7/2/10

Birthdays Are His New Favorite

Sebastian's fourth birthday party was a great success thanks to everyone who shared it with us through their presence or their gifts and phone calls. It was quite a lot more work to pull it off than I had imagined it would be but all the more rewarding to see how excited he was when he showed up (after spending the previous night with my parents at their hotel) and saw the walkway lined with orange cones, his bedroom full of balloons, and trucks! On the cake! He kept saying, "Come check out this, Mama!"

I was hoping against a character themed party this year so when Sebastian suggested a Mighty Machines party, I headed in the direction of dump trucks in a color palette I could live with. I used a few ideas from this fantastic truck party such as the orange cones, the sand box on the porch, and the marshmallow building activity from this post on OhDeedoh. Some ideas were obvious for a truck themed party such as hard hats (scored at a thrift store!), mud themed desserts, a dirt pile cake, and a dump truck centerpiece to play with later.

We had gluten free cupcakes and healthy snacks to help off set the sugar high from the cake, soda, and mud pies. For those I made chocolate jello, added crumbled No-Pudge brownies, and topped them with gummy worms. Easy and kid friendly.

We can reuse the truck decorations and Sebastian will have fun playing in the storage container turned sand box all summer, or until he's managed to dump all of the sand through the porch rails.

Thanks to the summer toy section in Target, Sebastian's friends got to take home little sand buckets filled with bubbles and tiny markers, as well as a truck set that they played with at the party.

I was originally going to make a 'Happy Birthday, Sebastian' banner from grocery bags and duct tape and hang it over my clipboards but while I was taking my summer inspiration photos down I realized I had one of Sebastian in black and white. I spent the next hour and a half browsing through our Flickr sets and printing off photos of S after editing them to be black and white.

The garlands were easy. I was lying in bed late one night brainstorming about party decorations when I thought of using yellow duct tape I had on hand to make bunting. It felt 'construction-ish' and wasn't going to cost me anything so I made it the next afternoon while the kids napped. Yesterday, I came across Diane's fabulous Fourth of July garland on Apartment Therapy! I'm rarely surprised anymore when I see the same idea posted on another blog around the same time. There's some sort of science to it, I'm sure, and I love Diane's red, white, and blue combo!

The other garland is just tissue paper cut into tall rectangles that I folded over twine. I can't tell you how many times I had to pick the same two or three off the floor and rehang them whenever someone tall walked past one particularly low spot.

Here's a photo of Sebastian's first birthday party that we had at my parent's house. He was a mostly bald little thing just like Ruby is and I was.

And here's a photo that my grandmother took of Sebastian opening his backhoe. He's sitting almost the same way so it's fun to see how much longer those arms and legs are and how different he looks with dark hair. Or any hair! We're off to St. Louis to spend some time at the zoo and Science Center and wherever else our little adventure takes us. Thanks to all my online friends/readers that are representing the East side and sending recommendations for pit stops. I appreciate it!

I hope your Fourth of July celebrations end with your eyebrows intact.
xoxo,
Rachel

28 comments:

mrs boo radley said...

Look at all the fabulous pictures of him on your wall! Love!

AlliT said...

Happy Birthday S!!! YAY for a successful and super cute party!!

The Science Center is having a Pirate Exhibition right now - ARGH!!! And if you are in downtown St. Louis you should take a change of clothes and visit City Garden. It is free and AWESOME!! My boys age 5 and 3 LOVE it!!! Just plan on getting wet!!! Have fun in our adopted hometown!!!

With Love, Jamie said...

This is seriously the cutest party ever!!!

ilene @ muchloveilly said...

to cuuuute! all the details are amazing. i love it. :)

Unknown said...

Such a cute party! Glad he had fun! :)

Latrice said...

Super cute Rachel! I love the truck "theme" and the garland is to die for. I recognize some of those trucks. My 1 year old got tons a couple weeks ago for his first. Great job mama!

garcia.sol said...

what great colours and photos! man i wanna have a party like that! that is one lucky little boy :)

Jackie said...

I just love those colors! You did a fabulous job and it looks as if Sebastian had a blast...well done!

kt said...

such a cute successful party with so many fun and thoughtful ideas - love love it all! :D

{darlene} said...

wow. adorable party!!!!!!!! nice to meet you - found you through Joyful Journey.

angie may said...

so adorable! looks like the party was a success! :D

MiMi's Babies said...

What fun! gotta love a little guy and his birthday party!

Have a great 4th of July weekend!

margot said...

you're a great mom. fyi :-)

diane said...

what a great party-way to go keeping with the theme and keeping it super stylish-no easy task.

enjoy your time in st. louis, i pretty much love it here. i have heard great things about city garden-we are checking it out for our first time this week.

my girls LOVED the science center too.

if any great antique/thrift/junk shops were suggested to you for your time here-please share! I am still on the hunt.

Rachel said...

great photos looks like fun, i love your clip board i might steal that idea for my new house if thats ok rach xx

Caramel Nutz said...

Loved your decorations and tablescape!

Luloveshandmade said...

Looks lovely, your decoration and choice of colors is great!

Unknown said...

aw what a fantastic party you pulled off! such an creative (and thrifty) idea with the yellow bunting!

BRANDY said...

you are seriously the best mom ever! So amazing!

Big Yellow Dog said...

I LOVE it! You are such a cool mom! I've been dreading the day that will come when my kiddo requests a character themed birthday party, but this has given me a little hope that it can be done and look great!
Margaret

Roxanne said...

What a cute party! You really know how to make it extra special. Hope Sebastian enjoyed every little moment! Happy 4th to you and your family :)

Sarah M said...

super cute idea for boys...love the sandbox & yellow duct tape banner idea!
Sarah M

elycia said...

amazing decorating! my mom loves decorating for parties, she would absolutely love this post. she's all about themes and colour schemes. i'll have to show her :)

Stars and Rockets said...

The decorations look great! You did an amazing job!

Anonymous said...

looks like a super swell party! Hapyy Birthday little guy!

Dee Wilcox said...

You are so creative, Rachel! I especially love the yellow duct tape bunting and black and white photos on your clip boards. This has to be one of the coolest kid birthday parties I've seen. Great job!

Mandi Johnson said...

Congrats on the success!! (And on getting out of doing a character themed party!) ;)

Unknown said...

What a wonderful party... so simple and kid-friendly! I love kid's parties like this!