Brave Birthday Party, the Big FIVE

Nov. 2013

I feel like I wrote Vayda's birth story just days ago, I can't believe she's 5 now! To catch you all up, she turned five back on Nov. 2nd....yes, I've got a lot of blogging updates to do. But what better way to jump back in than with a birthday party post?!

We went through months of watching Brave on repeat. Vayda was obsessed! Naturally, my mind was running wild with a million ways to incorporate the movie into the party. I tend to have a million ideas and be disappointed with the little I am able to do, but I have to tell you, this one was a fun one. Even if I didn't get to do everything I wanted to do.

For the invite we had a mini photo shoot at a park nearby. Took her bow and arrow and outfit of course. I then used these great arrows from irocksowhat blog to complete the look of the invite.

adorable teddy graham snack bags made by Tia Mini

party bags with the DunBroch Clan colors

Originally I made these whisps for the front yard, they ended up in the centerpieces. If it did it again, I would make 3-4 smaller whisps for the centerpieces and keep the larger ones outside. 

Amazing cake, inspired by pinterest. Made my Sweet Sisters Bakery in Chula Vista, CA

dessert table 

I love my mom, she added those branches to complete the look :)

before the ping pong table was loaded down with food.
side note: throw a table skirt on that thing and it was perfect! 

And we cannot forget the ponies! That's right, my MIL said about 2 years prior that she was going to get ponies for Vayda's 5th birthday...she sure followed through. They were a hit! I told the girls to enjoy it because this will most likely never happen again ahaha. 

After a little while my birthday girl slowed down. She got a bit cranky and wasn't her normal party self...you know, the last one in the jumpy, running a muck with all the kids. I didn't realize till that night after all the madness she was coming down with a cold! She has such a high fever that night :(. All in all it was a good party despite that cold. She bounced back a few days later to play with her presents :).

for reals.

Source: tittysandpancakes.com via Lorenzo on Pinterest

Seriously how I feel when planning a party. I love everything about party planning and crafting for it, but totally wish there more hours in the day. Ya feel me?!

Party Mode

With Lori's 1st birthday quickly approaching I am in full on party-planning-mode. All I think about is my to-do list and shopping list. I double check it every other hour making sure I didn't leave anything out. And thanks to Pinterest I add something new every other hour =\. For her party I won't be working on another pinata...I think Vayda's was my first and last. At least for a few years. But I do have a few things up my sleeve. I'm hoping it all turns out they way it looks in my head lol. 

I'm so excited and also in shock that our little garbage pale kid is turning ONE. This is insane to me. No wonder people have so many kids, time really does fly! And no, that was not a hint that we are working on more....at all. I love our little family of 4. 

A few of my favorite pics from this weekend: 

"lucky" Lori Darling - 11 months old and starting to walk!! =] She took 4 steps last night!

"hey look I'm Moma" haha

Vayda walked around the car show this weekend with her puppy

Couldn't be happier...

Despicable Me (THREE) Party: Part 3

This is the final chapter for the Despicable Me party. Here are the last little final touches that I added to the party. Like I said before, there were so many more things I wish I had the time to add, there are a million possibilities and ideas with this movie! In the end I'm happy with the way it turned out. I think the birthday girl and her guests enjoyed it too. 

Swan Lake thank you tickets, these were all over the table for the kids, next to the tutus for the girls. I found this amazing tutorial here from pluckymomo, along with her pdf file!  






Our lovely Tia Mini added these adorable M&M favor tubes to the table along "fluffly unicorn" centerpeices, which sadly I didn't get a picture of :(



Minion Goggles aka minty lifesavers, below them are the girls tutus (Bonus buy from the Dollar Tree!)



Not only is this my favorite picture, you can also see Vic wearing the Gru scarfs I made for the boys. I simply bought a yard of grey and black strped jersey material and cut strips. Since jersey naturally curls it's a no sew project!

 


Last but not least, this could not have been done without my party minions (and a lot of Starbucks)! Thank you Tia Taco and Cousin Big Hair! :)



partying it up over here:

Despicable Me (THREE) Party: Part 2

Minion piñatas are hard to come by, therefore I thought, make my own! It can’t be that hard, right? It’s not that it’s hard at all actually…but I think I bit off a little more than I can chew. I decided to  make it a HUGE minion haha. In the end I think it all turned out great, but man was that little (big) guy tedious to make. The finished product took 5 days, patience (I was already in too deep to give up) and 5 lovely volunteers help to get this finished in time. In time that is, to get smashed into pieces. Just like the party bags in part 1, I prepared myself haha.  

I found the large punch balloons and roll of brown, almost butcher paper, at the dollar tree and used all of our weekly adds for the pinata (maybe someday I will be better at actually using the weekly adds =\). I didn't get a picture of my helpers that stopped in throughout the week to add a layer to the pinata because well, our hands were a mess but I couldn't have done it without them! I actually didn't get pictures of a lot of the process, sorry about that. For the paste we used 1/2 four, 1/2 water and a dash of sugar to make it a little bit sticky. After each layer we had to hang "Stuart" on a hanger in the shower, otherwise he would have flopped overnight (next time I'm going to use a sturdier paper to contect the two).

Once Stuart was finished with the coats of paper mache (5 to be exact) I cut a square flap open, which will also be used to fill the pinata later, poped the balloons and poked a hole in the top for the hanger (found the tutorial here).

Now for the decorating! My wonderful Mother-in-law came by to help fill the party bags, asked if there was anything else to do and with a big smile I asked her to help me cut the streamers, it worked! As she cut the frays in the streamers I was attaching them. Yellow for his body and blue for the overalls. I already had Stuarts eye printed and cut out on cardstock and I drew and cut my own mouth. I glued those both on and finally finished! I think it was 12:30pm the day before the the party that Stuart was completly done.

Stuart in all his glory



The Bday Girl making sure he's on there nice and tight!




Giving Papa the thumbs up, it's time.



And there she goes, That smile enjoying the pinata is all worth it!

Check it out, Stuart's head doubled as a hat for Vay's Tio Cereal, Bonus!

 Stick around for Part 3, the finishing touches.

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