The birthday party (part 2)

So yesterday I shared some tips that really helped me with planning and executing Carson's party. One thing I forgot to mention was how important it is to solicit help where you may need it. For instance, I asked our parents to help in areas that I was lacking: we only eat ketchup, mustard and mayo on our burgers and dogs, so I asked my M-I-L to bring a condiment platter with things the rest of the world eats (e.g. lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, onions, relish, etc.); we don't eat coleslaw, but my dad and step-mom make excellent slaw, so they brought that; and I had lots of fun ideas for decorating, but not the best execution plan, so I asked my mom -the organization queen- to come and help me setup.

Now for pictures and their sites of inspiration.

This cupcake stand I made courtesy of a tutorial on a blog called Simple Bliss. The cupcakes and smash cake were my idea for keeping it "baseball" themed. 

 These banners were hand-made, thanks to ideas gathered from Beth Kruse's blog. In fact, inspiration for most of the decorations came from her blog.

I designed the baseballs in Microsoft Word (please excuse the fact that my laces are wrong, I didn't catch that til everything was printed and cut out.) The gloves started out as scalloped edges all the way around, but as I was cutting, I just saw gloves. I can't really explain it.

 

Balloons and pinata came from Party City. 

 This was probably one of my favorite decoration areas at the party: the concession table. Granted not many partook in the eating of yummy concession stand junk food, but I just love how it turned out. And Carson has a precious keepsake ball signed by most. And those baseballs were on sale at Academy...thankfully it's baseball season. :)

The ballpark style food was so yummy!

I made Marc's and my shirts from this tutorial* from my crafty college friend, Jill. She's pretty much amazing. I've been planning to use this technique for a while on something for Carson, but was excited for this to be my first project. They turned out really cute! Carson's shirt came from this shop on Etsy.

*My only tip to deviate from Jill's blogpost: I tried the Heat 'n' Bond LITE that her friend suggested, and although it worked great, it doesn't fuse to the shirt like the Wonder Under that Jill uses. I may have bought the wrong thing, but it was the only Heat n Bond Lite available at JoAnn's Fabrics. Looks to me like Wonder Under might be better since I had to pin my design to the shirt to sew as opposed to it being ironed in place already, and just stitching for decoration. Make sense?

Remember those kid friendly activities I was telling you about in yesterday's post? Well, here they are. We got bats with balls and bubbles and wands from the dollar store. Seriously. Worth. It. The kids really enjoyed themselves...see the pictures below if you need proof. ;)

Can you see the joy on their faces? Carson (the birthday boy in the first pic) enjoying bubble wands, Maddox and Jax (second pic) having fun playing ball with their mom, and Laura Katherine (third pic) toting bat sets all over the place. So important to have immediate and fun activities for all the kids to do, and that don't have to be organized.

The most important thing for us is that my baby boy had such a fun day. And THAT makes this mama a happy girl. So, share your party ideas with me!! I want to hear what you've done so I can steal your ideas for next year! ;)