Category Archives: Birthdays

Jonathan’s Tie-riffic Little Man Mustache Bash 1st Birthday Party


Yesterday was Adaline’s half birthday!
She’s 4.5 years old and in just a few days Jonathan will turn 2!
Celebrating a Half Birthday
(You can see how we celebrate half-birthdays here.)

Last year my little man’s 1st birthday came and went and I didn’t even mention it on the blog. I’m a bad mom. Or a bad blogger. Maybe both. Anyway, now it’s days before his 2nd birthday and I’m finally going to show you the pictures from his first birthday party.
(Please scroll to the bottom of the post to find a complete vendor list of party items.)

Jonathan’s Tie-riffic Little Man Mustache Bash 1st Birthday Party
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The printable necktie banner is actually a free Father’s Day printable. The only letters missing for “Happy Birthday” were “b” and “i” so I put the file in Paint, painted over it and added new letters. I cut out some free printable mustaches and attached them to each letter of the banner.
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The cupcake toppers were from the same Father’s Day set. Some had said #1 so I just removed the “#” symbol in Paint by “painting” over it. The wooden crates that the cupcakes are in are actually from sets of Melissa and Doug play food.
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The Little Man cake topper was made using little dowel rod craft stick thingies (the technical term) and twine. The top hat, mustache, and necktie cutouts are from Etsy and were attached using craft glue.
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Another look at the cupcake toppers
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I think the Little Man drink station was my favorite detail of the party.
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…and my favorite part of my favorite part is the punny names of the drinks: LeMANade and Mister Tea! I do love a good play on words! 😉
I used printable tent cards for the signs and added the text myself.
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This was my first attempt at a chalkboard sign and I think the “Wet Your Whiskers” sign turned out really nice.
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The drink glasses are mason jars with vinyl mustaches on them, cupcake paper toppers, and paper straws with mustaches or other details on them.
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I make number ice cubes for the kids’ birthdays each year. This time I made mustache ice cubes in addition to the #1 ice cubes.
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I wasn’t as thrilled with this #1 chalkboard sign as much as the “Wet your whiskers” one. I tried it a bunch of times but it never came out right.
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Cute “Stache Bash” paper plates and adhesive mustaches for all to enjoy! I was going to fold the napkins into neckties and ran out of time, so it’s just a basket of napkins. Oh well.
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These are my cousins. Weirdness runs in the family.
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13 photos of Jonathan from birth to 12 months line the mantel. I attached adhesive mustaches to the picture frames. The picture frames were purchased in 3-packs at Target in 2010 for Adaline’s 1st Birthday.
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Jonny checking out his cake.
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It’s time to sing Happy Birthday!
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For the cake we laid a plastic table cloth on the floor and let him go to town. He never really did go to town. He just kinda walked around the block a little.
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I adore the smash cake set we found on Etsy:
birthday hat, necktie, and diaper cover
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Jon barely had any cake on him but we still went ahead with his post smash cake bath. He was more interested in eating the bubbles than he was in the cake!
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Here our little man was taking some of his first steps.
Adaline started walking on her first birthday as well.
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Family photo!
By the way, it’s not easy to smile wearing one of those adhesive mustaches.
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Here’s our family mustache free (for the most part).
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I always try to get a photo of the birthday kid next to their number sign.
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Jon is one

Jonny and Mommy!
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What was your little one’s first birthday theme? How did they react to the smash cake? Let me know in the comments!

VENDOR LIST
This post does not contain affiliate links.
*Father’s Day Freebie Printables from Amanda’s Parties to Go
*Little Man Tie Onesie from Tabitha942 on Etsy
*Birthday Boy Diaper Cover, Necktie, and Cone Hat Set from JHP Couture on Etsy (Pattern #141) A note about the hat: It actually came with a small white fuzzy pom pom on it but we made a bigger one from yarn to replace it.
*Mustache Party Vinyl Stickers from QuiltedPolkaDot on Etsy
*Mucho Mustaches Burlap Border Banner from QuiltedPolkaDot on Etsy
*Mustache Stripey Straws from QuiltedPolkaDot on Etsy
*Little Man Straw Toppers (Top hat, Mustache, Necktie) from Confetti Grove on Etsy
(She made a separate price/listing for me to purchase the straw toppers alone.)
*”Stache Bash” Mustache Party Dinner Plates from Oriental Trading Company
*Polka Dot Paper Straws from Amazon
*Self Adhesive Mustaches Set – Fake Costume Accessory from Amazon
*Accoutrements Cool Mustache Ice Cube Tray Novelty from Amazon
*Solid Color Elastic Infant’s Suspenders by Suspender Factory from Amazon
*Blue Polka Dot #1 Birthday Candle: Purchased from a local party store, but you can find it on Amazon here and a similar one here


Ladybug Picnic: 2nd Birthday / Pink and Green Polka Dots and Cupcakes Party: 1st Birthday / Ham and Man Party: 30th Birthday / Celebrating 30 years in 30 days! All of my birthdays from 1980-2009 / Birthday Girl…2 years old
Ladybug Picnic PartyPolka Dots and Cupcakes 1st Birthday Party

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Birthday Traditions: Personalized Birthday CD / Birthday Traditions: Knife and Cake Server / Birthday Traditions: Professional Photos / Birthday Traditions: Photo Puzzle / Happy 2nd Birthday, Adaline!


DIY No Sew Party Hat Tutorial / Tissue Number Birthday Sign (Mini-Tutorial)

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Half Birthday Celebrations


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Yesterday was Adaline’s Half Birthday!
She turned 3.5 🙂

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I’ve always wanted to celebrate her half birthday but never have before. When she was younger I didn’t really want her to have the extra cake…and without the half-cake it seems kinda pointless to celebrate the half birthday. Last year I was super pregnant so we skipped it again.

This year seemed like the right time to start. Jonathan’s first birthday is a few days away (can you believe he’s already a year old?!) and Adaline was a little jealous and having a hard time understanding that this is not her birthday, or party, or cake. Giving her a little half-birthday celebration was something special for her before all of the focus shifts to Jonathan.

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We celebrated with half of a cake, 3 and a half candles, and half plates.
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We also sang Adaline “Halfie Birthday”.
It still sounds like “happy”. Oh well.

(Email and feed readers click here to watch the video.)

At the end of the video she’s running away from the candle smoke. She told us to “Get that stinky thing outta here!”

Adaline received half of a birthday card and a small present from the dollar store. We gave her the whole present. Only giving half of a present to a 3.5 year old would be a little cruel since she doesn’t quite understand it yet.

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She was happy with her little celebration but she did get upset because there weren’t any balloons and she asked, “Where are all the people?”. All of those big birthday parties are coming back to haunt me.

In addition to measuring height on their birthday each year it has also been our tradition to measure height on each half birthday. Now I know why none of her clothes fit anymore!
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Look how grown up she looks after just 6 months!
2012-2013 Adaline 3.5yo

This half-birthday took me less than a half hour to plan 😉 All it took was a trip to the dollar store and making/buying a small cake.
(The cake looks deceiving big in the photos…it was very small.)
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The scary part is that I only have 6 more months to plan her 4th birthday party!

Do you celebrate half birthdays in your family?
Let me know in the comments!



BIRTHDAY TRADITIONS

Coolest Family on the Block is committed to helping you find creative ways to have fun and make memories with your family all year-long. Don’t miss an idea, tip, or trick…subscribe and have updates sent directly to your email!

Introducing Jonathan Paul


Our newest member to the Cool Family arrived a week ago.

Jonathan Paul was born on Wednesday February 08, 2012 at 11:59am via unmedicated VBAC. He weighed 9 lbs 6 oz was 22 inches long and had a head circumference of 36.5 cm (14.37 inches). Birth story to follow when I have some time.



Things are going to be pretty slow around here blogwise. As you can imagine I have my hands full with a newborn and a toddler and I’m pretty much exhausted. There’s not much time or motivation for blogging right now, but I wanted to be sure to introduce the little man to the blogosphere.

Thanks for following along during the pregnancy.

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Click for the latest pregnancy news
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*Trying to Conceive Tuesday (Take 3 Continued)
*Wordless Wednesday: Two Lines
*Early Ultrasound 7 Weeks 2 Days
*Early Ultrasound 9 Weeks 2 Days
*The Night I Got Arrested and Changed My Name to David (not really): A trip to the ER, Ultrasound 11 Weeks 4 Days
*NT Ultrasound 12 Weeks 4 Days
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Lilypie Maternity tickers
Coolest Family on the Block is committed to helping you find creative ways to have fun and make memories with your family all year-long. Don’t miss an idea, tip, or trick…subscribe and have updates sent directly to your email!

DIY No Sew Party Hat Tutorial


For Adaline’s 2nd Birthday Party I decided to try to make her party hat myself. Even though I knew she wouldn’t keep it on her head and I probably wouldn’t even get any decent pictures of it…every little kid should have a party hat for their birthday!

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I do not sew and I’m not really crafty, so I came up with a fairly easy no sew party hat. The whole idea is to get any cardboard party hat and cover it with either scrapbook paper or fabric to match your party theme and then add embellishments.

Supplies you will need:
(2) Cardboard party hats
Fabric or Scrapbook Paper
Hot Glue Gun (and Glue Stick if you’re using paper)
Scissors
Chalk
Ribbon
Embellishments (Pom Poms, feathers, etc.)

Step 1: Trace and Cut
-Carefully unravel one of the cardboard party hats to use as a template
-Set it on the fabric/paper and trace around it. Be sure to trace a little wider to give you extra room for mistakes. Use chalk for tracing on fabric and pencil for paper…something that can be easily wiped off or erased.
-Cut it out


Step 2: Glue Fabric to Hat
-Adhere the fabric/paper to the party hat that’s still put together.
I used a glue stick for paper and a hot glue gun for fabric.
When using the hot glue gun I pressed things down using a spoon so that I didn’t burn my fingers.
Note: Because I used a designed party hat you could actually see the design through the fabric :(, so I covered the hat with scrapbook paper first and then with fabric.


-Because my “seam” was crooked and I was messy with the hot glue I decided to cover the seam with a ribbon to hide my mess 🙂

Step 3: Glue Trim to Hat
-Using a hot glue gun add your embellishments to the top and rim of the hat. I used pom poms.

Although I don’t show it in the photos, I also hot glued two ribbons to the inside of the hat to tie the hat on in place of a chin strap.

You can stop here or add more personalization to your hat. If you are making hats for all of your guests I would probably just add the chin strap and leave the guests’ hats like this but further personalize the birthday kid’s hat.

Adding a number to your hat (Optional)
Supplies you will need:
-Number template or stencil
-Felt and fabric
-Marker
-Scissors
-Hot Glue Gun

Step 1:
-Trace and cut your felt number.
I didn’t have a stencil, so rather than drawing freehand I chose a size and font and printed out a #2. I then cut out the #2 and placed it on top of the felt. I traced the number with a Sharpie marker because I intended to cover it with fabric. If you’re just going to use the felt be sure to trace out a little further so that you can cut off the marker lines so they aren’t visible.

-Trace and cut your fabric number.
I wanted to add the polka dot fabric to my hat so I chose to cover the felt number in fabric. To do this I traced the cut out felt #2 onto the fabric using chalk and then cut out the fabric.

Next I taped one end of the fabric to the felt (I used sticky back felt so the back was covered with paper. I then hot glued the fabric around the edges of felt trimming away any excess fabric that I didn’t need.

Step 2:
-Hot glue the number to the hat.
To make sure that I put the number right where I wanted it I first used scotch tape to tape it to the hat and then I used chalk to make a few guide marks. Then I hot glued the number onto the hat.

Making a Ladybug Party Hat (Optional)
Supplies you will need:
-(2) Fuzzy sticks (pipe cleaners)
-(2) Pom Poms
-Hot Glue Gun
-Additional ladybug embellishments.

For Antennae I hot glued tiny pom poms to the end of fuzzy sticks. I then twisted the pipe cleaners around the top of the hat under the large pom pon.

I found iron-on ladybugs that had sticky backs at Hobby Lobby. I just used the sticky backs and added them to the hat (you can hot glue to be sure they stick).

I wanted to add a white daisy with red center to match the flowers on Adaline’s dress.

I found these Felties at a craft store (Pat Catan’s).

They had white daisies with yellow centers and yellow daisies with white centers. They had sticky backs and the centers were just stuck to the flowers so I pulled the white center off and colored it red with a Sharpie marker and then put in on the white flower instead of the yellow center. I peeled off the back and stuck it to the hat (you can hot glue to be sure they stick).

The finished product…

Tip Junkie handmade projects Design Dazzle

Related Posts
BIRTHDAY TUTORIALS
*Ribbon Topiary Video Tutorial (Centerpiece)

*Tissue Number Birthday Sign (Mini-Tutorial)

BIRTHDAY PARTIES
*Ladybug Picnic: 2nd Birthday

*Pink and Green Polka Dots and Cupcakes Party: 1st Birthday

*Ham and Man Party: 30th Birthday

*Celebrating 30 years in 30 days! All of my birthdays from 1980-2009

BIRTHDAY TRADITIONS

*Birthday Traditions: Personalized Birthday CD
*Birthday Traditions: Knife and Cake Server
*Birthday Traditions: Professional Photos
*Birthday Girl…2 years old: Photos of Adaline at her birthday party
*Happy 2nd Birthday, Adaline!

+Birthday posts will be published all throughout September 2011 including tutorials, party decor ideas, and birthday traditions!

Lilypie Maternity tickers
Coolest Family on the Block is committed to helping you find creative ways to have fun and make memories with your family all year-long. Don’t miss an idea, tip, or trick…subscribe and have updates sent directly to your email!

Birthday Traditions: Personalized Birthday CD


On her birthday our little one wakes up to the sound of her very own personalized birthday cd.

Hip-Hip Hooray It’s Your Birthday Personalized Kids Music CD
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She loves dancing around to the songs and gets so excited when she hears them say her name. She asks to listen to it for a week after her birthday and then we have to slowly back off of it so that it doesn’t lose its appeal 😉

2010

2011
(Click on photos to enlarge)

I love the idea of this cd so much that I plan on getting one for all of my future children and I gave one to my nephew for his birthday!

Watch the videos below of Adaline’s birthday dance the past two years to see a cute baby and hear some samples of the songs.
(Email and feed readers, please click through to the blog to watch the videos.)

2010: 1 year old!

2011: 2 years old!

Do you wake your kids up to the traditional Happy Birthday or another birthday song?
Let me know in the comments!

Posts COMING SOON
Balloon Wreath Tutorial and Links Post
Ladybug Picnic Centerpiece Tutorial
Free Ladybug and Bug Fonts Links Post
Ladybug Picnic Products List
(I’ll be creating a separate post that contains all of the info and links for the supplies from this party. In the meantime if you want to know where I got something just ask in the comments.)

Related Posts


BIRTHDAY TRADITIONS
BIRTHDAY TRADITIONS
*Birthday Traditions: Personalized Birthday CD
*Birthday Traditions: Knife and Cake Server
*Birthday Traditions: Professional Photos
*Birthday Traditions: Photo Puzzle
*Happy 2nd Birthday, Adaline!

BIRTHDAY TUTORIALS
*DIY No Sew Party Hat Tutorial

*Ribbon Topiary Video Tutorial (Centerpiece)

*Tissue Number Birthday Sign (Mini-Tutorial)

BIRTHDAY PARTIES
*Birthday Girl…2 years old: Photos of Adaline at her birthday party
*Ladybug Picnic: 2nd Birthday

*Pink and Green Polka Dots and Cupcakes Party: 1st Birthday

*Ham and Man Party: 30th Birthday

*Celebrating 30 years in 30 days! All of my birthdays from 1980-2009

+Birthday posts will be published all throughout September 2011 including tutorials, party decor ideas, and birthday traditions!

Lilypie Maternity tickers
Coolest Family on the Block is committed to helping you find creative ways to have fun and make memories with your family all year-long. Don’t miss an idea, tip, or trick…subscribe and have updates sent directly to your email!

Birthday Traditions: Cake Server and Knife


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One of my most favorite and easy birthday traditions is both sweet and savvy 😉 Did you buy a beautiful cake server and knife for your wedding that is sitting in a box somewhere?

Starting on Adaline’s first birthday we dug our wedding cake server and knife out of storage and used it to cut her birthday cake. Last year we also used it to cut my birthday cake and my husband’s.

For Adaline’s second birthday we used it once again to cut and serve her birthday cake.

Don’t let your wedding knife and cake server go to waste!
Start using it on all of your family’s birthday cakes this year and start a new tradition.

Do you use your wedding knife and cake server for special occasions?
Let me know in the comments!

Posts COMING SOON
Balloon Wreath Tutorial and Links Post
Ladybug Picnic Centerpiece Tutorial
Free Ladybug and Bug Fonts Links Post
Ladybug Picnic Products List
(I’ll be creating a separate post that contains all of the info and links for the supplies from this party. In the meantime if you want to know where I got something just ask in the comments.)

Related Posts

BIRTHDAY TRADITIONS
*Birthday Traditions: Personalized Birthday CD
*Birthday Traditions: Knife and Cake Server
*Birthday Traditions: Professional Photos
*Birthday Traditions: Photo Puzzle
*Happy 2nd Birthday, Adaline!

BIRTHDAY PARTIES
*Birthday Girl…2 years old: Photos of Adaline at her birthday party
*Ladybug Picnic: 2nd Birthday

*Pink and Green Polka Dots and Cupcakes Party: 1st Birthday

*Ham and Man Party: 30th Birthday

*Celebrating 30 years in 30 days! All of my birthdays from 1980-2009

BIRTHDAY TUTORIALS
*DIY No Sew Party Hat Tutorial

*Ribbon Topiary Video Tutorial (Centerpiece)

*Tissue Number Birthday Sign (Mini-Tutorial)

+Birthday posts will be published all throughout September 2011 including tutorials, party decor ideas, and birthday traditions!

Lilypie Maternity tickers
Coolest Family on the Block is committed to helping you find creative ways to have fun and make memories with your family all year-long. Don’t miss an idea, tip, or trick…subscribe and have updates sent directly to your email!