birthday party themes Archives - Mother 2 Mother Blog

Children’s Birthday Party Ideas

August 14, 2010 by Rhonda Gales

Are you planning a birthday party for your child? Are you tired of the same old Barney and Princess themes? I am! My grandson’s third birthday is coming up next month and I really want to do something special. He loves dinosaurs, so I think I’m going to go with a Dinosaur theme. He spends hours playing with his dinosaurs and at bedtime, the Dinosaurs books are grabbed immediately. I can’t think of anything that would excite him more, and believe me I’ve been thinking about it all day.

I’ve decided to create a small version of Dinosaur Land in my backyard. I’ve found some great dinosaur party favors and inflatables. I’m going to place 3 – 4 foot dinosaurs throughout the yard with huge dinosaur eggs and foot prints.

I’ve found a Dinosaur Moon Bounce and slide for entertainment. The Moon Bounce should give parents a break so they can grab a dinosaur shaped chicken salad sandwich and a drink. I have dinosaur shaped cookie cutters, I thought I would get some use out of them with the sandwiches. The party is at the end of September, so I’m going to use orange and green for the tables and balloons. I’m unsure if I’m going to do a cake or cupcakes at this point. I’m leaning toward cupcakes, they go over well with the kids and they’re easier to handle. I think I’m going to do 1 game, Fossil Find. I’m going to bury miniature dinosaurs or pencils in dirt and let the kids dig. Each will get a prize.

I made a list of unique party themes, just in case he decides dinosaurs are not what he wants. I thought I would share the list that I put together while deciding on a theme. Hopefully, you will be able to use one of them for your child’s upcoming party:

Tea Party
Candy Land
Toy Story
Runway Models
Dragon Tales
Paris and Poodles
Soldiers
Karate Kids
Cheerleaders
Beach Bums/Surfers
Sports – Soccer, Football, Baseball or a favorite basket team
Handy Manny
Alice In Wonderland
Sock Hop
Pirates
Lady Bugs and Butterflies
Paint Ball
Ballerinas
Dr. Suess
Hello Kitty
Strawberry Shortcake

If you’ve had a dinosaur themed party, I would love to hear from. If not, please feel free to leave us a comment on any themed parties that you’ve had or considering. We would love to add to our list.

Filed Under: birthday party themes, children's party ideas, dinosaur parties, dinosaurs, Uncategorized Tagged With: Parenting-Kids, toddler party ideas

Looks Who’s Turning 2

September 3, 2009 by Rhonda Gales

Newborn – Heading to the Nursery

1st Birthday Party

Eating His Favorite Snack Last Week

It’s hard to believe that my little sweetie is turning 2 in a few weeks. I remember the day he came into this world like it was yesterday. I snapped the top photo of him when he was being taking to the nursery from the delivery room. My life changed forever at that moment, he truly became a part of my heart. There has not been one day that I have not thought about this precious baby boy in the past 2 years.

This is Gran holding him for the first time at the hospital. What a moment it was for me. He was the smallest little fellow. He weighted 5 lbs. 5 oz. I could hold him in the palm of my hand. Quite a difference from my 8 lb. daughter when she was born. I remember telling myself to be gentle, I guess I thought he would break. Everything we purchased was too big for him. Incredibly, the doctors told us that he was going to be a big baby. We were expecting him to weigh around 8 – 9 lbs. Didn’t happen. As you can see he had a head full of coal black hair, which my daughter claims caused pretty of heartburn. She too was born with a head full of hair.

It didn’t take Xavier long to make up for his weight deficit. He ate around the clock causing sleep deprivation for everyone in the household. He ended up being nicknamed Gran’s “Lil Butterball”. His legs had rolls of fat, nice little drumsticks for Gran to kiss on. I look at him and some days I see his mom. Other days I see his dad.

My beautiful daughter is pictured in the center photo at the top. She’s holding Xavier after he dived into the cake at his first birthday party. She’s the love of my life and she will always will be, but Xavier holds a special place. It’s a place that only a grandchild is allowed to enter into. There is nothing that I would not do for him. He brings so much joy into my life. I’ve heard other people talk about how great it is to be a grandparent, it’s so true. Although I want him to be raised properly, I know that I would allow him to get away with much more than I allowed my daughter to get away with. I have to restrain myself when she’s disciplining him. I just want to scoop him up and protect him from what I perceive to be harm. That includes Mean Ole Mommy and Daddy. Can you keep a secret? I purchased the set below for Xavier, it contains our secret code for Ole Mommy and Daddy. That’s right “Monster”. Remember it’s a secret. Can I trust you? Seriously, they are wonderful parents and would never bring harm to this little gem.

The past 2 years have been so wonderful and they’ve gone by so fast. We’re planning Xavier’s party for September 26th. Elmo and Xavier will be the stars. He adores Elmo and watches Sesame Street faithfully. Gran gets a reprieve this year, The Jumping Monkey will be the host. I believe the Jumping Money is popular in the southern states. I had never heard of it, and goggled it when my daughter announced the location. At first I was disappointed that we would not be doing the preparations, but now I’m looking forward to just purchasing a few gifts and enjoying Xavier and his guests. It will give me the opportunity to take lots of pictures for my next scrapbook.

The Jumping Monkey will furnish the cupcakes, plates, cups, etc. as well as the party favor bags, invitations, juice boxes and popcorn. They have games, ride on toys and bounce and ball pits for the kids. We’ll have pizza delivered and everyone should have a grand time. I know that I will.

I need to work on my skills so that I can video a few of the events. I tried videoing last week with my digital camera, OMG. I need serious help. Any suggestions from the video/vlog professionals? Please leave a few of your video tips.

I’m looking forward to my grandson’s 2nd birthday party. Stayed tuned for pictures of a few of my gifts and the party. How did you celebrate your child’s 2nd birthday? Fell free to share any of your memories.

Filed Under: 1st birthdays, 2nd birthday party, birthday party themes, children's birthday party, grandparents, Uncategorized Tagged With: Jumping Monkey, kids turning 2, Life-Thoughts, Parenting blogs, Parenting-Kids

Birthday Boy!

September 28, 2008 by Rhonda Gales

We celebrated Xavier’s birthday yesterday and I promised you pictures of my little angel’s day. Here they are. We were suppose to receive rain in our area the entire week-end. I prayed for sunshine. There’s something to be said about the power of prayer, we were blessed with a beautiful, sunny day on Saturday. It rained immediately after the last guest left. I truly thank my higher power for blessing Xavier’s day.

We posted zoo signs through out the yard(above), and tied jungle themed balloons on the posts. The “Xavier’s Zoo” and “Enter At Your Own Risk” were at the entrance of the tent. We had two others that said, “Lions, Tiger, and Bears” and “Don’t Feed Me”.

Stuffed animals from the Goodwill were used as center pieces for each table. After the party we give them to the kids as party favors, that’s after we made some of the adults put them back. We ordered jungle themed party favors from Oriental Trading and placed them into a jungle themed favor bag. Each child took home a box of the Barnum and Bailey animal cookies. Xavier loved the cookies.

We had approximately 30 guests, and served jungle burgers, warthogs, snake salad, quick sand, toad salad, floating grass, red fungus, swamp juice with ants, rolling rocks, and monkey bread. Better known as hamburgers, hot dogs, spaghetti salad, mac & cheese, potato salad, green beans & corn, stuffed tomatoes with crab, green punch with raisins, and hot dogs & hamburger rolls. We added mixed fruit with Whipped Creme to the menu as well.

Granddaddy Preparing The Warthogs

Xavier’s cousin, Ciarra, announcing She’s At the Party

In the picture above Ciarra, Xavier’s cousin, is telling one of her Uncles that she’s at the party. She just turned 2, it was hilarious.

We served jungle cupcakes (above). I had the bakery sculpt the icing in a grass texture and we used jungle shaped cupcake picks in the center. Everyone loved them. Initially we were going to use a cupcake tree, but we decided to just place them on a tray so the children could retrieve them easily. We did half of the cupcakes in chocolate and half in yellow with a butter cream icing. Everyone of the cupcakes disappeared. The children seemed to like them better than the cake.

The cake that we used for Xavier to stick his hand in had a whipped icing. As you can see, he decided to stick his face in the cake too. He was willing to share the icing with everyone by giving icing kisses. Gran didn’t mind. I love sugars from Xavier, lol. The cupcake shirt that he’s wearing is by Ambajam. They will be featured on our blog next month.

Everyone Singing Happy Birthday

Xavier Sharing Cake With Mommy & His Cousins looking On.
Mommy Wondering How She’s Going to Get Xavier Clean

Xavier received so many gifts my daughter and son-in-law couldn’t fit everything into their car. My daughter’s in-laws had to load half of them into their SUV. Guess who won’t be buying toys for Christmas. His favorite gifts were the Popcorn Popper that you push and the little balls pop up and down and his motorized car. His cousin is helping him with his new wheels in the picture below. My long drive way is finally good for something.

Opening Gifts With Aunt Nikki

Xavier With His Cousin Jordon

We played Pin The Banana on the Monkey and a board game similar to Candy Land, but with a jungle theme. The kids actually perferred to run and play football. Go figure!

We were worried that we would be unable to get the icing out of Xavier’s shirt, but with a little Tide and a good soak in cold water it washed up beautifully. It’s adorable, we’re going to let him wear it until he grows out of it.

We hope that you enjoyed the pictures. I’m not sure who had the most fun, the children or the adults. We will be doing a post on party ideas. Feel free to send your ideas to rhonda@gigglesnsugarkisses.com. We will add them.

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