M&M Party

Carlos and I named our first child with the initials of MNM on purpose. {it's our favorite candy} HA HA! So when we were having Matthew we decided to do the same with his name. So I have always called him my little MnM. Well, once I started thinking about planning his 4th birthday I thought I'd ask for his input. Here is how the conversation went:

Me: "Matthew what kind of birthday party do you wanna have this year?"
Matthew: "A car's party!"
Me: "Ummmm, we did cars for your 3rd party...remember?!"
Matthew: "Yep!"
Me: "Well, we can't do it again!"
Matthew: "okay, an nnm party!" {and no I didn't type that incorrectly, he didn't say M&M correctly for a while...lol}
Me: "Really?!?! I hadn't thought of that! That just might be really cute!"
Matthew: "and I want to have a bowling party!"

So there it was! An M&M party at the bowling alley!! I went on my happy way and got after it! Now I NEVER expected to find actual M&M party supplies, but I did! I got it all on eBay! Of course! I do to much eBay shopping! Matthew's favorite color is green so he wanted the cake to be green and anything else that I could make green. I tried to tell him the green M&M is a girl but didn't care. The saddest part is I made these really cool "Personal Pinatas" for all of the kids & forgot to take a picture!! They took me soooo much time to make too! I made them round out of paper mache and they were about 6 inches big. They were all pull string. I painted them the colors of the M&M's so not everyone got the same color. Then I filled them with the party favors! The items that went inside were M&M notepads, M&M tattoos that I made, crayons, M&M stickers, a tube of M&M's and a few Halloween items {because his birthday is just 2 weeks before Halloween.} Oh they also got a bag of M&M cookies! Needless to say they went home sugared up! All they had to do with their personal pinatas was pull the strings at the bottom until they found the one that was the winner and opened the bottom to get all of their goodies! I am still so mad at myself for not getting a picture of those!

The kids got to bowl for an hour then pizza, cake & presents.

I made these centerpieces with these crate thingies that my sister in law gave me. I recovered them with M&M paper and then made those big M&M's out of colored foam paper.

Inside the crate was a M&M tin that I found at Michael's filled with M&M's.

My Granny made the cake, it was chocolate with mini M&M's baked inside! {My idea..ha ha} then I decorated it. I got that M&M dispenser free with something we ordered at work! I put some M&Ms in it.

See the ceramic plate in the background? Yep I made that just for Matthew to eat his cake on {just like I did his first birthday!}

The silver tins on the table had stickers that said thank you for coming to Matthew's 4th Birthday Party with the red and yellow m&m characters. Inside the tins was M&M's {of course} but they were printed on. They said Happy Birthday and Matthew is 4! I loved those personalized M&M's and they were a must for a M&M party!!

I couldn't believe I found those M&M candles and that there was exactly 4!!

I had a friend get my shirt at the M&M store in Vegas and then I made Matthew one to match! I loved his!!! I wish it still fit him!

I also made M&M characters to look like each child on m&m.com and made them into buttons to wear with their name on them. They all got them when they arrived and wore them at the party! You can see Matthew's in this picture and then Rylee's below.

Shrek Party

For Matthew’s 2nd Birthday we had a Shrek Party. When he was 2, the second Shrek movie was new to dvd and he loved it! He watched it over and over and over. So it made sense that we have a Shrek party. I loved that we were able to use all the “Shrek 2” party stuff and he was turning “2”. I even made a rubber stamp out of an eraser that had the 2 with the Shrek Ears! I used that stamp on the invites and some of the party favor items. Since Matthew’s birthday is just 2 weeks before Halloween I asked the kids to wear their costumes. Carlos, Matthew & I all dressed up as well. Carlos was Shrek, I was Fiona & we made Matthew Baby Shrek. {that was before we knew Shrek 3 was coming out with babies!!}

The cupcakes I made were dirt {chocolate} with grass {green frosting} and then had a worm {gummy worm} on top along with a Shrek ring or a donkey ring. I got the edible image from eBay and had Randall’s make the cake and put the image on top.

Carlos, Matthew & I

We used big sheets of butcher paper to cover this sliding glass window and I printed a huge poster of Shrek & Fiona and then put the happy birthday banner above it. I loved it, we should have taken a picture of all the kids in front of it.

I found that Shrek tent and put it out for the kids to play with. In this picture they are using the fan and bubbles I put out for them to make a bubble storm.

I printed and cutout pictures of all the characters from the movie and hung them all around the umbrella. {We bought the orange umbrella especially to match this party!} It's kinda hard to see but this is the only picture I have.

I made this flag for the flag pole in the front yard out of felt! It was so easy and so cute!

I made this giant Shrek head sign for the front door!

The party favor bags were the green bags you can see in this picture. They had a picture of Shrek on them and each childs name stamped on. They also each got a pair of Shrek ears and the plastic Shrek cup. In front of the bags are pop top cans that they each got filled with candy. The orange bags that are folded in front of the plastic cups are the pinata bags. They had a picture of "puss n boots" on them and I stamped fiesta at the top. {Better picture below}

I got a bunch of those big plastic bugs from pottery barn kids and put them on the table and also in the party favor bags, along with a cool wooden snake from pbk.

The cupcakes I made were dirt {chocolate} with grass {green frosting} and then had a worm {gummy worm} on top along with a Shrek ring or a donkey ring. I got the edible image from eBay and had Randall’s make the cake and put the image on top.

Matthew's 1st Birthday Party--2004

This was Matthew's 1st Birthday Party! I just loved the blue and green together! This was my first party and looking back now I see all of the things I could have added, but that's part of growing. I still love the details that did go into his very first party! Enjoy the pictures... {also getting up close and personal with the little items I made didn't happen as much back then}

The Table! In the crystal dish in the front I made the mini candy bar covers and covered some mini candy bars.

The cake! It was so yummy {even to me and I do NOT like birthday cake}

It's probably way to hard to tell BUT on the table there is blue balloon confetti that I bought and then I mixed in some confetti I made with matthew's picture cut out in the same balloon shape! That balloon picture confetti was also in his invite!

His highchair & Birthday Crown

I painted that ceramic plate for Matthew to eat his cake on!

The aftermath of the cake!

The Presents and the game before we played it

Now since most of the kids were little this was the only game I planned. It was called "Pin the hat on the Birthday Boy" I printed a big picture of Matthew's face and then some little hats that matched the birthday plates.

Next was the Pinata! I wanted a pull string Pinata because it was little kids that weren't strong enough to "hit" a pinata. Well of course there was nothing to match my party, so I made my own! I bought a winnie the pooh pull string pinata because the side fringe was green and matched. Then I covered the middle to match the party theme! I loved how it came out!

The End!

Star Wars Birthday Party

I created these Star Wars light saber invitations for my husbands 35th birthday party. They are available for purchase in my etsy store www.holleeshobbees.etsy.com along with the cupcake toppers/ picks and the matching banner. I only had the invites for his party but was later inspired to make the cupcake toppers & banner.
I made the R2D2 cake the day of the party {it was an evening party} and I thought it came out well. It took some time that's for sure!

All in all it was a fun party and he enjoyed it. He has always liked star wars...incase you didn't pick up on that.

from hollee's phone

Basketball treats!

These are the basketball treats I made for the last game of Matthew's bball season. His team was the red dragons {that's why I used the red ribbon.} The kids love them, because they were chocolate...of course! They were pretty cool and so simple! The basketballs were really textured like bballs!!