birthday party

Celebrating Moses

Crafts & DIY, Motherhood

We had our parents (minus my mom ☹️) & Kaden over tonight to celebrate Moses’ birthday. We were supposed to last weekend, but most of our family had a cough and/or runny nose, so we postponed to tonight, but unfortunately my mom tested positive for covid today so she stayed home.

My original plan was supposed to be a grill-out, but since it rained on & off all day, we moved it inside instead so I just threw something small together.

I used our tree stump cake stand from our fall forest wedding for a homemade chocolate cake. I made little “s’mores cups” out of garden seed starter cups & filled a fall mini loaf pan with gummy bears. I grabbed a stuffed squirrel we had & had the kids find me some sticks to place in a vase for decor.

I found these cute little cake toppers on Amazon and just stuck them in cute. My dad commented that it looked better than the ones I get from a bakery which made me sooooo happy to hear & really proud of my hardwork.

We ordered a variety tray of Subway sandwiches since our food menu changed on us. I also put out Pretzel twig sticks, wild berry mix my dad brought, and some babybel cheeses that I drew spots on to look like ladybugs.

I found this cute woodland theme party set on Amazon. They were adorable.

I made the garland finding photos on Pinterest that looked similar to the plates. I printed them out, glued them to construction paper, them laminated them & cut into individual pieces. I used a hole puncher to make holes and tried some yarn through to hang up. It barely took any time at all and looked really cute.

Moses was pretty nervous by the candle. He took a few bites of his piece before throwing it on the floor.

The handsome guest of honor with his super adorable “I’m Ukrainian, what’s your superpower?” Shirt.

It was really small, but it was only his first so realistically he had no idea what that whole shindig was for. It was still cute though and I hope everyone had a nice evening celebrating my Mosie Man.

Niko told me that I am “the best mom in the world” when he came home from work which really meant so much to me. He knows how hard I am on myself about being a mom & always thinking I’m not good enough/not doing enough so that really meant the world to me. I just hope the kids think it, that’s what really matters.

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov

Sasha’s 4th Birthday | Frozen

Uncategorized

Happy Sunday! We celebrated Sasha’s 4th Birthday today at The Wonderland Playground.

It was a really great place to host a party, especially for our crew because we have an older group of kids and a younger group of kids so there was something for everyone to do and enjoy themselves.

Sasha wanted a Frozen-themed party. I’m not big on specific character themed anything, so I tried my best to make it as Frozen-themed as possible without making it too overdone.

Sasha wore one of her new dresses that she got for her birthday and I French braided her hair to look just like Elsa. She looked so cute and she was so happy for her day!

I got the shimmery baby blue table cloth from Amazon & the blue garland + cake stand from Target. I liked that the cake stand was white and not breakable. It will go with all cakes and definitely get much use out of it.

I got this beautiful wintery/Frozen theme drip cake from 3 Sweet Girls in a birthday cake flavor. Sasha picked out the snowflake cake topper and we added that with the candles.

It was yummy, but I did not set it out early enough to reach room temperature. With these cakes you need to refrigerate until about 30 minutes before serving, but I was so afraid the butter cream frosting would melt, I left it refrigerated for too long. I ate a slice of leftover cake that had not been refrigerated since the start of the party and it tasted SO much better. Next time I will set it out at the beginning of the party with the rest of the set up to ensure it reaches the perfect room temperature.

We set up all of the spots with Frozen theme plates, napkins, cups, and forks. I got the Frozen plates + napkins from Amazon & the blue & purple cups + forks from Walmart.

Under each cup was a Blue Frost Gatorade. I thought those went along well with the Frozen theme. I thought it all looked really cute.

Since Sasha was the birthday girl, we brought her special Anna cup to drink from instead of the cups.

Sasha is my shy girl 👧🏼. She got so shy & uncomfortable when all the focus was on her to sing happy birthday to her. She hid her face and waited to blow out her candles until everyone closed their eyes.

Athena loved the big kid side. She was just so happy running and jumping around. She would get completely buried under the foam blocks and just come out with the biggest smile on her face.

This was part of the bigger kids playground side. It was a lot like the modern-day Discovery Zone. The kids had so much fun and I was honestly jealous I couldn’t go up there with them 😂.

One of the reasons that I really wanted to host Sasha’s birthday party at The Wonderland Playground is because she LOVES to watch Blippi.

If you don’t know who Blippi is, he’s a man who dresses up in this funny little outfit and goes around checking out + playing on the most fun children’s play lands. The Wonderland Playground reminded me so much of a play land that you would see in one of his episodes and I knew that she would be so excited when she saw it.

Moses loved this little carousel & he looked so cute riding it!

This was the baby + toddler side. It was SO cute and had so much for them to do! I love that they had just as big of a section for them as the big children.

It was a really nice place to host a party. Although the price is a bit steep, I would definitely host another party here in the future, especially when Moses gets a little bigger & can really enjoy all the baby side has to offer. The facility was extremely clean and the staff was so friendly and helpful.

I am really happy with our experience and even more happy that Sasha told me it was “the best birthday ever.” My mama heart is so full! ❤

Things I did BETTER this party:

• I remembered to bring candles + a candle lighter. • I remembered to bring a cake cutter/server. • We arrived early and gave ourselves plenty of time to set up stress-free.

Tips to remember for the next party:

• Bring a knife (to cut baby + toddler food). • Bring a roll of paper towels – kids are messy. • Bring scissors. • Invest in the helium machine, or at least the portable plug in one. We will get our money worth from it. • Put the cake out earlier to give it more time to reach room temperature.

Ella’s 8th Birthday

Motherhood, Uncategorized

It is so crazy that Ella is already 8 years old! It’s so hard to even think of her as a baby anymore.

Her actual birthday was Thursday, but her party was Sunday at Castle Skateland. She was really excited to show off her skating skills and play arcade games with all of her friends.

It was a really great party and I think that everyone had a really fun time. I know my bunch did!

Invitations

Desserts

I really wanted to match the desserts to the invitations and keep the color scheme going.

Ella’s birthday cake was from 3 Sweet Girls Bakery in Silverton. It was birthday cake flavored with butter-cream frosting. It really was such a beautiful cake and turned out even better than I had imagined.

Ella’s cookies were created by Hyde Park Baker who was just so sweet. The cookies absolutely exceeded my expectations. They were SO cute!

Party

I wish I would have gotten more photos, especially of the kids all skating and playing the arcade games, but I was so busy with the party and also skating myself with my husband and kids which was just a blast.

I couldn’t be more thrilled that Ella is so interested in roller skating and I had so much fun planning this party for her. It was also the perfect way to get pumped for her upcoming Winter Roller Derby season!

Well, it’s been a long day and this mama is pooped! So I’m going to go enjoy the rest of my own birthday with my family, with my heart so full ❤

Birthday Garden Tea Party | On a Budget

Crafts & DIY, Motherhood

One of my very favorite hobbies is planning, especially for events. I dream of the day we find our forever home with plenty of space to host many elaborate parties for the rest of our lives.

Throwing Mia a “socially distanced” birthday party was my first event since covid-19 began, and I was ecstatic to be party planning again! I was a bit further behind on time than I had hoped, but overall my first “socially disanced” party was a success.

I’m excited to take you along to join us for an afternoon tea!

The Invitations

I had so much fun making these invitations and I was really impressed with how they turned out.

I found a free teacup template online, printed it out and lightly traced onto white card stock. After that, I bordered it with pink and added a pink heart to each teacup.

I typed up the wording and cut out each one to be able to fit inside the hearts. Unfortunately, by the time I realized that it looks best if you cut along the individual letters, I was already on my last one 🤦🏼‍♀️ but now I know for the future! I wanted the letters to pop, so I used drafting dots to attempt to create that effect.

I made a hole behind the cup and two holes above the cup to be able to tie in a string for the teabag and a bow. I attached the string from a white & gold foiled Christmas string I already had and attached the teabag to the string using a stapler to give it a realistic look. I asked my friend to tie a perfect bow for me because she makes beautiful ones and mine are downright sloppy 😂.

I then bordered the pink with a brown to match the guest’s teabag and hide the strings behind the pink card stock and tie it all together.

The Spread

The waffle fruit bowls were a big hit! I bought 1 box of 12 small waffle cone bowls and an already prepared fruit salad and divided it between the 12 waffle cone bowls. We also had a cream cheese fruit dip to be used as a sauce to drizzle on top of each bowl, or to dip your fruit skewer in.

I would have preferred to buy my flowers from my friend, Celeste, the owner & artist of Village General; but due to lack of time, I purchased two small, half-price, day-old bouquets and blended them together to create the look I was going for.

I found some Celestial Caffine-Free Fruit Tea Sampler to serve the children. I thought that fruit flavored tea would go over well with the children, and there were multiple really yummy options for them to choose from! Even my pickiest of all found a flavor he enjoyed!

I had tried desperately to find some colorful macaroons, but had no luck tracking any down. I decided to substitute my original plan with meringues instead and that worked out just fine.

I made the pressed flower sugar cookies that turned out very cute! The other two cookies were purchased: Frosted Sugar Cookies in pink & of course, Verona cookies because you can’t have tea without those!

The bottom layer was simply a few boxes of powdered donuts, nothing too fancy. I would have liked to get the mini powdered donuts, but one package of them cost as much as 4 packages of the large ones, so I decided to go with those for budget purposes.

My mom found very cute little tea party plates that really pulled the theme together and came in several different patterns to match the various colors. They have an entire tea party set as well, that would make it even more adorable!

More food that was unfortunately not photographed was:

  • Chicken Salad Crossant Sandwiches
  • Fairy Bread Sandwiches
  • Ham & Cheese Sandwiches

The Activities

I found these plain white tea cups at the thrift store for 50 cents each. Each kid was given their own tea cup to decorate with sharpie to take home with them.

When decorating your own mugs or teacups with sharpies, it is important to bake them in the oven at 250°F for at least 2 hours so that the sharpie does not wash off.

I had planned to incorporate the tea cups into a game of having the children race with full tea cups of water to the fence and back while spilling the least amount of water, but tea went into the cups before I was able to get that far 🤦🏼‍♀️.

We also found many fun dress up ensembles at the thrift. The girls had a blast dressing up in boas, hats, and beads galore.

It was a really lovely day and I am very pleased with the turn out.

I cannot wait to begin planning for Thea’s FIRST birthday coming up in October (which if you know me, know that it is my FAVORITE month)! & Ella’s birthday in November!

Don’t forget to subscribe 😉 & as always, PLEASE share!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase through any of my links, I will make a small commission at no expense to you. Thank you for supporting a mama with a dream ❤