Since Kira's birthday party is coming up this Saturday, my life has been so busy and my head is spinning! Thus, I have decided to skip my Monday's Great Finds feature today and next Monday.
I am excited, nervous, anxious, thrilled (and any other like adjective that you can think of) about Kira's birthday party. I am feeling pretty confident about the decor and layout of the party. That is definitely my area of strength. I even feel pretty good about the scheduling of events during the party. My creative consultant, Melissa, the queen of planning and organizing, helped me to set up an exact schedule to follow so that all things I have planned for the party will fit into the three-hour time frame.
Here is the schedule (FYI: Meliss, I edited it just a tiny bit from the night we worked on it):
11:00 am Photographer arrives (I have a great story about this...will share later)
12:00 pm DJ arrives (Yes, I know it is over-the-top to have a DJ for a 2nd birthday party, but we happen to have a friend who is an amazing DJ and will be able to mix children's music with hip, modern and appropriate adult music)
1:00 -1:30 pm Guests arrive; Chad (hubby) will be responsible for taking a photograph of each child as soon as they enter our home
Hot and cold foods will be artfully on display on my gorgeous kitchen buffet. Will "model" eating for the guests to get everyone started :)
1:45 Craft activity with children (parents encouraged to help younger ones). They will be decorating picture frames with lady bug and flower stickers, and my hubby will be personalizing them with their names (he is awesome at lettering)
2:05 Children's time to get wild and have fun. We will have a bounce house in the back yard (I know, over-the-top as well, but my hubby is very excited about this, so I am pleased for his contribution).
For those who prefer to stay indoors (the FL heat can be unbearable!), there will be party dancing indoors. I will have a basket full of 2 ft long streamers for the children to dance with and wave around. Freeze dance is the Plan B activity to keep the dancing and fun going.
While this is going on, someone (likely my brother - surprise, if you are reading this!) will be printing the photos of each child that Chad took when they arrived.
There will also be ladybug coloring sheets and bowls full of crayons for children to color with during this time or any other time they need to be occupied.
3:05-3:15 Singing Happy Birthday to Kira and devouring the yummy cupcakes and desserts that everyone will sure to be eyeing up the entire time!
3:15 Gift opening. Move this quickly so it does not bore people. Eating, dancing, bounce house, etc can go on during this time for those that do not enjoy sitting and watching someone open gifts (I personally LOVE this, but I am not sure about others).
3:50-4:00 Pass out goody bags and completed picture frames (with photo inserted) to each child. Give away floral arrangements to adults (PLEASE: CAN SOMEONE HELP ME COME UP WITH A CREATIVE IDEA FOR HOW TO DO THIS? I'D LOVE TO DO SOME TYPE OF CONTEST, BUT I CANNOT THINK OF ANYTHING REALLY UNIQUE!)
Guests go home and we are left with - ugh - clean up! :)
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Photographer Story: My photographer, Gary Kaplan, called me on Friday and informed me that he will be bringing along with him his good friend, who just happens to be Colin Cowie's official photographer, to the photo shoots. Seriously! The Colin Cowie. The photographer of Colin Cowie. Photographing MY party. I am hyperventilating just thinking about it. Cannot speak (er, type) in complete sentences. Oh - my - goodness. I do not know how this has happened to me, but I am thrilled!!!!!
In addition to shooting the party, they will be coming on Friday to do an individual photo shoot with Kira (and I am hoping they could potentially get some head shots of me!). I have three outfits planned for Kira to wear for this. One is the lady bug outfit that she will wear the next day when she is ready to get down and dirty and change out of her party dress. The other is an adorable black, red, and white poppy dress (from Gymboree). Kira looks amazing in red, so this is a perfect outfit choice. Finally, the last ensemble is the AMAZING monarch butterfly costume that I purchased from Adisten's Closet. It arrived in the mail last week and is stunning (this will also be her Halloween costume in October). The only thing I am panicked about is that I am quite certain that Kira will not want to wear the hat or the wings that go with the costume. And, these are the best, KEY features of the outfit. "Just breath Andrea - she will wear it, she will wear it," I tell myself in mantra fashion. :)
That is all for now, although I know I have more to say. The hyperventilating over Colin Cowie has caused short-term memory loss - LOL!
THE PARTY IS GOING TO BE SPECTACULAR!!!
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