HORSE PARTY - THE PARTY!

Elliott's horse party was finally this past weekend! It was kind of crazy, but a lot of fun. I wanted some of the colors (most of them were white and black) to be brighter than normal horse colors (brown? no thanks!) so of course I went with neon. Not a ton, but just enough for a pop of color. We had horse sandwiches, pin the neon tail on the horse, horse coloring, and of course cake and presents! Elliott and his friends had a really good time, again, it was crazy. Overall a birthday success!

p.s. Don't you love how kids crowd around when it's time to open presents? Hilarious!

HORSE PARTY - THE FAVORS

Totally and completely inspired by these horses, I found a bunch of vintage/used toy horses to make some DIY chalkboard horses as the favors for Elliott's birthday party. They were really easy, pretty cheap, and turned out perfectly. First, I primed them and then added the chalkboard spray paint. Done and done! The kids seemed to like them so that's always a plus. I think it would be fun to have a whole stamped of chalkboard animals. The trick is to find ones that have smooth surfaces. We love them and Elliott thinks it's pretty awesome that he has a horse he's allowed to color on.

BOOK LOVE

 I Want My Hat Back is adorable to say the least. The illustrations (like with most kids books) are what caught my eye. I hadn't even read it before I bought it for Elliott. It's funny, sweet and great for both kids and adults. It's definitely not one of those horribly written, makes no sense books that kids seem to like but parents can't stand. Not at all. We highly recommend it!

 *Spoiler alert!*

It has a happy ending.

VALENTINE'S PARTY

Happy Valentine's day! Last week my friend Halley and I threw a little Valentine's party for a bunch of toddler friends. It was about as fun as a toddler party can get. Cookie decorating, amazing food, a pinata, and a photo-booth. Awesome, right? The pinata I made was just like this one, but I reinforced the bottom with some heart shaped poster-board to make it strong enough to hold bouncy balls, candy, etc. and I added 10 strings so most of the kids had one to hold on to for the big moment. It was a huge hit, highly recommend!

I could not for the life of me get Elliott to look at the camera (my phone). Halley got some great shots though that are forthcoming. She used this great trick to get the kids to look into her lens. Whatever that kid loved (horses in Elliott's case) she would ask them if there was (a horse) in her camera lens. The kids looked every time. Genius!

HORSE PARTY - THE INVITES

As if it would be a shocker to tell you, Elliott wanted a "horsey" birthday this year. While today is his actual birthday, the party isn't until next week (my mom will be here!) So here are the invites! They bring together most of the elements of the party that you'll see soon. I wanted the invites to be simple and fun for the kids receiving them.

They're shadow puppets! I hope the kids love them as much as I do. I made the horse on my computer, printed them out on heavy card-stock, cut them out, and attached them to dowel rods that I had painted with little stripes of neon blue and yellow. Easy-peasy! Except the cutting out part. I seriously had a cramp in my hand for an hour after that.