiday fun with a twist. The choice was obvious, a hot cocoa bar and s’mores yum.
A few of the activities included letters to Santa, pin the nose of rudolph, face painting, and penguin bowling. We ended the day by making a visit to the hot cocoa bar where kids got the chance to choose from a number of wonderful topping: whipped cream, caramel, chocolate syrup, marshmallows, sprinkles, peppermint crumble, and chocolate chips. Instead of cookies or cake we chose to do s’mores. With a parents help everyone toasted their marshmallows and chose from chocolate, cinnamon, or honey graham crackers. To top things off they got to choose from cookies and cream or milk chocolate candy bars. Other items on the tables were peppermint pretzel sticks, s’more marshmallows, chocolate dipped spoons.
For favors there were take home s’mores kits, cocoa kits with mini marshmallows, chocolate Santa mustache pops, letters to Santa, personalized crayons with childs name on them, penguin cups and cuddly stuffed penguins. Since it was a Christmas party we thought it would be fun for all the kids to be Secret Santa’s for each other. We took photos of everyone saying shhh then printed them on tags that said, “Ho Ho Ho I’m your secret Santa.
This party was inspired by the new “Happy Feet” movie and a little girls love of penguins.
The kitchen and den were decked out in red, white and black with cuddly penguins everywhere. We wanted to give everything a winter wonderland look, kind of like the arctic environment where penguins live. We chose things that were holiday classics or simply nostalgic in the idea of what childhood is. That is why we chose a cocoa and s’mores.”
Penguin mugs, trays, and sleigh: Target
Penguin shaped cups: Walmart
Reindeer antlers: Michael’s
Printables: http://www.cioprints.etsy.com
My next party feature goes to this adorable WINTER ONEderland BIRTHDAY PARTY submitted by Gwynn Wasson of Gwynn Wasson Designs. Just like Friday’s feature, this is a perfect theme for a first birthday that falls in the winter time! Gwynn went all out with this. All the little polar bears and penguins are just darling! She thought of everything- A back yard full of Sno-Wonder {in California, no less}?! Wow!
Here is what Gwynn said about the party- “My son Beckett is definitely one of the happiest babies many people have met. If fact people comment on his bright smile and incredibly friendly nature all the time. So, I knew that when planning his party I really wanted to capture the all happiness and fun that he brings to so many people’s lives every day.
The Invitation-
Right off the bat I wanted bring a smile to people’s faces and to sweep them up in the excitement of the party. The penguins and polar bears on the invitation simply exude glee as they whiz down the snowy slide. And in the RSVP, I left a little hint that there might be a sprinkling of snow at the party! (So many people were curious as to how we were going to do this in sunny Southern California that they just had to ask. How much fun, right?!)
The Entryway-
As our guests arrived, I wanted them to feel like they were truly being transported into a magical wintery wonderland, so I created a whole welcoming committee of penguins, each holding a darling polka-dotted balloon from Polka Dot Market, to greet them. Beckett was in love with these penguins and would giggle and laugh every time he saw them! Over our driveway I made huge welcome sign and softened this with beautiful snowflake printed gossamer from Shindigz and paper snowflakes from Oriental Trading Company and Bake It Pretty.
The Dessert Table-
Sweet treats are one of the highlights for kids at every party! With Beckett’s dessert table, I worked to capture the fun of the invitation and inspire the imaginations of the children at the party. (I had so much fun setting it up. Don’t think you ever really out grow wanting to play with your food!) Gorgeous polar bear and penguin cookies, created by Jen of JP Creatibles, literally slid and sledded down gentle slopes, created under the fleece table cloth, on their tummies and on little sleds that I found on Ebay. Cute polar bear and penguins cake pops by Mom’s Killer Cakes and Cookies were displayed in the perfect aqua vessels that I found (on sale!) at Joann Fabrics. I made a batch of cupcakes and decorated them with whipped frosting and rock candy and then adorned each of them with a fun printable party circles from the Winter Onederland Collection which is now available in my shop. Beautiful snowflake cookies from Katie’s Something Sweet and snowflake lollipops from Sweetniks floated above the cupcakes suspended on glass cake stands from Crate and Barrel into which I inserted foam discs and then covered them with fleece to add to the snowy look. The centerpiece of the table was a beautiful cake made by Fantasy Frostings and decorated with adorable polar bears and penguins (sculpted by Brittany at Edible Details) who were gleefully sliding and sledding down the topsy turvy angles of the cake. And topping the entire table was a marquee style Happy Birthday sign laden with peppermint detail and candy cane inspired text. For the backdrop, I was lucky to find the ideal aqua snowflake fabric at Joann’s and then to bring in even more snowflakes, I spray painted some cardboard snowflakes from Bake It Pretty, aqua and red, and glued them to the back drop as well.” Continued below…..
…Continued
“Drink Station-
Just in case anyone needed to warm up a little or just wanted to rinse down a few of the tasty treats, I set up a “Warming Station” with Hot Chocolate, Coffee and Milk (for the kids.) I decorated the mugs with a little ribbon and a few printable party circles, “Sweet” for the cocoa and “Cozy” for the coffee. And, I adorned the cute milk bottles and stripey straws (which I was lucky enough to find at Polka Dot Market) with the same printable party circles that I added to sticks for the cupcakes.
Smash Cake Central-
Every first birthday party needs a place where the guest of honor can take center stage! So for Beckett’s birthday, I gussied up our garage door with bright red and white polka dotted curtains, a little bead board I had sitting around, a printable Happy Birthday banner and a few more spray painted Bake It Pretty snowflakes. I painted an old wooden high chair, I found on Craig’s List, red and decorated the tray with a some cute aqua snowflake ribbon from Michaels and a printable name banner.
And, as you can imagine, it’s not right to smash your cake in just any old outfit. So I went on a mission to find the ideal 1st birthday attire for my little guy. I searched high and low for the perfect sweater, and where do you think I found it? Ebay. One aqua and red snowflake sweater in the exact right size. Absolute luck! Then I cuffed his jeans with a little red and white striped cotton jersey and Stacie from Beanies By Stacie was sweet enough to knit an adorable hat and Lindsey from Pocket Baby made a coordinating personalized bib and he was set!
Snow!-
Although Beckett was undoubtedly the star of his party, he did share center stage with the “snow”. When I first toyed with the idea of creating a Winter Onederland Party, the initial thought that popped into my head, was how the heck was I going to help transport our guests when we don’t have one peep of a chance of getting even a dusting of snow out here in sunny, mild Southern California. Although I was sure that the multitude of paper snowflakes which I was going to hang over their heads in our trees branches would help, I really wanted some kind of snow. So, I searched and searched and although I briefly considered the shaved ice/fake snow route, I eventually discovered Sno-Wonder. 99% water, bio-degradable, environmentally safe and a lot cheaper than shaved ice. (It’s primarily used for indoor snowboarding parks in Japan.) My husband was sweet enough to build a large frame (kind of like a giant sandbox). We covered it with polyester batting to look more like snow, lined it with a white tarp and then filled it with “snow” and dozens of penguin beach balls from Oriental Trading Company. To add to our wintery theme, I decorated our playhouse with red and white flowers, a little snow, and wreath from Polka Dot Skies and dubbed it Chalet Becks for the day. The kids had an absolute blast!! Snow fights and snow angels. Tons of laughter and buckets of giggles!! I wasn’t sure how the snow would go over (it really could have been the great birthday debacle of 2011) and I couldn’t have asked for a better response.
Favors-
When the time came for our guests to go, each child was able to “adopt” a polar bear of their very own and take a small snowmaking kit so that they could have a snow day of their very own when ever they wanted!”
Vendor Credits:
- Event Styling, Graphic Design and Party Printables - Gwynn Wasson Designs
Decor
- Tissue Snowflakes - Oriental Trading Company and Bake It Pretty
- Cardboard Snowflakes - Bake It Pretty
- Aqua Glass Vessels - Joann Fabrics
- Snowflake Fabric and Fleece - Joann Fabrics
- Ribbon - Michaels
- Glass Cake Stands - Crate and Barrel
- Penguin Beach Balls - Oriental Trading Company
- Milk Bottles - Polka Dot Market
- Striped Straws - Polka Dot Market
- Polka Dot Balloons - Polka Dot Market
- Snowflake Trays - Target
- Wreath - Polka Dot Skies
- Snowflake Gossamer - Shindigz
- Miniature Sleds – Ebay
- Snow - Sno-Wonder
Desserts
- Cake - Fantasy Frostings
- Fondant Polar Bears, Penguins and Igloo - Edible Details
- Polar Bear and Penguin Cookies - JP Creatibles
- Cake Pops - Mom’s Killer Cakes and Cookies
- Snowflake Cookies - Katie’s Something Sweet
- Snowflake Lollipops - Sweetniks
- Old Fashioned Lollipops, Malt Balls, Gum Balls and Sixlets - Candy Warehouse
Favors
- Polar Bears - Stuffed Safari
- Tea Tins - Specialty Bottle
Fashion
- Hanna Andersson Snowflake Sweater – Ebay
- Hat - Beanies By Stacie
- Bib - Pocket Baby
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