A Curious George Birthday!

Hi Friends!

I put on two parties for my big 3-year old kiddo this year because my Grandparents couldn't travel up to my place for ours and they're pretty good buddies with my little one :) I did a Curious George party at their house and it turned out SO CUTE! Since I went way overboard on the planning and crafting on the Madeline party I tried to simplify the ideas for this one and just work on my favorites. I was able to use the same banners and decor because the primary colors worked for both parties (blue, red, yellow). If anyone's party planning I put notes below and that monkey hat 'how-to'--total crafting brilliance on my part (I'm TOTALLY tooting my own horn! :) Happy party throwing friends!!

Banner from Target, red pedestals from Target (holiday $1 aisle- they were $5), stuffed George from Nordstrom, jack-in-the-box George from Target and vintage book was mine when I was little :) 

All signs I did in word- I just grabbed a picture from Google that would print clearly in high resolution on large paper and backed them on solid paper. 

Lemon cupcake + chocolate with banana candies (from Amazon)

These monkey party hats! Party hats from Amazon, 'how-to' on construction below. 

Invitation from Etsy! 

Guests signed this vintage book I snagged at Half Price books. 

Banana Split bar. SO FUN! 

This little sweet face had the BEST time! 

The family celebrated in style! 

PS- Those monkey hats were SO easy to construct. I saw this picture on pinterest and knew I wanted to make them. I didn't want to do the ears from paper but wasn't sure how to craft them. 

Thankfully I was walking in Michael's after the holidays and found these gingerbread men 80% off--Thanks to my kid with a January birthday! After giving them a second glance I decided they'd work perfect and they come in 3 shades of brown ( in one package). 

I lopped off the heads and used them for ears. The inner ear was also from the heads or you can do them from the arms and just round them out. I stuck them on the ear with scrapbook sticky squares and then hot glued them to the hats. I couldn't believe it was easy as it turned out to be! 

Putting on a 3rd Birthday Madeline Party!

Hi Friends!

I had the best time getting ready for Isla's third birthday party! We decided (and by that I mean, I decided :) to do a Madeline in Paris theme. If you aren't familiar, Madeline is a character from a series of classic books. The books are about a school girl named Madeline who's brave, adventurous and the smallest in her class. She lives at a boarding school with a group of 11 other little girls and their Teacher, a nun named Miss Clavel. The stories are very sweet, kind of quirky and timeless. I wanted to do Madeline for Halloween last year but Isla was set on Rapunzel so I repurposed the idea for her birthday and I'm so glad I did-- I kind of ran with it (for a good month :)

Isla had the best time with our family and her little buddies. They all seemed to love the extra touches- which always makes the extra effort put into a party SO WORTH IT! I tried to link to the products I used below if you're planning a Madeline themed party and need ideas--many of these came from pinterest and blogs I researched. There are a ton of cute ideas--have fun!!

We invited a small group of kiddos because I wanted to go all out on party favors. Each little girl got a handmade cape (I used this pattern. I'm a pretty basic seamstress and it was very easy!) and Madeline's signature yellow hat with black ribbon. A note on the cape--I used a polyester blend that was lighter and softer than wool. I lined Isla's in plaid flannel and the other girls' in navy lining. All of them turned out great. The hardest party was the Peter Pan collar. The pattern on the website was too small for me so I used it as a base pattern and drew my own. Message me if you want help with this! One cape had a button but the rest all had ribbons to tie them with. This cape is really versatile- you could add buttons, clasps, pockets--so many cute ideas! 

The blue milk bottles are from Target. The hats are from Amazon. They shipped much faster than expected. I hot glued black ribbon to them after cutting off the bright ribbon. The tags are from Michael's. 

The two little boys got adorable berets and a set of mustaches. oui! oui! The mustaches are from Target's party aisle. The beret is from Amazon. I must say the beret fit a 4 year old and one year old great and shipped much faster than expected. They were SUPER CUTE! 

These flags are from Amazon. 

These prints are from Social Print Studio- order through the app, it's very easy! 

Balloons from Amazon- Banner from Target (letters from Michaels). 

The banner is from Target, letters from Michaels, hanging fans from Michaels, Poster from Michaels,  red cake pedestals from Target ($5!!!) and white is from Amazon. 

I grabbed a Madeline paperback from Half Price books, took out the pages and made pictures for easels and that adorable book page banner. It turned out super cute! 

I used book pages and a grommet pincher to do the top of the banner. 

Picture of Isla's year were strung in the window. These are from Social Print Studio. 

This invite- cutest thing ever. You can find it : Here.

Everyone signed this adorable Madeline print- found here.

Madeline cookie favors for everyone! (and Isla made a special Thank you sign!) The Madelines were from Target and bags from michaels. I made the tags on a home printer. 

Isla and Rosalie -- her baby cape kills me- so cute!! 

These two Parisian monkeys!

GIFTS!!

That adorable personalized crown and wand courtesy of the Hansens- Good work L!!!

If anyone's interested - Isla's dress is from Amazon. The dress wasn't available when I looked but it's by: Weixinbuy. It was $9 and shipped straight from China (in about 2 months) but quality wise it's totally fine, didn't shrink a lot and will definitely last us through this size. Their other clothes are cute too! 

Happy Planning Friends! 

xoxo. 

S