Flamingo Birthday Party

Gosh this party is one of my new favorites. My own little birthday present decided this year for our party, she wanted Flamingos. And for everything to be pink. I’m not a pink type person. But I did it anyway. Everything was kind of thrown together last minute to be honest. The only thing I had done before one week, was her birthday invitation that I designed and glued feathers onto (cell phone photo included of the invite).

I used the greenery from my son’s dinosaur birthday party in July, and we found everything flamingo that we could. Since fall has started we couldn’t find very much stuff that wasn’t online- and it didn’t leave time for shipping. So we had to get a little creative with decor this time around.

I found an adorable cake topper of a flamingo online, but it was expensive and they were out of stock. So I had to decide to make one myself. I spent several hours with tweezers and tiny slips of paper carefully gluing them on. He turned out PERFECT though. Then I decided four days before her party that I wanted a table runner for on the table. So I carefully sat and cut fabric to match the flamingos on her birthday party invitation. It was somewhat time consuming but I think it turned out perfect!!! I included a cell phone photo of just the table runner before I finished it!

My absolutely wonderful momma helped make the cakes. I found out that I am AWFUL when it comes to trying to frost things. So she baked the cakes the day before (we were doing family photos with my in-laws) and then a few hours before her party we assembled them. She got all the frosting on and then I smeared it some more to kind of blend the colors up for the ombre. I think it turned out well. The flamingo cupcake cake she made for me was awesome too!

The only downside to the party was we LOVE having our parties outside- and with as many kids that come it’s nicer to be outside where they can be wild and loud. But it was pouring rain the entire weekend so we had to move it indoors. Thank goodness I’m completely set up with lighting to be able to just hand my camera off to someone and know that the lighting will work for all the images.

I can’t wait for our actual birthday this Saturday! She will be 3 and I will be 31! XOXO

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Dinosaur Birthday Party

I love to do themed birthday’s for my children. Especially first birthday’s. There is nothing more fun to me! My little Brown Bear was turning one just a week before my husband was turning 30, so we met in the middle and threw them both a little party involving dinosaurs!

This was one of the easier parties to do, to be honest. Dinosaur stuff is pretty easy to find. For the main table, I got some fake leaves, borrowed some dinosaur toys from my older son, used a few plants, and a few of my textured items that I use for newborn photos. I had one of my pots with dinosaur skeletons for the kids on the table too. For his high chair, I used a fabric to cover the seat and hooked palm leaves on it as well.

The cakes were made by Rockstar Cakery in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. You can find her on Instagram, her website and her Facebook. She did a fantastic job. They were so detailed and beautiful. Her work is AMAZING! I highly recommend her for your next party!

The shirts for Us and our littlest Brown Bear were made by Eliza with Day Designs. She was fabulous making these for us VERY last minute. I’m not kidding that I totally slacked off on this party until the week of!

My darling sister-in-law, Katie, made the dinosaur eggs with her kids. Those were so much for the kids at the party! She also made the adorable dinosaur footprint cookies!

The invitations were made by me, of course, and I decorated everything. I also made the quilt for my baby- I have made each of them a twin size quilt for their first birthday. It was quilted by Heidi with Stipple & Stitch. My friend Laura with Tattered Butterfly Photography (Facebook & Instagram) was awesome and took over my camera for me so that I could be in some of the photos.

The little dinosaurs for in the eggs as well as the dinosaur skeletons were purchased at Zurchers!

All in all, this party really was one of my favorites. It was easy and looked great. Super fun and great for a budget party!

Wild King Scottie

This little boy is one of my absolute favorites to see. He’s got the biggest smile and the most delectable curls, as does his sister. I was so glad we were able to throw together this shoot in just a few days! I’m thankful to a neighbor for loaning me a log (I mean finding me a log in the right size and the look that I needed in 3+ feet of snow- sooooo grateful), I’m grateful to my husband for sitting in the bathroom directing space heaters to dry said log of the snow/ice. I’m glad I could make the leaves and stars and the adorable little crown. Vanilla House Bakery made the awesome cake, mom and aunt made the cute banner. I’m also grateful for a mom obviously willing to get dirty to get the perfect shots. I hope she loves these images as much as I do!

Brea’s First Birthday/Lemonade Stand Cake Smash

How adorable is this little girl? I have LOVED watching her grow up and see all of her cute little milestones. She has the cutest little scrunchy face smile and is just so happy. I love that her dad made us a lemonade stand on such short notice. I wanted to paint the sign, but it was so last minute that I just designed the signs and the little lemon and lemon slices banner in photoshop and printed them off to put them on. It turned out so perfect though! We modeled this session after one of my favorite invitations I did for a first birthday that was a lemonade stand theme. Super cute! Vanilla House Bakery, of course, stepped up and made the most delicious looking pink lemon cake. Isn’t it just perfect for this cake smash??? Enjoy this beautiful little smile! Happy birthday sweet girl!

Ollie- 1 Year Session & First Haircut

This adorable little guy is turning one! Yay! His birthday party is this Saturday and I get to join in the fun for that as well! He is a complete DOLL and loved getting his first haircut at The Refinery Barbershop inside of Legend’s Motorcycles. Their shop is the absolute coolest place! What an awesome and fun idea for a session, major props to this momma and dad for the idea!  Happy birthday Ollie!

Indian Themed Baby Shower

Probably should have done this before Dark’s Birthday Post, but I wasn’t thinking that far back until after when I realized that this was one of my absolutely favorite cakes Vanilla House Bakery has ever made for me (although my wedding cake may beat it out, but that’s out of the running because wedding cakes are always amazing!).

This was the baby shower I had for my son. In my true fashion, I can NOT let anyone plan anything for me. So those throwing the shower paid for things, I just had full control and designed and planned it all myself. I’m too OCD to leave details to other people. I can not find my invitation, but it was more plain with an arrow that I embroidered the feathers on each invite in different colors. It was adorable and so much fun. We had cake, I sobbed when it was cut into, we decorated onesies with paint, and we opened gifts. I had a huge turn out, I can’t believe how many people I had in my house at that point- which was scary since we had just moved in two weeks prior to the party. This was one of my favorite parties I have ever thrown though- mostly due to the glamorous cake that Lindsay once again worked her magic on. She’s seriously amazing at cake decorating. I love designing them and seeing them come to life when she shows up the day of the party! Not to mention it is a HUGE stress relief to know that the cake will always be beautiful and always show up the morning of and I don’t have to raise a finger on it. I’m a huge fan of hiring out on these things. But seriously, if you have a wedding or a birthday party, PLEASE for the love of EVERYTHING check out her Facebook Page and hire her. It’s so worth the money to relax and have a gorgeous and tasty cake that is photo worthy every single time.

And now, the photos:

Holy Batman, it’s Dark’s First Birthday!

My little one- we shall call him Dark as that is one of his nicknames- just turned two. But his first birthday party is still one that I think about and love to look back at the photos. I took a lot of the details, but hired someone to come photograph the actual party for us so that I could just relax and be apart of it. I will include a few of those photos, and they are by Ashlee Fackrell Photography. She was fantastic to work with. I highly recommend having a photographer come to your kids birthday parties! It’s so nice to just be able to soak in all the memories and not have to worry about the camera! Most all of the photos are mine that I will post, except the ones of him eating his cake and opening presents, those were done by Ashlee. The rest I did either before the party or the next morning (this cake happened to be fake since I was pregnant and knew I would cry cutting up something so beautiful).

All three cakes by Lindsay at Vanilla House Bakery or you can visit her Facebook. Trust me when I say she is AMAZING. She always puts up with all my crazy designs. She has done my wedding, both baby showers, and both of my sons birthdays. I am already getting excited for my daughters birthday in September. Not only are they beautiful, but they taste AMAZING! If you are in Utah, HIRE HER. I promise, you won’t be disappointed!!!!

If you like all the designs I did (I made the invite, drink labels, take home treat labels, etc) you can have me custom make stuff for you! Check out my etsy store, Nuits Étoilées! I have some pre-made logos, and a few invitations listed, but mostly I love to create custom items that are unique to you!

A few extra details, I made the quilt myself for his birthday present. I had it quilted by a girl that lives near me. We also had a Dr Suess birthday book to match that all the guests that came signed a message in his book for him. That is another of our traditions beyond the cake smash in the face.

I designed the cake but it was made by Vanilla House Bakery. I designed all the graphic items, the drink labels, the invitation, the treat labels.

Phillip’s invitation

We started a tradition of smashing our kids face in their cake. He loved it this year.

Drink Labels