My Boy is 5... Wait! What?!

How is it possible?

Five is a big deal. I can clearly remember my fifth birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza. I remember my little aqua shirt, my pig tails, getting my first Barbie and all my friends who came. I even remember my mom giving me an IOU birthday present. Ha! She was a busy lady (and a great mama). It was a picture of a plastic swimming pool that I would be arriving in time for warmer weather. That still makes me chuckle.

I just wrote My Boy is Four, like, last week. He was so cute and little then. He's still cute, but seems so much bigger.

Jeremy's been promising the big boy that when he turned five, they would play golf together. So we went with a golf theme and I love how it turned out.

Here are a few pictures from the big night.

A Simple First Birthday Party

You know that I've been excited about my baby's elephant party for a while now.

Read about the planning and invitations here.

We had such a sweet little party with our family last weekend. 

For dinner, I ordered chicken nuggets from Chick Fil-A and served them up with homemade mac and cheese and peas and carrots. Mmmmm. 

So simple and so kid-friendly.

No one noticed dinner, though.

All eyes were on the amazing assortment of cupcakes my friend, Kyla, made.

Cherry Limeade. 

Banana Cream Pie (with a vanilla center). 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup

And Chocolate Cream Pie (with a chocolate cream center)

I bundled up the tee shirts I'd made and had those ready for take-homes. 

Click here for my pencil-eraser-stenciled elephant tutorial.

Whoa. Say that three times fast.

Here's my balloon wreath. We use it for every birthday and it makes the birthday boy (or me) feel special for a week or two before the big day. 

You can find that post here.

Mimi made sure and snapped a quick pic of Mommy and Daddy with the birthday boy.

This is my son. He did not mess around with that piece of cake.

The big boys enjoyed chasing balloons around the living room while the grandparents convinced them to try out static electricity.

Then they helped the birthday boy open his presents.

Actually, they opened his presents and the birthday boy enjoyed the tissue paper.

After lots of visiting and running around and sneaking extra cupcakes, it was time to say goodnight.

I love simple gatherings with family and special memories made with sweet cousins.

Happy Birthday, precious boy. You are loved by many.

Shared with: Tatertots and Jello, The Creative Crate

Tutorial: Pencil Eraser-Stamped Elephant T-Shirts

My baby's first birthday is just around the corner. We're doing an elephant theme and decided to go with a bold color palette.

If you want to see the elephant and invitations I designed as a starting point, click here.

I recently stumbled upon this technique (done with stamping ink) on Pinterest, and wanted to put my spin on it, but with fabric paints.

For party favors, I  decided to use my elephant and create dotted, stenciled t-shirts.

Here's what I did:

1. cut your stencil from card stock and apply to your t-shirt with double-sided tape.

2. Use a different pencil eraser for each color and stamp away!

3. Make sure you dot around the stencil's edges to create a clear outline of your shape.

This was a FUN project! 

Oooh, I'm thinking about doing this with my boys' names in different shades of the same color.

And, if I am feeling like a fun mommy, I might just let my 4-year-old take a stab at it.

Stripped down to his undies. Outside. On Newspapers. 

PS: I have a lot more birthday stuff to share so keep checking back.

Shared with: Somewhat Simple, Tatertots and Jello, Be Different Act Normal

Baby Birthday Party-- Planning and Designing an Elephant Theme

My little squishy squish squish is turning one in less than a month...

How???

Oh, that clock keeps on ticking, doesn't it?

For his party, I decided on an elephant theme and I'm busy planning away for all the cuteness.

This is the little elephant I designed as a starting point.

Then I moved into a bolder color palette and ended up with this guy:

And then I started working on an invitation.

If you follow on Facebook (and I am so tickled if you do), you know that I recently had a little voting contest on the invitations I'd designed so far. 

I thought that would help me choose, but ACK! The votes were completely divided. Ha!

{By the way, I took my baby's name off. 

Didn't want anyone to think I'd named my little boy BROOKE!}

What do you think? Bold or pastel? Dots or stripes? 

* * * * *

To order your own personalized elephant invites:

Send me an email at in_between_laundry@yahoo.com

For $6, you will receive an emailed jpeg file that you can print out at home on cardstock or photo paper,

or upload to any professional developing lab (like Wal-Mart or Shutterfly).

The elephant logo is $3 and can be used for any decorations, goodie bags, cupcake flags, etc.

Payment is through Pay Pal and your order will be emailed to you within 48 hours of payment received.

Shared with: Tatertots and Jello, Fingerprints on the Fridge

Butterfly Cupcakes

Are you going to an Easter gathering this weekend? 

I made these fun 3-D butterfly cupcakes for my mother-in-law's birthday in March, but I thought they'd be fun for any spring or summer party.

I should start by saying that I am NOT a fan of cake decorating. 

I almost always order my kids' birthday cakes, unless we do something super-easy like these.

So forgive the messiness of these. They were really fun, though, and not difficult at all for a cake-novice like myself.

Here's how I decorated my butterfly cupcakes:

1. Melt a package of chocolate-flavored melting pieces and transfer to a plastic baggie with the corner snipped or piping bag.

2. On wax paper, pipe disconnected butterfly wings like the picture above. It would probably be helpful to trace your wings on a piece of paper and place under the wax paper for a uniform guide. (You'll notice that I also piped antennae, but didn't end up using them.)

3. Refrigerate. Meanwhile, melt a package of orange melting pieces (or use white with orange food coloring-- I used the gel for a rich color). Transfer to a plastic baggie or piping bag.

4. Fill in the middles of your wings with the melted orange candy.

5. Refrigerate. Meanwhile, pipe frosting on your cupcakes.

6. After the wings are chilled, pipe white dots on top. Then, push the wings into the frosting at 45 degree angles, creating the "body" of the butterfly with the frosting in between the wings.


Linked to: Tatertots and Jello, I Heart Naptime