If you have been around me long enough or followed me on social media, then you would know that I like throwing birthday parties for my kids. Let me rephrase that, I get super pumped and a flurry of excitement by throwing parties! It is definitely a passion of mine. The boys look forward to it and celebrating their birthdays is a tradition that I cherish. The memories that we make will last a lifetime and maybe they will continue this tradition with their kids as well.
I knew from the moment that one of his first words were Bubble, that we were in for another Bubble Guppies Party. With 3 boys, I should have known that the moment would come when we would have to repeat a theme. I mean come on…after 15 birthday parties…the pickings are getting slim. So the thought of repeating the Bubble Guppies theme lost its luster a little bit for me. Then the idea popped into my head to focus on the colors and less on the theme.
And so the Blue Ombre Bubble Guppies theme was decided on and planning commenced.
Thank goodness, I kept all the serving dishes and some of the decorations from the last party. So it was just a matter of digging it out and dusting it off. Blue is super easy to find in just about every store. I even had several blue decorations left over from other parties…score!
I have been using the same place for all my cakes and cupcakes for a very long time and it is like an episode out of cheers when I walk into their store. They know me all too well and even asked if they could use my ideas from a recent party for the display in their front window. Halls Takes The Cake did not disappoint with this cake either. I adore all the attention to deal and how they created exactly what I envisioned.
Besides the cake place, all my regular vendors know me well too like the florist at Kroger who blows up all my balloons and the party rental event staff at a local company. Each of these businesses have become part of the tradition. I have to confess! I have a love-hate relationship with plastic tablecloths but mostly hate. Did you know that you can rent cloth tablecloths for just a little more than the cost of plastic ones? For this party I actually used shower curtains for the table skirt. Yep, you read that right. I bought two shower curtains off amazon. Love Prime! Then cut out a few horizontal sections to make it shorter before sewing it all back together. Genius I know! The end result looked like I spent over a $100 on it.
I love trying new things with every party in decorating or crafting. For this one I attempted the balloon arch. They always look so neat and I wondered why I haven’t tried it before. So a couple of things you will need…including lots of hot air! Just kidding! You will soon find out that blowing up that many balloons will make you very light-headed. Trust me, I know! So before I passed out that morning, my genius hubby got out the air compressor. What? Why didn’t I think of that? Also you will need balloon tape. I ordered mine off amazon. Notice a theme here, ha.
One detail that I repeat at every party is a birthday shirt. I keep all of them in their keepsake boxes from previous parties. I usually go to Etsy for my shirts and match it with the age and theme. These make a great party outfit! Although when is it not cool anymore?? I barely got away with my oldest son’s 8th birthday shirt this year.
Party favors are usually where my true talents come alive. I am over all the cheap silly plastic toys that the stores make for birthday parties. They usually end up where all the McDonald’s happy meal toys go…the circular file! Since we kept this party to just family, I opted out of favors for this party but there were no shortages from my last Bubble Guppies party. For the last party, I spent countless hours sewing. More time than I want to confess even to myself. I used my Cricuit to cut out the names of each child in fabric and then sewed the letters onto beach towels with a cute sea character. Besides a personalized towel, each party guest also got a goldfish soap bag and a bubbles kit.
Here are some of the pictures from the last Bubble Guppies party. I am not sure which one I love better. Which one do you like the most?
