And many more!

I’ve had birthday party on the brain.  My son just turned four (*sniff*), and we decided this year we’d do a birthday party, especially because now he's old enough to understand birthdays and feel special about being the center of attention.  For weeks, he kept asking when his birthday was, and we kept telling him a few more weeks.  He would say, “I can’t wait for my 4 year old birthday!”  Oh, such excitement, such build up. 

I know there are a lot of amazing looking birthday parties on the blogosphere.  My overachiever self strives to do those amazing birthday parties, but my rational self is working to keep the overachiever self in check.  So, I only had a couple of DIY touches for this party. 

We had a beach theme, with three wading pools and lots of water.  Some of the kids loved the sprinkler on the big wading pool.  Some kids did not like spraying water.  Those kids gravitated to the smaller wading pool.

 (This was the baby wading pool.  There was also a medium sized one, but I didn't get a picture of that one.)

For party favors, I put together these buckets with a Curious George Goes to the Beach book, and a crayon folio.

(You can probably guess which was my DIY contribution.)  In keeping with the beach theme, I chose beachy type fabric for the folios.

I got the pattern for the crayon folios from Gingercake.  I think they turned out cute.  But they did have a lot of pieces, and coordinating all the pieces to make 12 folios felt overwhelming.  It wasn't too bad, but it did take a few nights of sewing.

 
I also made a birthday crown, from this tutorial.  It was pretty easy, and the craft felt from Joann Fabric was super cheap.  We had gone to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese a couple of weeks earlier, and the birthday boy had a crown.  My son asked me if everybody gets to wear a crown on their birthday.  So, I thought it would be fun for him to have a crown to wear.

 
My favorite detail, though, was the cupcake toppers from sarah + abraham.  So adorable!  I did not make these myself, just assembled them, although many people asked me if I had made them.

 
After it was all over, I think it took us a couple of weeks to recover.  Until next year...

* I attempted to make baprons as party favors for the baby siblings, but that did not quite work out.  I got some really cute flannel from Joann Fabric, a polka dot for the girls and a skater print for the boys.  I tried to experiment with some different fabrics for the backing.  I didn’t like terry (too heavy), so I tried PUL, but it turned out to be too slippery to sew.  Rather than monkey with it, I decided on Friday night, I’d go to bed instead.  Once again, my rational self won out, and I was the better for it the next day.  And you know what?  The babies did not seem to mind at all that they didn’t get party favors.  :)