A Colorful Affair {Picture Perfect Birthday}

So here are the long over due pictures of Ruby's Second Birthday that I promised a hundred years ago. Long story short, I had to wait for my sister/photographer extraordinaire to mail the disc to me and by the time it came my computer was out of commission and in for repairs. When it finally came back it took me awhile to find our software to reinstall. So there you have it...now on to the good stuff. Be warned, I am posting a LOT of photos. But when your sister takes over a hundred pictures, it's very hard to narrow it down to just a few. So this is what you get!

So the first picture is of a cast iron sign i bought at the flea market. It came with this hideous sign that someone had painted. My plan was to give it a little makeover by means of chalkboard paint. As soon as i laid eyes on it, i envisioned using it for parties and Ruby's was the perfect first event to break it in. I intended to paint it in time for Ru's party (the night before), but it turns out chalkboard paint has to cure for 24 hours before you can write on it...so not pleased with myself for waiting till the last minute. Alas, no time to sulk, had to figure out a creative alternative. The metal sheet that my dad cut to replace the old sign was magnetic so i put the old refrigerator alphabet to use...actually turned out kinda cute i think!


The birthday girls grand entrance...

Tissue paper pom poms and kids seating...


The party favors (on top) ...crayon rolls hand crafted

by Ommie Sandy and myself...

Personalized Composition Notebooks for the kids to color on....

The theme we decided to go with was "COLOR", plain and simple....it started off with the idea to do bright colored tissue paper pom-poms that i stole from who else, my old friend Martha. You can steal them too by going here. I was trying to figure out what to do for party favors when i remembered this great tutorial for crayon rolls i found on this super creative blog. I always prefer handmade to store bought, and i have a mother in law who is always up for my overzealous endeavors, so i decided to go for it. They came out super cute, unfortunately i didn't take any photos of them open for display...another post i suppose. I used Alexander Henry fabric which i adore and could spend a lifetime looking for projects/excuses to buy more of it. I had originally planned to put loose paper out for the kids to color on when i came across these colorful composition notebooks at Target (much cuter than the traditional black & white) and then thought of the idea to personalize them for each kiddo. I had my sister in law write up the names and then i decoupaged them onto the notebooks. I was pretty happy with how they turned out.

PB Kids umbrellas and cute little tablecloths....

AND table runners...of course...

I wanted to have pint sized seating for the littles, and i wanted it to go with the rest of the decor. So, we sewed mini tablecloths and table runners for all three kids tables. For centerpieces i put tiny flower arrangements and little bowls of goldfish crackers along with mason jars of chubby crayons for the kids to color with.

We didn't really have any planned activities as most of our guests were two and under...just coloring, sidewalk chalk and of course a bounce house. Let me tell you how much my kid LOVES to bounce...i would swear to you that she dreams about it at night. And in the day time she substitutes our bed and or sofa in lieu of a bouncer. Eighty bucks well spent i tell you. She bounced with EVERYone at one time or another, until they took that sucker away, at eight pm, and then she was sad. : )

Coca de Mexico....

I spy with my little eye...pigs n' a blanket, pb n' j & mac n' cheese

Love all the color in this photo.

Bouncing with Ommie

Jeremy & Josh

Can you tell my sister was a hit with the kids?

Too cute...

Naila and her Momma

Mrs. Parks & Rec...AKA PB&J Maker Extraordinaire

Coloring is serious business!

Of course when it came to the cake we had to keep our theme going...I made a six inch cake for Ruby and rainbow cupcakes for everyone to eat. The kids loved picking which color cupcake to eat and i loved not having to cut cake!

Mini-cake with her Josef doll...

Rainbow "cakes"... to go with our COLOR theme


She of course chose a pink cake...

Clara decided to go with purple...

The lineup... : )

I really enjoy planning parties and i'm SO lucky to have such great family and friends to help turn my visions into realities. Talk about a group effort! My mother in law Sandy helped me with all the sewing projects & my mom came over the night before to help bake all those cupcakes and iron the many tablecloths. My sister in law Amanda helped with the Pom-Poms and anything that had to do with writing. My friend Jen came early to help me with food prep while my dad helped out on the grill and my sister Michelle was kind enough to take all the beautiful pictures you just looked at. Unfortunately Daniel had to go out of town at the last minute and wasn't able to be there for the actual party, so i don't know what i would have done without all the help. A HUGE thankyou to everyone for donating their time and talents to make Ruby's Second Birthday such a special day!

My sissies Lynne & Michelle...in opposite order. Michelle & Lynne just doesn't sound right!