Category

Birthdays

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Fortune favors those in their forties. Or, at least, that is what I’m telling myself.

My 40th Birthday Bash was inspired by the moon, stars, and the future itself. This sparkly evening was filled with family, friends, fantastic food, and so much fun. While I obviously think this makes for a great 40th birthday theme, I hope it serves to inspire for a celestial themed wedding, New Year’s Eve bash, or maybe even a birthday of a much smaller number. My son’s first birthday was a Twinkle Twinkle Little Star theme and many of these elements would have fit right in!

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Collage of four photos depicting party decor with blues, golds, silvers, and moon and star decor

When I walked into the venue, an octagonal barn in the Portland-area that was over one hundred years old, I knew I wanted to host my party there. I had been to a wedding in the space previously, and knew I liked the menus from many times eating at McMenamins restaurants. Seeing the old wood and lights in the space made me instantly think of twinkly stars and my theme was set.

Moon and Star Party Decor

While I love creating gorgeous floral bouquets and often share tips on how to do so, this time I wanted something that would be a little more long lasting. I opted to purchase 5 glowing moon lights* and strands of star fairy lights* for centerpieces at each of the main tables.

The venue was really so beautiful that I didn’t go overboard with the decor. I used plenty of fairy lights*, star garland* (some of it cut up and placed around on the tables), and printable items that served as decor, activities, and party favors to boot.

Shaking it up a bit, the kids table had a slightly different vibe than the other tables. It was decorated with the same menus and ornaments, but instead of moons it had three large glass canisters on it. One canister held glow sticks*, one held crayons and markers, and the other held star sunglasses*. I designed star themed printable coloring sheets for the kids to color throughout the evening.

Party Favors That Do Double Duty

Each seat had a circular menu that listed out the evening’s meal and a custom hand-lettered ceramic star ornament that I created with each of the guest’s name. This served as both a place setting sign as well as a party favor.

I like giving gifts on my birthday. So one party favor would simply not do. But, I do like favors that do double duty! Similar to the place setting favors, my next favor did a job beyond being a fun guest takeaway item. We set up a small photo booth using star garland and a fairy light curtain*. We placed my instax mini camera*, instax mini printer*, and plenty of film* on a table with signage encouraging guests to take photos for themselves and for me.

Guests took a photo for me to keep and placed it in a desktop photo calendar*. They also took one for themselves and selected either a photo frame magnet* or keychain* to take home with them. I added star charms* to my keychains to keep in theme.

The next double duty party favors are probably some of my favorite designs I’ve ever created. As soon as I had the thought to do a celestial theme, I thought of the future and what it might bring.

I came of age in the early 90s so Cootie Catchers, or Fortune Tellers, were all the rage. I don’t think I’ll ever forget how to fold one of those— instantly knew I wanted to design one for the party. Along with the fortune tellers I created Decision Wheels for guests to take home. Both served as activities during the party, party decor, and as take home gifts.

Portland-area DJ & Party Entertainment

My party favors were not the only thing playing many parts in this party!

Our DJ was a wonderful find on the site Gigsalad. I discovered this site a few parties ago and have gotten quotes and hired before from the site. I was so pleased to get a responsive and engaged quote back from Troy, DJ Burn PDX. He not only was a great DJ who brought a wonderful set up and prepared music to my requests. But, he also set up karaoke for us— we love Karaoke! And he did a wonderful juggling show during dinner.

My kids absolutely loved him and he kept the party going. He didn’t know I had a blog and doesn’t know I’m writing this now. But, I very much recommend him and wish him nothing but success.

Here is to turning forty and hoping that fortune does indeed favor those in their forties! Cheers!

My four year old was very particular about his party theme this year. This was the first year for him to have a “friend” party inviting neighborhood kids and his classmates. He wanted desperately to combine his two loves… superheroes and unicorns. Done…with joy I might add. I loved this theme!

This is a LONG post… if you don’t have time, but want to get the TLDR version, scroll down to the very bottom for the biggest takeaways!

We had so many kids that we had to have two tables set up. The floor table was set for older kids to enjoy a selection of cereals and treats.

His birthday falls into a really busy time for us. I traveled for work at the end of October and followed it with our annual Halloween party. Then my husband traveled for work the week between the Halloween party and his birthday. It was nuts.

Though life felt super crazy at this time, I really didn’t want his birthday to feel like it was an inconvenience or a second thought. Thankfully, we kept decor to a few installations and I was able to get it together with the help of a VERY good friend who was up with me til midnight blowing up balloons and creating a streamer rainbow.

Unicorn Superhero Birthday Party

Unicorns are incredibly popular right now. So are superheroes. Unicorn superheroes? A tad harder to find! I had fun creating the theme design. The decor, while impactful, was pretty simple in concept: streamers, confetti, and a whole lot of balloons!

I chose to do a balloon floor because what would be more fun for a four year old than a room full of balloons! It served as both a party activity AND decor. Because the balloons were on the floor I didn’t have to use any helium and they lasted for nearly two months. We created balloon garlands out of them after this party and used them for a party a full month later at another location and they still looked pretty great.

Rainbows were an easy way to please all who were involved. I loved the unicorn party supplies from Target.

Unicorn Superhero Birthday Party Decor Supplies

Note: All of the below links are affiliate links. Affiliate links give a small portion of a purchase to me if you purchase anything on this list. It is at no extra cost to you, but it does help support this blog. Thank you for supporting our blog.

  • Unicorn Straws – Target
  • Enchanted Forest Snack Plate – Target
  • Coordinating bowls, spoons, and napkins. Target, it is a one-stop shop!
  • Streamers – Amazon
  • Confetti – Amazon
  • Balloons – These days I make my own balloon garlands and such and have quite the collection of balloons. Amazon is my go to for balloons and I buy multiple sizes and store what I don’t use for later use. Unless you host often or have a ton of storage, I’d suggest getting a multi-color pack of balloons in a single size for the floor and a balloon garland kit in white for the cloud.
  • Unicorn Inflatable Pool Float
  • See all the Enchanted Forest party items from Target. Many of these would come together to make the sweetest party!
A view of the space before I added the fruit tray to the coffee table. The balloons were the biggest draw, but I also love the backdrop!

Making the rainbow wall backdrop

I knew I wanted a backdrop that would draw the eye when guests walked into the space. A friend came over and helped me get it up the night before the party so I really got to surprise my kiddo with it as well!

  1. Cut streamers in a variety of colors to the same length at the size you want for your backdrop. Ours was about 7.5 feet tall. Attach to wall using painter’s tape. We chose to just make it multicolored the whole way through, but you could also decide to do it in big chunks of color in the colors/order of colors of the rainbow.
  2. Create balloon garland out of white balloons and hang from ceiling. I used bakers twine and pins to attach it. The balloons were light weight enough that it didn’t take much effort. Try to center the balloons over the space where you have your rainbow streamers to cover up the painter’s tape as much as possible.
Choose your own cereal and donuts for the win!

Superhero Unicorn Birthday Party Food

Knowing I’d have a house full of kids and parents… I wanted to keep food pretty kid-friendly and simple to make. I decided to host a breakfast party!

These egg bites were so easy to make. I bought pre-cooked pastry shells and filled them with an egg mixture. One was vegetarian and the other had ham.

We hosted the party in the morning and served a variety of cereals, donuts, and fruit for the kiddos. I had a couple of varieties of milk (both dairy and non) and some allergy-friendly cereals. For the adults I served a big bowl of boiled eggs (many kids liked these too), egg bites, salad, fruit, and donuts. Drinks for the kids were milks and juices. The adults had mimosas and coffee. The donuts served as the birthday cake as well as a fun piece of decor.

Mimosa bar

Superhero Unicorn Birthday Party Activities

In my mind the story of this party was that the kids would come in as the wonderful unicorns they are and then learn how to be unicorn superheroes in our superhero training. Wrangling 16 kids for structured activities in a small space was a bit overwhelming, but the parents (and their kiddos) were SO amazing and game for anything that it really worked out well.

This is one happy 4 year old. 😀

Kids began the party by playing in the balloons until the majority of everyone was in attendance. We then ate breakfast. After breakfast we moved the plates away and used the table space to create our superhero costumes.

Laser obstacle course as part of unicorn superhero training

I found unicorn horns (affiliate link), superhero masks, and capes (affiliate link) affordably on Amazon. The capes and masks came with stickers that the kids were able to use to decorate their costumes. I tell you… there is nothing cuter than a bunch of excited little unicorn superheroes.

After the craft activity we explained the rules of the superhero training course. We got four parent volunteers to help with this process. It made it even more fun for the kids when they saw their parents participate.

Bad guys getting caught!

Two of the adults were our “bad guys” and they dressed up in black masks and had a bag of “stolen” goodies. I bought little bad guy kits (affiliate link) to make it look more authentic and filled the bags with unicorn party favors (affiliate link). The bad guys were instructed to do all of the activities FIRST so the kids could follow them.

  • Unicorn Superhero Warm Up: The kids followed my husband down the stairs to our family room where they had to do warm ups for the course. My oldest son led them in a series of easy exercises.
  • Crawling: The kids then had to crawl through a tunnel (affiliate link- I love these things!) to get to their accuracy training.
  • Accuracy Training: Two of the adult volunteers put on these outrageously funny unicorn hats (affiliate link) and the kids had to ring the unicorn before passing to the next part of the course.
  • Laser Obstacle Course: Streamers substituted as lasers for this Entrapment-esque challenge. It worked really well in our wide but long mudroom. I could see it also working in a hallway!
  • Catch the Bad Guys: The final challenge was to catch the bad guys! The bad guys led the way upstairs again where they sat down for a break. The unicorn superheroes then captured them by tying them to their chairs using streamers. Giggles ensued!

It all ended with the kids getting to get a favor from the robber’s bags. In the end, I feel like this was a super fun party!

I threw on this dress at the last minute because it was so colorful… at the end of the party we realized that I matched!

TLDR: Party Highlights

  • Breakfast time parties make for easy, kid-friendly foods! Keep it simple… cereal, donuts, and fruit were a total hit. Don’t forget the adults with some coffee and more savory items.
  • Four year olds don’t care about the fancy decor. Balloons, streamers, and confetti doubled as both party activities and decor.
  • Get the parents involved in the activities. It will make the kids more likely to participate and everyone will have a good time. Keep their participation super simple.
  • Putting together your own superhero unicorn party? Shop the supplies above (or from the box below) and help this blogger bring more fun ideas.

Cheers to all the unicorn superheroes out there. May your day be as unique and fun as my four-year-old is! If you liked this party please do me the favor of sharing on your favorite social media site. It really helps me create more content like this.

For good or bad, in most cases, you might be able to call me a Pinterest mom*. However, on my oldest son’s fourth birthday I was very, very pregnant and just didn’t have the time or energy to do my normal shin-dig. I love birthdays and sincerely wanted to make it special for him without putting myself into pre-mature labor. The solution for me was to host our rock and roll party at a local pizza restaurant, have them do the food and beverages, and purchase all the decor/favors. I did go as far as making cupcakes (I had always made his cakes) and they certainly weren’t up to my normal standards, but the kids didn’t care!

Rock and Roll 4th Birthday | A Well Crafted Party

*I tend to go all out for parties and create a lot of hand-crafted goodies to decorate with or send home with guests. It is something I enjoy greatly, but nothing I ever expect of others. Parties are simply about having fun with the people you choose to spend your time with, and there are no hard-fast rules on what makes a good party.

Easy Rock and Roll 4th Birthday Party

We decided on the Rock and Roll theme because we had planned on getting him a set of drums for his birthday. We lucked out that the pizza place that we chose to have the party at had an amazing back room that had such a great look to it, a large TV, and plenty of space for tables for activities and food. We did email invitations and simply asked guests to come dressed to Rock & Roll! Many guests dressed up and made the whole event more celebratory. SO EASY.

Unfortunately, the restaurant is no longer in business, which is heartbreaking because it was truly wonderful. Read on to see details on decor and activities.

Rock and Roll Birthday | A Well Crafted Party

Easy Rock and Roll Birthday Party Activities

When I say easy, I mean EASY. I was swollen from head-to-toe with pregnancy. I just didn’t have it in me to do much more than my full-time job and, you know, make a human. Eating delicious pizza and salad was on the menu for everyone, and eating is an activity in itself, but I knew it wouldn’t last long with a room full of kiddos.

Rock and Roll 4th Birthday | A Well Crafted Party

 

Rock and Roll Party Activity: Decorate Your Guitar

I purchased paper guitars (affiliate link) from Oriental Trading and added them to a table along with markers and Rock and Roll Stickers. The kids LOVED decorating the guitars. Some even made their guitars look pretty much exactly the same as real guitars! Seriously talented kiddos. So talented in fact that they nailed the next party activity!

Rock and Roll Birthday | A Well Crafted Party

Rock and Roll Party Activity: Photobooth & Karaoke

The rest of the party the kids had a great time singing songs that we projected up on the big screen and taking photos in the photo booth. I’m pretty sure a couple of kiddos did a full rendition of ABCs that blew the crowd away! We ordered inflatable guitars (affiliate link), inflatable mics (affiliate link), and a rock-and-roll backdrop (affiliate link). These items helped decorate the room, created an easy activity, and became party favors!

Rock and Roll Birthday | A Well Crafted Party

Rock and Roll Birthday | A Well Crafted Party

It was a wonderful party despite the fact that the only thing I made was these mishappen mini-cupcakes. My kiddo was thrilled and friends and family had a great time. I highly recommend a party where someone else does the dishes. 😉

Rock and Roll Birthday | A Well Crafted Party