Smullin Cousin Party Prep

My first direction, when thinking about the Cousin Party, was a Circus/Carnival theme. But after having that rattle around in my brain for almost a year, I wasn't feeling very excited about it. It was feeling like too many details and too much work..and not enough FUN for me. 

As Tawnya and I were talking one day, somehow the idea of Birthday Party came up. 

That seemed like more FUN.

I created an invite, very similar to Karen's Little Man baby shower invite...cuz it was cute and easy.

I had been wanting to make a birthday balloon wreath for sometime and this was the perfect excuse to do it. 

Supplies:  a straw wreath, LOTS and LOTS of balloons and floral pins.

I love all the bright colors together.

I think we'll use it for our Family Birthday Appreciation Week, after the Cousin Party.

Another idea I had, was for each family to make a Birthday Plate. I have seen this technique posted several times on Pinterest and thought I'd try it out.

Basically, draw on a plain white Dollar Store plate with a Sharpie marker and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

This is how my sample plate looked before baking. 

Kinda cute.

The tutorial says to hand wash the plate, but I knew that wasn't realistic, so I washed it in the dishwasher to see what happened.

Result: After baking the plate, some of the Sharpie colors were dirtier/darker looking, but the black Sharpie looked good. After it was cleaned in the dishwasher, some of the colored Sharpie came off..but the black Sharpie stayed on fine.

I tried doing a cupcake too, but didn't like the result. I wondered if I was out of luck, but with a little warm water, soap and scrubbing it came off (before baking).

I tried to do as much cooking, baking and shopping in the weeks and days before, so I had less to do during the weekend of. 

For our Saturday dinner, I made a pasta bake. Kind of like lasagna, but with curly noodles, cream cheese, sour cream and cream of chicken soup. It was my own creation but was inspired by  these recipes; Million Dollar Spaghetti and Church Potluck Casserole. 

Into the freezer they went along with 5 loaves of french bread, 80 hotdogs , 6 dozen homemade bran and banana muffins, 2 gallons of orange juice, 3 pounds of browned sausage and lots of buns.

For a treat, I made these sugar cookie bars, that I had been wanting to try and put them in the freezer too.

I prepared supplies for each person to make a Birthday Badge.

I also prepared supplies to make a Birthday Countdown. I combined this idea with these printables.

The kids helped me decorate with plastic tablecloths and balloons to make a canopy of sorts or Party Poof.

I thought it would be fun for each cousin to open a gift. Afterall, what's a birthday without a present to open?

I purchased, wrapped and tagged a gift for each cousin.

We thought about making our own pinata, but as time was ticking down, I decided to go with a purchased one from Zurchers instead.

Taylee helped me to write out our time schedule. I hoped it would help everyone be on the same page and to know "what's next?".

At the last minute, I gathered some props for our photo booth and called it good.

Ready or not...here they come!