The McKeown Family: Julianne's birthday party

We are back in the normal swing of things... and by normal I mean, we're doing the no-fun stuff like laundry and meal planning that I've neglected the past... oh... forever. I vow that we will have clean towels and washcloths by bath time tonight. I hope. After our world travels this summer and my convention in Las Vegas and Julianne's birthday party.... I'm ready for life to return to "normal." Whatever that looks like around here. It sure has been a fun summer, though. I'm not sure I'm looking forward to the early, packed schedule of school, but I am certainly looking forward to more structure to our days and an earlier bedtime. For all of us. I didn't take a ton of photos at convention, but here are a few. It really was such a fun trip. Minus the Las Vegas junk. I really don't like that place. I am very thankful to be involved with such a caring, giving company, though. The motto of Scentsy's founders is "give more than you take." I love that. I try to live that every day. Some days I do better than others, but it's definitely a goal.
When I returned it was full on birthday party planning mode! I had a done a ton of prep work before I left (mostly while my girls were in Memphis for the week), but there are so many things that can't be done until the week of the party... in fact a lot falls on the day before... which stresses me out.
I had a list (of course I had a list, do you guys know me?). And I just worked to crossing off as much from the list as possible. I got all of it done except for the tissue paper poms that I really wanted to make, but finally decided I could let it go.
On to the party... Julianne loves Dora. Loves. So, it was a given that we would have a Dora party. I don't like character parties. This isn't meant to be harsh toward those of you that love characters. I just get overload. I don't like to see a character head on every piece of partyware. Dora plates, cups, cupcakes, party hats, toilet paper... I just can't stand it. So, I like to take a character and then plan a theme around it. You might remember our birthday parties from last year. The Sesame Street party was about as much character as I can handle.... but the details were primary colors. The Mary Poppins theme was probably my favorite ever.... and the Tangled party was a huge success.
Back to Dora. I thought it would be fun to have a Fiesta with Dora accents. It was just enough Dora for me! We had food from Salsaritas... which was perfect. They delivered it and set everything up! I would totally use them again. We had a nacho bar, which I think was great for the adults and kiddos.... although I'm pretty sure my kids didn't really eat. They were way too excited!
The decorations matched the invitations and I went with a color theme... bright, fun, fiesta colors.... teal, hot pink, yellow, orange, purple and lime green. I found the idea on Pinterest to use wrapping paper for table runners and that worked out perfect! I found wrapping paper at Hobby Lobby (can you say 40% off coupon) and it was just enough for all of the tables.... in exactly the right colors.
The invitations cracked me up.... even if I did write them. :)
They had very Dora wording... and I was afraid that people that didn't watch Dora wouldn't know what I was talking about, but they thought I was just being silly. The invitations said, "Come on, vamonos. Everybody let's go! Let's celebrate Julianne's third birthday with a Fiesta! (address and info) Did Swiper Swipe your day? (rsvp info). Dinner will be served, so make sure you let me know you're coming. If you don't get a taco, you'll be a Grumpy Old Troll!"
I loved the invitations! You can find the lovely lady that made them here.
We played some Dora games like Pin the Backpack on Dora. I just printed out backpacks and cut them out. The kids colored them and then we taped them on the custom drawn Dora (made by Daddy). We also had a Troll Bridge with shapes cut out that the kids had to put in place before they walked across the bridge. They were rewarded on both games with Dora fruit snacks.
I wish we had gotten a picture of the school supply stash! Julianne has been so blessed and we have more toys than anyone should... so we decided to take donations for our church's school supply drive instead of presents. That was very successful!!! I'm pretty sure they have collected everything they needed!
Thank you, again, to everyone that came and supported Julianne. It definitely takes a village to raise a child... and I'm convinced my children have the best Village in the land!
Stay tuned for two more birthday parties happening in October! For right now the themes will be Tinkerbell (although that's what Lucy requested last year and then she changed to Mary Poppins) and Lilo and Stitch (aka a luau).