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 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!
