Elliot is THREE!

Hello, it's me, I was wondering if after all these months you'd like to read.

Gosh how long has it been?! It feels like ages, but I know it's only been a few months. I guess I lost my mojo, but I am back! I wanted to wait till I got enough content and topics to keep me going for a while so here I am!

Elliot turned three on January twentieth and now that he is a little older and understands (somewhat) the concept of a party, we decided that it was time to throw him a real one. For his first and second birthdays, it was family only and a couple of friends. His third included most of his little friends along with my college and high school friends' kids. It feels so weird to write that last part! Grownup life.

On the actual day, we celebrated with a slice of cake and a number FOUR candle. I'm not sure what was in my head that day that made me buy that instead of a three so we scratched the number candle and went with three small ones. #mamabrain (is that a thing?).

Anyway, I wanted to make this post about what I did to make sure this was a good, fun but simple enough party where I didn't have to be running around. Do you think or believe that actually happened? Somewhat, but I was actually impressed with myself because I actually did buy all of the decorations ahead of time and that helped a bunch.

The first thing I did (many months ago) was to create a board in, you guessed it, Pinterest, to start pinning ideas, colors and a theme. I wanted to be fully prepared for it with a theme and colors. I asked Elliot if he wanted Minions or superheroes and I don't think he hesitated to say he wanted superheroes. I was kind of excited about it because to be honest, I love Despicable Me, but the colors of the minions? Not so much.

I decided that in order to not buy the entire Party City or Amazon on superhero stuff, I would narrow it down to three to four colors. I picked green, yellow, blue and red.

The second thing I did was order invitations about a month in advance (then sent them out about a week and a half before the party, the irony!) from Tiny Prints because they never disappoint with quality and the cutest designs! Then I started buying the decorations slowly.



I also ordered Elliot a personal cake that I could decorate for him. I bought the bunting at Target and printed out the little signs at work (black and white only boo!) then glued them on thicker paper and cut them. Am I the only one so behind on the technology that doesn't own a printer?



My sweetest friend Chanel made these little props for Elliot's picture wall and I was blown away. She said she would do whatever she could to help me and she did! She's the sweetest! One of the things I love about Instagram and blogging is getting to know women like her! Thank you Chanel!!

We taped this table cover/backdrop to the window in our backyard to take pictures using the props.

This man is the sweetest. He's our neighbor, and we consider all of his family our family! If you follow me on Instagram (@shadiabrown) you saw my post about how he dressed up and surprised Elliot! He was over the moon. This was the cherry on top for the party! Completely unexpected and awesome.

The party favors were super simple. I put play doh, bubbles, superhero tattoos, and lollipops in a little brown bag and stickers that I ordered with the invitations and of course this is the only picture I took.

Some of the kids were missing because yeah, you know how it goes when you try to take a picture of all of them at the same time and all of them looking at the camera. Plus the sugar didn't help! Here's one where these four guys and girls stayed still enough for five whole seconds eating cupcakes.

As usual, I was too busy running around before and in the middle of the party to take pictures of all of the setup, but we had a children's table where they decorated their capes and masks. I made the capes out of fabric and spent a few nights cutting them and gluing a yellow circle on the back for their initial then had washable markers and stickers to personalize them and little masks that I
got at Target.

Also, you can't see it but I made Elliot a superhero shirt using iron on fabric that I got at Hobby Lobby.

All I wanted was for Elliot to be happy and all of the kids (and adults) had so much fun! Planning a party is freaking hard and a bit stressful but it is all absolutely worth it in the end. We also had the perfect weather and didn't have to move inside the house! Success! :)

Elliot's Birthday!

There was a change of plans for Elliot's birthday. I had been so excited about the planning and theme and colors and everything about it that I didn't sit down and think it through. I started buying this and that thinking how perfect it was going to be and then it hit me. He's turning one. ONE. Then I started freaking out. He won't remember, it's too much for a one year old, etc. So then I started stressing out. Is it really worth it to spend all this money on catering food and drinks for all my friends and family when really, it's more of a party for us than Elliot? Jack and I talked about it and we made the decision to cancel the big party and have a small gathering with family. I still decorated and tried to make our home look nice for Elliot and for our family but I was so glad we did it this way. It was fun, I wasn't running around making sure everyone was okay and that they had a drink in their hand. It was relaxing, enjoyable and fun. It might sound selfish but I wasn't ready to deal with the stress!

So get ready for a pic overload coming at you. :)

I knew I wanted a sweets table whether it was for a small or large group. I think it's a cute way to send off the little ones with a little reminder of the party and a sweet treat for later. I used our dining table for the setup and I already had a bunch of containers from my baby shower and got a couple of extra ones whenever I found an inexpensive but cool one. I had marshmallows, chocolate, gummies, twizzlers, brownies, lollipops, and gumballs. I ended up eating quite a few since we had some leftovers. Eek!

Remember I told you about getting together with Tiny Prints? After the invitations, I really felt like the party needed an extra touch! I was so excited, so after speaking to them on the phone, sending a bunch of emails and telling them about my plans for his party, we decided that party favor labels was the way to go. I went to their website, picked a design and sent it to them. They were in the mail a few days later! They were stickers which are super handy and I peeled them off and put them on colored construction paper then cut them, punched a hole and tied them with twine to the candy bags. I absolutely love the way they turned out. How crazy that they had this design that perfectly matched the invitations AND the theme without being too much? It was a pleasure working with them! I look forward to more projects with them in the future! 

I printed a bunch of my Instagram pictures through Artifact Uprising if you haven't been to their website please go right now. It's beautiful! You can create beautiful things. This is such a bad pic and doesn't do justice to how awesome the pics came out. I can't wait to make a book!

The cake. The cake was so pretty and exactly what I wanted. Plus is tasted so good! I picked a lemon cake with vanilla butter cream under the fondant. If you live in the area please check my sister in law out at Jen's Cupcake Corner on Facebook. I made a quick and simple bunting for the top and was planning to put a couple of tiny balloons but that didn't happen. I love how it came out!

He then had a taste of his little smash cake! Which was so hard to make for me. Definitely not my thing. He

enjoyed it although it lasted about a second then he was over it.

I set up a sheet of butcher paper, party hats, stickers, markers, crayons, bubbles, glow stick bracelets and other fun little things for the kids to color, decorate hats and have fun. They also decorated a banner that I need take a million pics of and frame them. They did such a great job! 

Even Elliot helped out. He was such a good boy throughout the entire thing, he sat there and looked at everything and everyone as if enjoying and soaking it all in. My heart was content.

Ooh balloons!



My two loves.







It was such a nice day. I truly believe he enjoyed it and I know he's not going to remember but I hope one day he looks back and sees how mama and daddy tried so hard to make it a special day for him. We love you little Button, time flew and we cannot believe what a big boy you are!

Ok mama no more pics! :)

I hope you enjoyed the overload I just couldn't help myself :) Happy Wednesday!

Birthday Invitation.

After my experience with our Christmas card, I decided I would definitely find other sources for Elliot's birthday card. Call me a freak, but I think as a graphic designer I am always crazy about details like that because for one, I wish I could be designing it and two, if it's coming from another source, you better believe I'm going to make sure it's exactly what I want. I'm paying for it!

With that said, after asking a couple of other mamas, I decided to go with Tiny Prints. In my opinion, they had the best selection of such cute designs for every single occasion and after seeing their 1st Birthday Invitation section I was sold. I went with a simple design that showcased Elliot of course but their choices of typography and colors are really awesome. Plus their prices are very reasonable and I can tell you their quality is really really great. I was in love with the invitations as soon as I opened them, and the fact that they were printed and delivered in record time was a huge plus since I kind of procrastinated and needed to send them out ASAP.

I actually took the photos with my camera using the balloon theme but after going through them, balloons being the theme of the party, I didn't want the invitation to feel like I was hitting you in the head with it. I just didn't like how he looked with the balloons, or how the balloons looked with him. In any case, I decided to go for a simple photograph that I snapped with my iPhone and I didn't think the quality was going to be great but it is! They really did a great job. I definitely recommend them.

Now with the invitation sent out, I am focusing on making sure every other detail is perfect! As I mentioned before, I am doing a really neat collaboration with Tiny Prints for Elliot's party and will be sharing soon!

P.S. It's pretty obvious that the white rectangle doesn't belong there but I had to cover my address! It makes me nervous to have it posted around on the web. You never know ;)

Have a great Thursday!

Party Planning.

Seriously. I am here already. I honestly started planning Elliot's first birthday party when he was born about seven months old. I knew I didn't want a cartoon theme. I just wanted a boyish, cute colors, simple party for him. So, after thinking about it and looking, I decided it would be balloons. Simple and cute. What kid doesn't like balloons? I know Elliot loves them and it drives Jack and I nuts because he digs his nails into them like he's going to pop them but he doesn't. We cringe the entire time waiting for the pop and the balloon making that rubbery noise! I shudder just thinking about it. He sure knows how to get to us.

These are the colors I am using. After trying to decide on them forever, I went with bright, bold colors. I wanted to keep them neutral and do muted colors with a pop but that is MY style. We are talking about a one year old here and so I wanted to make it appropriate. These will be on a lot of the decorations. Also, I braced myself and purchased a circle punch to make my own garland. I found some amazing ones on Etsy but with everything we are buying for Button's party, I have to take it upon myself to see where we can reduce costs. I purchased it at Hobby Lobby with the 40% off coupon and it works great along with some paper in different colors. Now the sewing part is up. We will see how that one goes. I just have to remind myself not to stitch my fingers together and we are good to go.

If you are following me on Pinterest, I have been pinning away since day one on this board. They have the cutest ideas!

We will also have a sweets table and an activities table for the little ones along with some games to keep them entertained. I've never done this before so I'm excited but nervous! I want it to be perfect and I realize I'm going above and beyond expectations from a ONE year old, but hey, it's Elliot's party after all. My firstborn ;) Go big or go home. I'm keeping it simple and small, so it has to be darn good. I hope.

I am also doing a really awesome collaboration with Tiny Prints for this party and I can't wait to share that with you!! Now, back to more party planning!