Show us Your Life- Caroline's Birthday Parties

I'm linking up today to Kelly's Corner and her Show Us Your Life series.  This week is all about our kid's birthday parties!
Caroline is 4 and her birthday is in the fall.  The weather here is perfect for an outdoor party at that time of year, not too hot anymore but not cold either, so most of them have been outside.

1st Birthday

2nd Birthday

3rd birthday- a ballerina party

Caroline's most recent party was an Ariel party for her 4th birthday.  We had the party at home, in our backyard.  She invited 4 friends and the rest were family.   Her first request for her party was an Ariel skirt.  So I found some awesome shiny fabric and a pattern and sewed one for her.  I also made her a "4" birthday shirt with some of the matching fabric.

My little mermaid riding her scooter

Swinging and drinking pink lemonade with a friend

As the guests arrived, I had a kid table set up with Little Mermaid coloring pages and crayons for the kids.

Once all the kids arrived, I had 2 different crafts for them to do.  The first craft was a frame that they could glue all sorts of small seashells to.  The second craft were some scratch and color shaped fish.  The fish are a solid black color and the kids scrape the black off with a wooden stick to show the rainbow colors underneath.

The kiddos did crafts and played while the Little Mermaid soundtrack played in the background.  There was a food table with chips, dip, veggies and drinks set up.  My husband grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone.  Once crafts were done and food had been eaten, it was time for cake!!!

The cake, by far, was the most complex cake I've made.  But I love how it turned out!

The birthday cake!!

Blowing out the candles!

The surprise colors inside the cake- purple, blue and white

After everyone had cake and ice cream, it was time for the pinata!

Presents were opened after the pinata had been whacked to it's doom.  The last few goodies for the kids were bubbles and party blowers and then it was time to relax and just let the kids run off the cake, candy and ice cream.

The party blowers were a huge hit!  

The party was definitely a success!


I get a lot of my party ideas from searching the Internet.  Once Caroline decides on a theme, I start googling.  Oriental Trading Co. is a great place for party and craft supplies, but you have to give yourself enough ordering time.  So far her birthday parties have all been at home, with a small guest list.  Even though she was in school this year, we didn't invite every child in her class.  I told her she could ask 2 friends from school and 2 other friends.  I gave the invites for her school friends directly to their parents so that all the rest of the kids her class wouldn't feel left out.  The rest of the guests are family and the families of her friends.  Makes for a plenty big enough party for us!

As far as food, we have always done veggies, chips and dip of some kind and then a main dish.  A couple years we have done hamburgers and hot dogs and a couple years we have done sandwich party platters from Subway.

One other thing I have found that seems to always be a big hit are balloons.  It is well worth the cost to get enough helium filled balloons for all the kids.  They make great decorations and then I have never met a child who doesn't love to play with a balloon LOL

Thanks for visiting!