Zackary's Viking Birthday Party

My little boy is turning two next month, so what better time than to re-cap his 1st birthday party! I knew from the beginning it would be a viking/Norway themed party with nautical hints thrown in.  My husband is part Norwegian, and we made the nursery theme based off of a viking ship painting that was passed down to my husband, so the party theme made perfect sense!

We had a relaxed party at the house with family and a few friends.  For decor, I mainly focused on the food area, which is our dining room.

 

I made the above invitation on Photoshop.  

Behind the invitation I re-used spaghetti jars and painted them and added twine for vases.

Since his birthday is in the summer, there was lots of Red, White and Blue decor to choose from! I picked up some flowers at Michael's that were at a great price.

 

Fun nautical bucket that I used to hold the silverware.  I wrapped the silverware in nautical napkins from Ikea, wrapped them in twine with life preservers (life saver candy).

 

The drink station was on our dining buffet.  We had fruit punch Kool-aid for the kids and waters and sodas for the adults.  My mom gave me the fabric scraps of Zack's quilt she made for him, so I made him a tassel garland and used some of the other scraps for table runners and additional decor.

I think the tassel garland is my favorite!  I have it hanging in his room now above the changing table.

Some of the food - Viking Booty and Fish

I think this was my best food spread yet!  The red, white and blue theme was so easy, didn't take much thought, and I had fun coming up with Viking/Nautical food ideas.

Smash Cake with Nautical Cookies

 Since birthday parties are the only time I have time to bake or try out new recipes, I opted to try for some custom looking nautical cookies.  I made anchors, life preservers and the Norway flag.  It was definitely a trial and error on these bad boys, but I think they look pretty good, and I thought they tasted good too!  I tried so many different icing recipes during this process!

Buoys (Marshmallows dipped in Red Colored White Chocolate) & Chips Ahoy

Norway Flag Cake

Me and the girl!

What we wore: For the first part of the party, Zack had a custom onesie embroidered by my mom with his name and a viking ship.  We all had matching Viking shirts. One of Andrew's old college friends hand drew the viking and we had them made into shirts!  

Me and the birthday boy!

Yummy!

These two though!

My Viking Boys!

My family

It was a great party to celebrate Zack-Attack, now on to the next party!!  This year will be all about bubbles - he is OBSESSED with bubbles!!!

Kaitlyn Turns 3!

Happy happy Birthday to my sweet baby girl, Kaitlyn Rose!  She turned 3 this past weekend, and we had a great weekend celebrating HER!!

On Friday, we brought cupcakes into her classroom for everyone, and she wore her birthday shirt, and of course a tutu.

Cupcakes for her classmates!

One of her teachers even got her a present, awww!  A baby and a stroller.  Kaitlyn named her "muffin".  I'm pretty sure Kaitlyn is the teacher's pet ;)

On Saturday, her actual birthday, I got last minute tickets to go see Disney on Ice, Princess and Heroes. She loved it!  I got us the cheap seats, and they were actually really good!  We weren't close by any means, but we didn't have anyone on either side of us, so we had plenty of room to spread out.  And Kaitlyn needed her room, because she was up and down the whole time, dancing and singing.  The first part was 45 minutes, and then there was a 20 minute intermission. The second part was about 30 minutes.  It was just long enough to keep her attention, but the intermission was great because we got up to run around and have a potty break.

The Little Mermaid

Goofing around

Kaitlyn and her souvenir Ariel snow cone cup

Me and my girl

Sunday we had her birthday party at the park.  It was "Under the Sea" themed with the Little Mermaid.  We had it earlier in the day so it wouldn't be too hot, and so we would miss the normal afternoon Florida storms. Not only was there a playground, but they also had a splash park.  Kaitlyn had a blast, and was tuckered out by the time she got home!

The mermaid cake - my first time using fondant

Top left going clockwise: The cake, her little mermaid vinylmations, Ariel chilling, sand art, presents & cupcakes

Birthday girl opening her presents

Just before singing happy birthday!

Kaitlyn, happy birthday sweetheart.  You are such a joy in our life.  You are kind and so smart, you amaze me daily.  You're very shy when you meet new people, just like your mama.  But boy when you come out of your shell, there's no stopping you :) (Also just like your mama)  You can dance like nobody's business, I can't even do some of the moves you do!  You already have a wonderful, on pitch, singing voice (you definitely DON'T get that from me, but from your daddy) and I love hearing you sing all the time.  I love watching you grow and learn new things.  You just learned how to ride your tricycle ("That's because I'm THREE now!" You told me)

XOXOXOXOXOXO, Mommy

Birthday planning

Well it's less than a month till my baby girl turns 3!  How is this possible?  I've been asking her every now and then what kind of party she wants.  Now that she's old enough to have an opinion of her own, I thought it would be best to get her input.....well if you have ever asked a 3 year old that question, it changes daily!  So far she has wanted a princess party, pink party, Tinkerbell party, poopie party (yeah....I know)....and this week she wants an Ariel party!  She has started watching The Little Mermaid, and that is her new go to movie.  Which I am ok with, so I thought, hmmm...let's throw her an Under the Sea birthday party!  Which could work great because I wanted to throw it at a park, and the park I am thinking of has a splash pad, as well as a playground.  Hmmm, maybe this theme will work pretty well!

Here are some inspiration ideas that I have found perusing le-internet.


Sun and Sand Themed Cupcakes from Cupcake Cutiees

Jello fish bowl from MarthaStewart.com

From http://www.blog.birdsparty.com/2013/06/a-magical-under-sea-birthday-party.html
 

Aren't these oyster cookies so cute? 

 

Today is a Kaitlyn, Zackary and Mommy day, so I might just take them to the splash pad to see what it's like and if I want to use it as the party location. If it's a go, next thing on my list is invitations!