Going Professional

I mentioned yesterday that I hired a professional photographer to shoot Noah's birthday.

The reasons for this are many, but I'll focus on two.

First, there were so many moments during the party that as a host, I would have missed.

Like this one:

Or this:

 More than that though, it took the stress off of me. Hosting a party, especially for kids can be a difficult endeavour. Add in the desire to actually visit with your guests, trouble shoot AND take great pictures and you're in for it, big time!

Hiring a photographer that I trusted, allowed me to do what I needed to do without even thinking about the pictures.

She was also fantastic at just capturing the kids being together. This is James and his cousin Jaylen just playing around on the couch. I have no idea when this was or the context for it, but I would certainly have missed it had I been trying to get pictures all day.

The second reason is more specific to me. I've had many a comment lately regarding my parties and going professional with them. Last week I finally decided to take the plunge and begin an event planning business with a focus on children's events. When I was planning Noah's pizza party, I had begun thinking about this and decided that given my main reason for wanting a professional photographer, coupled with the possibility of needing good pictures in the future, I couldn't go wrong.  Thankfully I was right and some of these pictures will end up on my website in the near future.

All pictures are by Enlightened Photography

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday

Pizza Party: A Different Kind of Cake

It may be obvious from Noah's choice of party theme that his favorite food is Pizza! While this is absolutely true, he also loves Pizza in all other forms. So when he first asked for a Pizza Party, his only request was that he have a candy pizza as well.

Because there were a number of people invited that may not enjoy such a treat, I also decided to make cupcakes. Coupled together and our unusual cake table was born:

The cupcakes are of the homemade apple cinnamon variety with store-bought cream cheese icing. I had originally planned to put little slices of gummy pizza on top of the sticks, but I like how these turned out.

I had ordered striped paper straws from an etsy store and the owner included pdfs of a bunch of straw toppers. I chose the ones I wanted and printed them out at home. They were also really easy to put together. The paper wrappers went with the checkered tablecloths, and mostly matched the color scheme.

The candy pizza is a treat that Ive made Noah before on his birthday. This is a kid that doesn't like cake, or pie for that matter. So, we improvise. The base is a giant chocolate chip cookie spread with cream cheese icing (usually there is a layer of cherry pie filling, but I skipped it this time) and topped with candies of your choosing. We used nerds and runts.

Noah's silly face. That child never just smiles for the camera!

James enjoying his cupcake

The sign reads "Noah says....Who wants cake when you can have pizza?" I had different signs made from paper plates around the house all beginning with "Noah says..."

Have you ever created a non-cake? What was your favorite?

All pictures are by Enlightened Photography

Pizza Party: Photo Op

One thing I've wanted to do with many of our past parties is a picture board thing. I have no idea what these are called, but I think they are so cute!

Jason was able to grab a piece of scrap wood and make a simple frame so that it would stand up. Once I decided what to paint onto it, he cut out the hole for the face and gave it a good wipe down.

I searched online and found a few inspiration pictures, but really, I just improvised. I had drawn a similar picture in pencil first to get an idea of proportions, but it was really just a matter of 'let's see what happens!'

Coupled with the moustaches, I think it turned out completely adorable. In the end, the materials were free and the painting took about 5-6 hours total. For such a neat little party activity (as well as a piece of decor) I feel it was well worth it. Plus, the other side is still blank and can be painted however I want for the next go!

All pictures are by Enlightened Photography

Noah's Pizza Shop

Picture by Enlightened Photography

When Noah finally chose his theme for his eighth birthday, we were only four weeks out. For a planner like me, that was tough. But we pulled it all together and though I'd like to have had a few more elements, it went really well! As you may guess from the picture, Noah had a pizza theme. It wasn't just any pizza party though, it was an Italian Pizzeria!

Ill be talking about each area of the party from the invitations to why I chose to hire a professional photographer all week. Until then, feel free to follow the link where you can check out a few choice pictures of the event.

a snake cake and jungle party

As part of Life as Mom's Birthday Cake Round up, Im writing a few posts referencing some of the birthday cakes I've created in the past...

For Noah's 6th birthday we had a jungle theme. To go with that, I created a snake cake from pictures I found online (pre-pinterest!). This was my first time using fondant and Im sure more experienced cake makers would do a better job, but the kids were still amazed by my attempt.

Now that I've shown you the most important part, let me share the rest of the day. It started off with some jungle invites....

When the kids arrived I had them create jungle animals using a kit I picked up at Michaels. Afterwards we played a few games and let them run around a little bit. The main event had not yet arrived so I tried everything I could to keep the kids entertained while we waited. I definitely learned my lesson though and in the future will always include more activities for the kids.

We ended up feeding them their pizza and snake cake and then opening presents in the middle of the party because the entertainer still had not arrived. They had lost their car keys that morning and ended up an hour late. It was a good thing I scheduled the party to be 3 hours long!

So finally they arrived and the kids didn't know what to expect...

It was a local reptile company that tours schools and sets up exhibits. They were on the pricey side but it went over so well. In this picture, they are racing the two turtles across my rec room carpet!

Here Noah is getting to pet a reptile. They passed around most of them but some kids were a little scared to touch!

This was the grand finale. They brought out the small snake and let all the kids put it around their necks for a picture. Everyone thought that was the end until the man pulls out a pillow case with the giant snake in it! I still cant believe I let that thing in my house without even knowing it was there!

To close off the party each of the children had a few minutes with this...

How awesome is that? It's like a zoo that comes to your house!

Birthdays: Noah's Candyland

*The following post was written last year but was never published. Im doing so now as part of Life as Mom's Birthday Cake Round up
For Noah's 7th birthday we decided to have a Candyland theme. Most of what you can find online for this theme is geared towards younger kids so I had a bit of trouble coming up with a plan.

I knew I wanted to have a colored path that led through out the house and ended at a castle, just like in the game. So I started with that and filled in activities as stops along the path.

Before I get ahead of myself though, Ill start at the beginning...the invites. I like to put a lot of effort into my invites, especially when having the party at home. Ive thrown birthday parties where no one or only a few kids have shown up. It seems that parents no longer feel comfortable bringing their kids to other people's homes. So I try to make the party sound enticing, or show that Ive planned more than just a basic house party. This year, I wasn't able to go all out like I had wanted, but I think they still ended up cute:

Unfortunately we didn't get many pictures during the party so there's nothing of the path. The first stop however, was guessing how many candies were in the jars. Such a simple activity and the items required to play act as the prizes...simple! Here's Micah showing how it's done.

Next, we decorated crowns. All the materials came from the dollar store so it was a cheap activity that allowed those late arrivals to catch up before the group moved on.

Next, we made candy necklaces. I don't know if Id do this again, just given that the kids were too excited to eat theirs before moving on. Maybe just a different order of activity would help.

Though they were really happy with their creations, as shown by the birthday boy himself below:

Finally, we made it downstairs to our rec room where I had a bouncy castle set up. I looked into the price of renting them, but decided to just buy our own. There was a budget for this party and I had to be careful in all the other areas not to go over, but in the end Im happy with the decision to buy rather than rent. First, renting would have required the use of a hall or community centre. The price of the rental of both would have been around $200. I instead bought this castle for $223, plus warranty. We kept it out for a couple of weeks after the party, and the kids loved being able to bounce at will.

What a mess!

For favors we ordered cotton candy bags from a local amusement business.

The cupcakes were well received though I didn't get a picture of the rainbow I made out of them. They were easier to make than most of the cakes I've attempted and they just looked cool!!