I love decorating for birthday parties as much as I love classrooms!

Making the day extra special for my children brings me so much joy.  I love seeing their excitement and hope to create memories that they will remember forever.

My daughter, Eden, had her 5th birthday party right smack in the middle of my 2015 Back-to-School Reveal…talk about stress!  I didn’t have time to plan or prepare, so off to Party City I went and purchased the entire Frozen birthday set.  Although Eden was happy (and I know she doesn’t really know the difference), I felt a little guilty that I couldn’t “go all out” for her special day.  Regardless, we all had fun and I got over my guilt fairly quickly. 🙂

On the other hand, my daughter, Ava, who is two years older, has been planning her big birthday party for an entire year!  We’ve always invited just family to our parties, since the girls were still young, but Ava really wanted to invite her whole class this year.  Being a teacher, inviting the entire class doesn’t bother me…in fact, “birthday management” feels like a cinch since I’ve spent most of my adult life managing large groups of children.   With lots of excitement, I agreed, and the birthday planning began!

My inspiration:

I found this adorable birthday invitation from Tiny Prints and it set off a whirlwind of ideas in my head.

Isn’t this the sweetest thing you’ve ever seen?!?

I remembered that I had a box of Woodland Animal cutouts in my basement (from my photo shoot two years ago) and I knew that I found my birthday theme!  I planeed to incorporate the cutouts into my centerpieces to pull the theme together.

Next, I came up with my color combination:  pinks, corals, orange, mint green, cream, and gold.  These colors are SO trendy right now, so I knew it would be easy to find everything that I needed to decorate.

Clike HERE to see my Woodland Animal classroom collection!

Several weeks before the party, I ordered my cake, cupcakes, and cookies from Bella Birches in Flushing, Michigan.  I wanted everything done in creams, pinks, and mint green.  I found some ideas off of Pinterest and emailed them to the cake decorator.  I also ordered my plates, napkins, and cups from Meri Meri…and I was done!

I swear, I didn’t think about the party at all until the day before the party.  My neighbor, Katie, (who I’ve practically spent the entire summer with because our kids play together every day), would ask me daily if I needed help with the party OR if I was ready for the big day.  I would tell her over and over that I haven’t even thought about it yet.  She would get the biggest smile on her face… I knew she thought I was out of my mind!

It wasn’t that I didn’t care about it.  I cared more than anything about Ava’s party, however, we were gone on vacation and when we returned, my Schoolgirl Style customers needed their decor, so I was super busy helping everyone get their classrooms decorated.  I just didn’t have time to get out and shop like I wanted to.  I wasn’t worried though…I knew I could pull it off!

 I ended up calling this particular party, “The 24 hour party” because I pulled it all together in 24 hours.  My CRAZY schedule looked like this…

Friday (the day before the party)

9:00 – 10:00 Party City (helium tank and Ty stuffed animals for our “thank you” gifts)

10:00 – 12:00  Joann Fabrics (floral fabric, birch bark vases, artificial pink peony vases, shabby chic chalkboard sign)

I came home for a couple hours and set up our deck with tables and chairs. *My husband borrowed chairs from our school for the party.  I thought he was coming home with brown folding chairs, however, he showed up with the big, plastic, 1970 classroom barrel chairs that nobody wanted (I can see why).  UGH.  It was our only option, so thank goodness, they matched!

I ordered a 6 foot sub from Subway for the birthday menu, picked up bags of chips, fresh fruit, and lemonade.

3:00 – 4:00 Michaels (gold tulle sashes for chairs, artificial wedding bouquets to go in the bark vases, moss, pinecones, cream fabric banner, gold letters, brown and gold polka dot table runner, glitter paper for can centerpieces)

4:00 – 5:00 Home Depot (My son called (he’s 18) and he told me that he had been in a car accident and totaled his car.  He was fine, thank goodness!  My dad came to the rescue and picked him up and took care of the car (my dad is the best grandpa in the world, by the way).  I left Home Depot…after that call, I forgot what I was there for.)

6:00 – 12:00 a.m. (My mom came over and we decorated for the party all night long…oh, and my neighbor, Katie, came too…she helped fluff the poms!)

10:00 – 1:00 (The day of the party…My friend/classroom aide, Karen, came over and made my fruit salad and blew up all of the balloons, while I finished the decorating.  Whew!  We were done!)

1:00 Party!

By the way, we also rented a big bounce house to keep the kids busy…it was PERFECT!

Enjoy the pictures!

 Most of the kids went home around 3:00 ish, however, neighbors and cousins stayed.  The kids jumped in the bounce house and played all night long!  It was truly the best party EVER!

*My friend, Christy, used my Woodland Animal cutouts to create an adorable 1st birthday party for her son, Sawyer.  To see the post, click HERE!  Lots of great ideas!