Pink Peppermint Blogger

I’m excited to have gotten my amazing photos back from my sweet friend, Rachel, and to have finally gotten through all of them so that I can share my daughter’s Barbie: The Princess and The Popstar birthday party with you all. The movie is a classic “grass is greener” tale of a princess and a popstar who each think the other’s life is so fantastic that they trade places for a day and learn some valuable lessons along the way. Hey, I could write DVD sleeve copy. My Sweet Caroline was introduced to the movie by some neighborhood friends and quickly became obsessed with being “Keira,” the popstar.

Here’s the invitation and the envelope in which it was delivered. We kept the guest list to a few girlfriends and invited them to come in costume for an on-stage performance.

Most of them were hand-delivered in the neighborhood so we were able to embellish them a bit.

We kept things simple with the party entrance this time, opting for a sparkly door sign and some backstage credentials.

Backstage passes hung from a guitar stand on the front porch. I wasn’t happy with the materials I found for ID badges at the local office store, so I printed 4×6 cards and had them hard laminated, adding a lanyard to each.

When guests entered, our Stage Moms were directed to the left into the “Green Room.” We had earplugs on hand just to be silly. Purple, of course.

Our “Talent” was directed through the lit doorway to the concert stage.

We also had directional signage for the “Green Room,” “Wardrobe” and this one for the bathroom.

C’mon. That’s funny.

There are my kiddos “tuning” the inflatable guitar before the party started. This is the only photo I have of my son at the party because he hightailed it down to the neighbor’s house when he heard he’d be outnumbered.

We built the stage with a piece of plywood and some scrap wood from our playset.

I painted it purple and added a short shimmery curtain to hide the legs. It fit right over the fireplace hearth, and gave the girls a few square feet of room to get their popstar on.

We covered the fireplace and mantel with pink and purple goodness and lit it up with Christmas lights.

Overhead was an over-sized tree ornament we used as a disco ball. It even had a pink tiara on its head.

Guests passed from the stage area to the “Green Room” through this sparkly pink curtain, which was a source of great entertainment for the girls.

(Read: they ran back and forth through it until it bit the dust.)

We kept the food light with items you might find in a real Green Room.

Maria from Love & Sugar Kisses made these AMAZING fondant topped Oreos for us. I swear to you that they were so perfect, people felt bad biting into them. Ha!

The pink Princess versions featured crowns and magic hairbrushes and the purple Popstar versions had guitars and magic microphones.

Since most everyone walked to the party, we offered mimosas to our stage moms. In keeping with our color scheme (and because I don’t really love a classic mimosa) we mixed 1 part champagne or sparkling juice, 1 part orange juice and 1 part V8 Fusion Pomegranate Blueberry juice. The concoction was a beautiful pink color, and the sweetness of the different juice really cut the usual bite of the drink. Two thumbs up.

The girls drank regular juice out of these easier to handle cups.

I made this centerpiece for around $10, wrapping boxes with matching table coverings and using inexpensive princess and popstar props from a party store.

I told the birthday girl she could eat when her guests arrived, so five minutes in, she was ready to chow down.

The girls ate and then took their time warming up to the stage. We had a small craft area where they could make “rock band” bracelets using stickers, rhinestones and leather wrist bands.

I was sure if the parents made themselves scarce, the girls would be fighting tooth and nail for a turn so I made these names to draw from to see who was next. As it turned out, they were pretty shy about getting up there. Who knew? We had a karaoke machine with songs from Barbie: The Princess and The Popstar movie and other faves the girls could choose from like “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “Call Me Maybe.”

Everyone wanted to be on stage, but very few wanted to sing alone. Safety in numbers. That’s my girl at the mic rockin’ and rulin’.

They had cake, the birthday girl made her wish and everyone took the stage again.

When it was time to head home, everyone left with one of these light-up wands, which I thought looked a lot like microphones.

I hoped they would sing into them in the mirror like we used to do as kids!

The tags said, “You royally ROCKED it, girl. You really did your thing. Take home this magic mic, look in the mirror and SING!”

After the party, I snapped a pic of Caroline in her purple Keira wig and we used the photo on these hilarious thank you notes, designed to look like autographed headshots.

Every time I look at them, I laugh all over again.

My baby is five. Wow. When did that happen?

Special thanks to Caroline’s Nana and Mrs. Lauren, as usual, for their hands-on help and party inspiration, and a special thanks to Mrs. Stacy for taking me in her giant truck to the home improvement store and staring blankly with me at a wall of plywood varieties. How could there be so many?!

Photography: Sweet Magnolia Photography

Cake: For Heaven’s Cakes

Oreos: Love & Sugar Kisses

Invitations, Paper Goods and Party Planning: www.pinkpeppermintpaper.com

I love to share Lauren’s parties. They are so chocked full of thoughtful detail, and this one is no different. Her oldest boy just turned three, and he is a Buzz Lightyear aficionado. OK, that may be an understatement. Since his last birthday, The Children’s Museum of Mississippi has opened. There’s a retro rocket right in their logo, and the kids absolutely LOVE to spend a day there immersed in the hands-on activities. Plus, there is A/C, which in Mississippi in July, is a game changer.

Lauren already had the venue, the rocket theme and a color scheme in mind when we started talking birthday, so I whipped up this invitation.

The party was right at noon, so the idea was to get the kids in the party room first, knowing they’d all be chomping at the bit to play. We fed them some lunch, had cake and released them into the museum as they were ready to play until they dropped. I created some large-scale printable party signage, a Pink Peppermint first. The first stop was the Party Room.

When everyone arrived it was lunch time, so the boys and girls settled in and went to work at tables covered in dark blue butcher paper. They ate from silver star-shaped plates and enjoyed UFO PB&Js, star shaped graham crackers and fresh fruit.

To drink, there was Zimbi Super Alien Juice. It’s awesome, because not only are the bottles cool looking and shaped like rockets, but also because when the drink is gone they fly! Seriously? Yes!

The kids also got these awesome alien cake pops from Mom’s Killer Cakes.

I love the way these alien pipe cleaner napkin rings turned out. Super cute, inexpensive and right on theme!

UFO sandwiches were made using Uncrustables, alien finger puppets and the clear base from gumball machine containers. Adorable!

Here’s the fresh fruit skewered on these cute silver star picks.

And here’s one of my favorite elements–a little craft pack of stickers, crayons and glitter glue that invited guests to decorate their space. How creative is that? They went to town too. Right on the butcher paper. It was great because it gave those waiting for others to finish eating something to do before the cake was served.

And while the kids ate, moms and dads had a chance to fuel up too.

There were chicken nuggets, fresh fruit, chips and other goodies like Orbit gum, starbursts and starlight mints! Love it.

And since everyone was likely to stay and play in the museum for a couple of hours, they also got these awesome space age to-go packs of Black Holes (mini Oreos), Nuts and Bolts, Shuttle Smoke (popcorn) and freeze-dried Fruit in Space. The sign read “Take Me to Your Leader.”

And when they were done with their plates, they knew where to find the trash can, labeled “Space Junk.”

There was also a chance to play Pin the Tail on the Comet. I was excited about this one. It’s Pink Peppermint’s first ever printable party game!

Finally, the moment they were all waiting for. Cake. How cute! I love the cloud effect of the icing. The bakery matched it to the invitation.

And here’s the birthday boy making his wish! They turned out the lights while he blew out the candles, and the look of pure magic on his face watching everyone sing was priceless!

Only a couple more pieces of business to attend to before turning the kids loose on the museum. Party favors were made from these great, oversized candy capsules. We added some simple paper rings to turn them into goody-filled flying saucers.

Included were toy laser guns, starbursts, bite-size milky way candy bars, glow-in-the-dark stars, spring-loaded martians, suckers and other treats.

The message read “Hope you had a stellar time!”

Guests also got a sticker to wear and filled their pockets with take-home snacks before they left the party area.

Out in the museum the kids pushed, pulled, moved and squirted, loaded, built, digested and then did it all again.

What a great celebration! Happy 3rd birthday, buddy!

Lauren and I recently gave our friend Sarah a little inspiration for her son’s first birthday. Her youngest boy, Caleb, just turned one, and mama had a sweet and simple clutter cutting celebration on the brain. Sarah introduced us to the Milk + Bookies Birthday Party, a concept that has party goers bring new books in lieu of gifts to donate to the charity of the host’s choice. I, for one, have always had a hard time choosing gifts for kiddos with older same gender siblings.

Sarah used a color scheme of brown, white and red and used children’s books throughout the party areas to tie in the Milk+Bookies element.

Look at these cutie pies in their milk and cookies shirts from the kizart Etsy shop.

Here’s the cute table she did using coordinating fabrics and featuring the main course–COOKIES! Chocolate chip, sugar, OREOS, animal crackers and more. What kiddo wouldn’t love a party full of cookies?

Next to the cookies, there were plastic “pints for your half pint” in 2% and chocolate from the local University dairy. And in a separate area, the milk bar had carafes of plain, strawberry and chocolate milk on ice.

Also hanging out at this station were the most fab drinking straw ’stache sippers–one of my most fave things I’ve seen in a long time! These cuties were spotted over at It’s Toile Good, and Lauren had the idea to use them as {swoon} milk mustaches for this event! So what’s it gonna be? Plain white milk mustache or chocolate milk mustache?

A purist, I see. An excellent choice! I beg your pardon, sir, but you seem to have a little something on your chin. Too funny!

There were cookies all over!

And even a few bookworms.

And here’s Caleb, the birthday boy, enjoying his smash cake, which was made by a local cake shop to look like a giant chocolate chip cookie.

Happy 1st Birthday Caleb!

My Caroline is the princess-loving tough as nails variety of little girl. A sweet jumble of contradictions. The kind of girl you only get from having an older brother in the house. It’s hard to predict what she’ll come up with next, but when it came to her 3rd birthday celebration, she and I decided we’d combine two of her current faves–princesses and snow!

In case you missed it, here’s the invitation. We handed out the majority of them so I got a little playful with addressing them. There were Ladies, Dukes and even Barons on the invitation list.

Here’s the glitter embellishment on the envelope.

Guests were welcomed to Castle Touchet with these grapevine wreaths spray painted silver and flocked with snow.

Inside where it was warm, the royal banquet table stretched out underneath a sky of falling snow.

We had snowflake crowns for the boys and tiaras for the girls.

Princess Caroline’s birthday throne at the head of the table was all wrapped up in a bow and set off with her royal portrait.

Laid out on a blanket of snow down the center of the table were snow globes filled with a different royal and snowy scenes.

A royal crown, a snowy church, a silver slipper, and a Victorian ice skate among others.

The princess one turned out to be my favorite!

After everyone checked out our stash of toys, it was time to eat!

Our centerpiece was made up of sparkly winter branches embedded in a vase of snow.

We had simple breakfast foods like sausage balls, mini muffins, pigs in a blanket and fresh fruit on these snowflake skewers.

The crowd favorites were these donut snowmen.

And look. There’s our dainty little princess enjoying one now!

The kids also really went for these marshmallow pops.

They had juice from these sweet little cups that come with snap on lids so they don’t spill.

I decked them out in royal fashion with some ribbon and scrapbooking embellishments.

And for the adults we had hot chocolate and coffee.

The mantle was decorated with a glittery snow village and castle.

And since it was a surprisingly mild January day {naturally}, we set up a play table of snow outside.

We had a few scoops and buckets and those kiddos went to town!

Then everyone headed back inside for cake. The birthday girl was feeling unusually shy as everyone sang.

Then there was more playing in the snow before everyone said their goodbyes.

As party favors, everyone got snow powder so they could make their own snow at home.

We had a great time celebrating with the birthday girl and a sweet group of friends for her first big girl party. Happy third birthday sweet Caroline!

Sources:

Large/Small Ripple Cups, Clear Favor Boxes – Think Garnish

Invitations, Paper Crowns, Cup Wraps, Favor Tags – Pink Peppermint Paper

Cake – Dream Cakes

Can you believe Halloween is already upon us? Seriously. I don’t know where 2010 has gone. How could it be time already for my sister’s 4th Annual Neighborhood Halloween Party? She touched base with me several weeks back, and we used this Trick-or-Treaters invitation.

Little did I know at the time that I’d get to attend this year! I live outside of Jackson, Mississippi and my sister, Amanda, is waaaaaaaaay up north outside of Boston. Seems even more waaaaaaaay after air travel with two kiddos, but our Mother came too, and we had a great time!

They have a season there called “Fall.” Just the quaint sort of thing you’d expect from a small New England town. It was breezy and in low 60s. Sweet! {Please note that as I write this, now back at home it’s going to be 88 degrees. The Reese’s cup I just stole from my Halloween pantry stash was melted in the middle.}

You can imagine after three years of Halloween parties, that one would have amassed quite an assortment of spooky fun. Amanda had the house all decked out with ghoulish delights. Touches of Halloween were everywhere. This was one of the first things my five year old spotted.

This was the second. How fun!

And I was in love with the jack-o-lantern chandelier shades. Awesome.

We got to work stretching cobwebs over anything that would stay still and on planning the menu.

We made Bleeding Heart Brie, a delish dip with brie cheese and cherry preserves baked inside a crescent roll crust.

Also served were these adorable Crunchy Mummies made with celery, cream cheese mix and ham, and some adorable mummies on a stick–hotdogs wrapped in dough to look like mummies with mustard and ketchup eyes.

Amanda also served an assortment of dips including a yummy Cajun corn dip. Soooo good!

Amanda filled her cauldron punch bowl with Brew Ha Ha punch, complete with eyeballs and for the adults, there were soft drinks and Blood Orange Sangria!

It’s no wonder everyone asks for directions to the bathroom! Just follow the bloody footsteps!

And what Halloween party is complete without sweets?

There were witch hat cookies, ghosts in the graveyard–a tasty pudding dish decorated with ghost Peeps–brownies, candy, and a fantastic three-tier cake!

Lots of the neighbors brought goodies. One even whipped up this awesomely spooky candy house. How fab is that?

The kids had a blast in their costumes eating and playing in the Pirate-themed bouncy house. The neighbors had a chance to socialize while the kids were otherwise engaged, and enjoyed a sunny, but blustery Fall day. Amanda had just the right mix of spooky and fun.

Horror highlight of the party? Power goes out 30 minutes before the start time. Three dozen raw wieners on a stick and one deflated bouncy. We thought the bouncy had blown the whole house. Turns out it was the neighborhood, and power was restored a few minutes into the party. Good thing it was during daylight hours! Great job A on another fab year of Halloween fun!

Be a deary and leave a little comment, my pretties. I’ve got my eye on you.

I’m giving Lauren a much-needed break, so I’ll be the one to tell you about her son’s second birthday! Quite frankly, there’s some gushing to be done, and it’s much easier to gush about someone else’s party than it is your own. The party was so very cute, and I have so many pictures that I don’t even know where to begin, but here goes…

Pink Peppermint Parties has been all abuzz over the details for Lauren’s son’s 2nd birthday. No flies on us, for sure. For those of you who don’t remember or weren’t following me very early on, this is the adorable party she worked up for his 1st birthday.

This year’s theme was Bugs, and the challenge was to make it a party any boy would be proud of but also keep it sweet for a birthday boy still knee high to a grasshopper. We set the mood with this invitation design.

The munched edges turned out to be one of my favorite little details! Lauren even munched the flap on the envelope. Love it.

Party goers handed over these sluggy buggies to gain entrance to the Museum park. Now onto the BIG day!

The festivities were held at an outdoor pavilion. Each table had a sweet, grassy centerpiece complete with all types of creepy critters centered around these pint-sized, colorful arrangements of fly swatters and a butterfly net–all planted like flowers in large Mason jars.

Every kiddo had a place set with these stinkin’ adorable bug boxes that were personalized in buggy fashion with their names.

Also, waiting for them were butterfly nets, magnifying glasses, Build-A-Bug gummies, and these bug-eyed party hats.

There were bug-themed coloring sheets and crayons too!

How sweet is the little ladybug on that bunch of crayons? Swoon. I ran to get my camera when I saw them. I am SUCH a sucker for little details like that.

There was also an adorable game table with bug-themed puzzles, a bubble machine  (aka “the Fogger”) and COOTIE! Remember that game? Ahhh, memories…

Before lunch and cake, everyone enjoyed a bug hunt on the lawn. The kids grabbed their nets and had a great time searching for all the different kinds of bugs. Here’s the birthday boy in action.

Then it was time to munch. Note the hand sanitizer in that adorable buggy dispenser. Lauren really thought of everything!

I love the munched plates and the napkin rings too. I held one out to my two-year-old to take and she jumped a foot when she saw that spider on her napkin.

There were Slug Sliders, Roly Poly pinwheels, P, Bee and Js, Ants on a Log, Grub Worm Fruit Skewers and Bugs in a Rug.

.

On such a hot summer day, the kids cooled off with what else but Bug Juice!

The adults enjoyed their drinks from these adorable homemade bug jars.

I designed the butterfly, bee and ladybug straw critters and cut them with a newly acquired piece of equipment. I was so excited by how they turned out! Rest assured there is much more party stuff along these lines shaping up!

After lunch, everyone made a beeline to the dessert table, which was highlight by delightful mosquito netting that had caught paper butterflies and ladybug hairclips, handmade by the birthday boy’s grandmother, for the girls to take home.

We also made a birthday banner with our new equipment and hung it with grosgrain ribbon behind the dessert table. It’s a little hard to see here, but it read “Happy Bday” and had a cutout of a bee in place of the letter.

The cake was a yummy chocolate bumblebee. How cute is that? I loved the antennae.

We did these cupcake wrappers with a sweet little plaid bee buzzing along for the delicious vanilla cupcakes.

And what dessert table is complete without a few grub worm gummies?

The birthday boy made his wish and everyone dug in. Look at that big boy in his buggy outfit. Too cute!

When kids and parents were all bugged out, they all headed into the Museum to cool off and have some more fun before heading home. Here’s the sticker they got before leaving.

Happy 2nd Bee-day sweet Wright!

I have a treat for you today. A guest post from Lauren, my accomplice at Pink Peppermint Parties. Enjoy! And don’t forget to leave a comment!

………

A couple of weekends ago, several friends flocked together to celebrate the upcoming arrival of a tweet baby girl. This brunch shower stole its theme from her adorable nursery, which features a brown, pink and teal color scheme, polka dots, green gingham, lots of rick-rack ribbon and, of course, birds! It made for a fun and festive way to celebrate the nesting mommy-to-be.

First things first, here’s the invitation!

Birds seem to be all the rage in the party world this season. Go ahead…I dare you to Google bird shower. It’s overwhelming! However, Eleanor and I wanted this event to be as unique as the guest of honor, so we created lots of touches all our own. Take this “bird on a wire” giftline for instance. A spin off the common clothesline version, this one was crafted out of grapevine twine and had paper birds attached to clothespins perched on the line and holding the gifts. Please note that many of the birds are replicas of those found on the invitation—the paper patterns, too. I love consistency!

And a big thanks to a certain retailer for having the PERFECT assortment of precious bird inspired clothes to hang on the line.

Next up…the food! The table featured a beautiful floral arrangement in a copper container, bird statuettes and fun “nest” bowls for jams and jellies. We certainly did not eat like birds will all the delicious options this brunch buffet had to offer.

Each brunch item was labeled with these festive bird menu cards.

The table also featured napkin and flatware sets dressed with a gingham ribbon bellyband, an actual twig (spray painted white and crackled) and finished with a paper bird cut out.

Some of our paper bird friends were also found perched on drink glasses.

One of the hostesses took the invitation to her baker and together they whipped up this fantastic (and super delicious) cake which announced the little chick’s new initials.

Decorating the cake table was a square glass vase filled with birdseed and two long branches also spray painted white and crackled like the twigs on the napkins. Scattered on the branches were an assortment of feathered friends cut from the same paper and in the style as those found on the line. They were attached using mini clothes pins.

Remember these adorable paci mints Eleanor made for the “All In Due Time” shower? Well, they made the perfect addition to these mint nests, which were placed in gathering areas around the home.

Can you spot the adorable little nest the florist added to the arrangement for the drink table?

Finally, since no one should leave a party empty handed, we created these little favors for the guests. They were set up next to the door in a galvanized tin bucket on a stand so it didn’t take someone with eagle eyes to find them. Inside the bucket, birdseed anchored the favors and a lone branch with one bird holding a card let the guests know to take a favor to their nest. At the base stood a wooden birdhouse

.

Inside the brown paper favor bags was a birdseed ball crafted from bird-friendly foam, peanut butter and birdseed. A piece of pink rick-rack ribbon was fashioned as the hanger.

And finally, the bag closed with a coordinating paper bird perched on a mini clothes pin. On the outside, a thank you message to each guest on a 2×2 card that matched the invitation.

What a fun celebration for a mommy-to-be who is truly a rare bird and a friend like no other. We wish her all the best as she nests and waits for her tweet baby girl to arrive.

So my pal Katie came to me a few weeks before her baby’s first birthday with cows on the brain. She said “Holstein” so I played along until I could Google it. Ha! (and no I’m not joking). Duh. It’s the black and white ones–the ones you picture when someone says “cow.” Anyhoo, I whipped up some invitations, and she was sweet enough to share some party pics from the big night.

They had the party at a fave local pizza joint and brought in just the right elements to make this party udderly adorable with cow print, sky blue and green accents.

.

There is something about cow print that’s happy! Am I wrong? It just perks you right up. Those plate and napkins are too cute!

And speaking of too cute, this is Henry, the birthday boy, sporting a super festive cow-themed longall that Katie had made. Big bro, Thompson had a matching shirt.

Here’s the cake–love the grass details and the darling cow candle. I wish my handwriting was that sweet in pen, much less in icing!

…and Henry’s smash cake. I’ve seen the pictures. He really enjoyed helping himself to it!

The little guests went home with what else but cow cookies! I love this shot. The blue and green of the invitation against all that black and white–delicious.

And here’s one of the thank you notes.

Moochas gracias to Katie for sharing, and Happy 1st Birthday Henry!

A few months back, I had a customer come to me with an idea for her son’s first birthday party. Golf! I confess that, having no golf enthusiasts in my family, I was a little thrown at first. But soon, Amaris and I both got swept up in the fun ideas, the bright colors and a hint at warmer weather in the bleak winter months. I just couldn’t wait to see how it all turned out, and I’m here to tell you, this mama did NOT disappoint. Prepare to have your argyle socks knocked off as you enjoy Amaris’ account of Bradley’s Hole-in-One First Birthday!

The cake was amazing!  I loved the whimsical “topsy-turvy” golf flags! To make the cake display, I purchased an 18″ round plastic tray from the party store and covered the tray with about an inch of potting soil.  I put a small bowl in the center of the tray to reserve space for a clear glass cake stand to hold the cake.  (my cake stand measured 11″ in diameter and the cake was 10″)

and here is the matching smash cake…

I tried to carry out the “one” theme and use circles when possible, like on the stickers and favor tags. I made a Happy Birthday banner out of red felt to resemble a string of golf flags, which hung behind the cake table.  I also found yellow hand clappers, or, golf claps as I like to call them.

Playing A Round

Our “sand trap” was created out of a huge galvanized tub which was filled with several bags of playground sand and plastic golf balls.  I placed the tub on artificial turf cut to look like a golf green.

The kids loved playing in the sand!

I found a Par 3 Mini Golf Course made by Step 2 toys, which was fun! It was a great interactive toy for parents and kids. The older kids especially enjoyed it, and I even saw a few daddies testing out their putting skills, too!

Here’s our birthday boy trying out his skills.

I also borrowed my nephew Jack’s golf cart rocker.  It was the perfect photo-op for parents and the kids loved taking turns going for a “ride.”

Par-tee Eats and Treats

We served typical golf course style food–mini hot dogs, chips and rotel dip, mac and cheese and fruit.  At the last minute, I found some straw sipper cups online which were on mega clearance from Christmas and just so happened to be red and lime green with coloring page inserts.  I had tons of felt left over from making the golf flags and birthday banner, so I got creative and cut felt inserts with each guest’s first initial to personalize each cup.  They were perfect!

We also had stickers to give out that said, “I played a round at Bradley’s 1st Birthday!”

I must admit, with all the excitement, I totally forgot to give out the precious stickers at the party.  Booo mama.  However, I did put stickers in each thank you note, which, I think worked well, too! Here are our thank you notes.

I loved the Hole-in-One Par-tee theme!  Most importantly, the design work that Pink Peppermint Paper did truly set the tone for the party and made it extra special.  I really enjoyed that I was able to be so involved with the designs and incorporate my ideas.

………..

Thanks for sharing Amaris! What an amazing job and a big day with their little boy! Happy 1st Birthday Bradley!