Riley's Ocean Dreams Birthday Party, 2025

 Hello, tonight I'd like to share another birthday party from last year, this one for my cousin Riley's 12th birthday. I wanted to do the most grand party I'd ever done, but she asked for something beach-themed, and I struggled to come up with original ideas for it. I ended up doing neutral colors and going for a dreamy, ethereal but natural look that was (unintendedly) simple (and rather last-minute). 

I made the giant seashell from recycled cardboard painted with metallic white acrylic paint. The giant white sign that read "Riley is 12" was a foam posterboard that I cut and wrote on with a marker. I plucked some branches to add to the balloon arch from my grandparent's yard. I cut lines into snickerdoodle cookies from Dollar General to make sand dollars. The sun glasses were from Dollar General or Walmart, and I honestly forget what the other favors were. I had all of the rest of the decorations on hand already. 

Thank you for visiting, I hope you enjoyed! 

Blessings,

Lauryn 

Riley's Ocean Fairytale 11th Birthday Party

 

Hello, here is a birthday party from last year with an unusual theme for my cousin who loved the beach and (I think) reading stories: "Ocean Fairytale" is my preferred theme title, but it basically combines ocean/beach/story/storybook/fairytale/book themes all into one. 

Looking back, I don't love the color palette but I wanted something unique at the time, so it was a blue to green gradient (mainly turquoise and a sky/baby blue) contrasted by a brownish, mustard-yellow-type orange and enhanced with other neutral browns. 

Handmade elements and DIY clam and pearl party favors:

-The giant palm-like leaves were painted and cut paper.

-The backdrop was made from painted and cut posters.

-The castle was also made from a poster, combining watercolor and pen.

-I had made the banner for my classroom by tying together strips of fabric to a string, cutting and hot-gluing triangular book pages, and for this party I taped on top hand-watercolored ocean pictures I outlined and shaded with ink pens. The signs were also handwritten on top of watercolor swatches on cardstock. 

-For the chocolate 'pearls' I bought a box of Whoppers.

-The 'sea snails' were cinnamon buns.

-For the clam and pearl favors, I bought a pack of mini wallets in the party favor section of Walmart. I drew shells on cardstock with gel ink or Sharpie pens, cut them out, and stapled them on top of the wallets. I placed a Whopper in each one, packaged them, and that's all there is to it! 

I hope you found this post useful, thank you for visiting! 

-Lauryn 

Modern Silver and Purple Girl's Mario Party

For my cousin's fifth birthday, she asked for a Mario themed party, so I was excited to try a unique color scheme, which was pale purple (or lavender), white and silver. It also had some pink and pink-purple shades in the watercolors and treats. Her favorite character is Toad, so you may notice a particular emphasis on Toad decor and mushrooms. The star balloons came from Amazon, the flowers were a mixture of backyard wildflowers and a bouquet from Currahee Gardens, the glow-in-the-dark car favors inside of the pinatas were from Dollar Tree, and the cake was from Ingles. Everything else, including the costume, was handmade (and I look foward to sharing those tutorials with you in upcoming posts). My brothers contributed by creating a white-and-purple pixel Mario (by Will) and giant Lego party scene (by Jacob), which they invented themselves. I made the crayons with a silicoln mold from Walmart. The holographic paper I used for the various signs/labels was from Michaels. I made the marshmellow treats myself, and I will share the recipe in a future post as well. I made the adult favors by printing wallet photo prints, creating holographic-confetti-filled stars and placing them in favor bags. The circle banner was just watercolored paper cut into circles and glued onto a string. You can view the Mario mystery box pinata tutorial here. Without further ado, here's Riley's fifth birthday party:

I hope you enjoyed it! I will post again soon!

-Lauryn