Shark Themed Birthday Party

When Austin had his choice between Ninja Turtles, Superheros, and all sorts of other character birthdays, I was actually pretty surprised when he chose Sharks. Austin has had a long love of sharks in all of his 4 years on earth, but with Ninja turtles being so "in" right now, I couldn't believe he passed them up. This Shark Themed Birthday Party came out even better than I had expected and I love all the shark details!!

Here are the cupcakes made by Sweet Tree's Cottage Bakery

The shark fins are so cute, not to mention they taste great!

The beach closed sign came from Amazon. I bought a few to go around the house. And the shark centerpiece came from the Shark Splash collection at Party Pail.

Even though I don't use these glasses and straws like some other parties do, I still like to display them. Maybe when the kiddos are older and I don't have to worry about the whole glass flying through the air....Party straws from Party Pail

Invite found on Etsy.I like to buy the design and then print through whatever website is having the best deal for DIY cards like mpix, vistaprint, or even Walmart.com.

Shark Cookies from Sweet Tree's Cottage Bakery. Love buying my cookies and cupcakes all in one place!

Candy all from Party City. Very easy to head there and go straight to a colored section and just buy away. Now they even have matching scoopers!

Shark plates...the kids absolutely loved them!

Tons of great stuff from Party Pail. Lots of cute napkins and plates and hanging décor!

You can even order your matching cutlery from them at the same time you order your other party supplies!

Hammer head shark treat bags! Idea from Pinterest . We used a sponge and black stamp on white bags to create their appearance. Then all you do is fold over a longer piece of paper as you are folding the bag down. These were a big hit!

They were filled with all sorts of goodies. Go fish card deck, shark stickers, goldfish, and fruit snacks!

We (my Mom and I) found this rubber stamp on ebay and then just colored it in ourselves. We used Stampin' ups endless birthday wishes photopolymer set to stamp happy birthday!

We bought gummies on Amazon.com of all different kinds and made Shark/Ocean shish kabobs.

My mom gets pretty creative on her birthday presents!

Another one made by my mom! (excuse the Christmas pillows, we were a little early on getting Christmas décor out!)

A little bit of Christmas mixed in with the Sharks. We made the banner ourselves. Once you try it yourself once, I am convinced you will make your own too! But you can make it easier on yourself if you start with a stampin' up Build a Banner set (I am not a stampin' up demonstrator but I do LOVE them!!)

Coordinating shark balloons from Party Pail

I always love to hang décor from my chandelier over the dining table. These are perfect cause I didn't even have to do the cutting and putting together.

Find the hanging décor here

My mom made this shark with a cut out so you can put your face in there for a cute photo booth idea.

We just stamped brown paper with all of our rubber stamps we found on ebay.

Shark cups found here

Everybody loves a cute party hat

Shark napkins found on party pail

These shark masks came from an idea from an invite and just added a party straw to hold on to them.

Everyone really enjoyed the photo booth. Even the birthday boy with Grandpa in the upper right!

Birthday Boy Austin!! Shirt came from Etsy. I like how it doesn't say anything about birthday on it so that he can keep wearing it.

What does a shark say!?

Cupcake time! Austin had so much fun at his birthday party! I absolutely loved the shark theme. I think he did too!!

Austin: 4 years old

Oh boy! 4 years old already?! Kinda doesn't seem real. Being three has been challenging and fun as I am sure most of these younger years are....who are we kidding, every year will be that way! Just hard to believe he's 4, almost 5, almost going to 'big kid' school. Just don't blink, right? You blink and they're a whole year older!

What does Austin love? hmmmm he loves Ninja Turtles, Spiderman, or any superhero really. He loves watching Octonauts in the morning. He could watch the movie 'how to train your dragon' over and over and over and over.

He loves playing with transformers, cars, trucks, planes, boy stuff!! Recently he loves tools and his new tool box he got for his birthday so he can 'fix things' like Daddy.

He could go all day without eating and not really care. I take that back, he would probably eat fruit snacks and drink chocolate milk and be very content. We can get him to eat noodles with parmasean, cottage cheese, PB&J shaped like a dinosaur is even losing it's lust, and he's still good with ninja turtle go-gurts.

If he's really sleepy in the morning, he usually is pretty ok with whatever clothes I have picked out for him as long it isn't jeans or a button down shirt. But other days, when he is paying attention, he wonders why I didn't pick out a shirt with a cool animal or toy on it. So sometimes he has to run back upstairs and comes down with the most hideous super hero cheap shirt that we bought from Meijer on a whim that he would calm down so we could finish grocery shopping. But, if it shows independence and it makes him happy, then yes, he gets to wear whatever he wants.

He is definitely into the 'mommy watch this' stage. "Hey mom! MOM! did you see me? did you see what I can do? are you watching? did you see this!? MOM!" Yes, honey, I saw you punch that balloon 53 times and the 54th time was even cooler!

It's fun to watch him learn to write his name. I love watching his art come home from school with the squiggle lines that look that much closer to spelling Austin. His art is another area to watch his personality come out. Recently he made a picture in school of a gate with pumpkins behind it out of popsicle sticks, and his popsicle sticks were all lined up perfect in a row...he may be a bit OCD or meticulous. I have no idea where he gets that from..... (ok so maybe I do)

He's becoming a bigger helper around the house. He's even being more helpful with Ava. Helping her to reach items or get things or show her how something is done.

Our frustrating moments come in the early morning or late at night. If you don't have his socks on just right it's meltdown city. By the third pair of socks and trying to get them just right, I just want him to go sockless. And at night, with brushing his teeth and picking out books and getting into bed, he's so pokey as probably most kids are, but when you are going on a 40 minute bed time routine, you just want to pull your hair out sometimes.

Austin laughs hard and loves hard. He loves to be tickled and chased. He loves to race no matter what for. Sometimes we race him to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Sometimes I race him from the chair to his bed (literally one step away), if it means he'll do it in less than 5 minutes! 

Austin gave soccer a go this year and decided maybe it wasn't his favorite thing in the world. He was kinda happy when the class was over. He has expressed some interest in baseball and with being a lefty, maybe that would work out in his favor!

My little buddy is growing up fast and I love his imagination and enthusiasm. Everything is 'the best ever'  and he shouts it to the top of his lungs. He makes life exciting and I pray that enthusiasm never ends.

Photo Credit to Cortney Tostevin Photography

Airplane Themed First Birthday Party

This Airplane Themed First Birthday Party was so much fun to plan and watch come to life. This is such a cute theme for a 1 year old and I just love the vintage touches and colors.

 Sweet Tree's Cottage Bakery made these adorable cupcakes and of course my friend Kristin and I didn't recreate the banners as adorable as she had them in her display but they were just perfect!

I love those propeller cupcakes! The best part is that they taste just as good as they look!

Sweet Tree's Cottage Bakery also made these adorable cookies all set in bags to take home for the guests. The pictures don't do them justice! They are such a great favor to send home with someone as a thank-you for coming!

Little cups of cheese and caramel popcorn are a great snack to carry around while enjoying the party.

The invites came from Lullaby Loo found on Etsy. Kristin mentioned when we found these invites how she loves to call Maxton her 'little guy' so she was sold on these right away.

And of course mason jars of candy matching the colors of the theme are an easy thing to add considering Party City carries every color you can imagine of gumballs, sixlets, suckers and more.

Little gift bags for all the kiddos to take home included airplane stickers, suckers, toys, and those cute little styrofoam airplanes.

I love to hang things like these somewhere in the party to add some dimension. We cut out airplanes and clouds in different shapes and sizes out of cute decorated paper and glued them onto bakers twine.

The banner looked great hanging in the archway between the kitchen and dining room. It was so big that I couldn't quite get the whole picture but you get the idea!! :)

Once you learn to make your own banner, you likely won't buy one again. They aren't that hard especially once you create the infamous prototype.

This poster came from Ollie and Lulu from Etsy. It's a personalized chalkboard poster. All you do is e-mail the stats and facts about your child and what colors you would like. She creates it and sends it back to you for you to print yourself. We printed this at Costco for under 10$ and then just glued to a foam board you can find at your local craft store for around 2 to 3$.

Kristin found this idea on pinterest about pinning the propeller to the airplane. Once she showed me the picture I just drew it on brown paper and cut out each shape in the colors to match.

Another adorable touch is the water bottle labels. Can you guess where from? Yes, Etsy. Here

The birthday boy woke up just before I left so I grabbed a quick shot! Love his matching shirt.