Birthdays – That Celebration Life

Our Taylor Swift-themed 8th Birthday Party

August 27, 2024August 27, 2024by christeenaLeave a Comment

I have to say, the planning process for this was one for the books. My daughter let me know pretty early on she was thinking a Taylor-themed birthday, as she – like pretty much all the girls her age – is obsessed. Plus she was a little bummed she didn’t get to go on the Eras tour, which was my fault but I didn’t think she’d know about it (boy was I wrong!). But she didn’t let it bother her, and just kept her happy face on, saying she understood she was young and it was really pricy.

If you know my daughter, you’ll know that she is truly one of the sweetest, kindest, and humblest persons in the world. It isn’t easy being the middle child, especially a particularly well-behaved one, as it’s all too easy for her siblings who have a lot of demanding needs to get so much more attention. Which is why I have no qualms about really making her feel so celebrated on her birthday. I never want her to doubt how much we appreciate her and want her to feel lavished on, especially on her special day.

When I plan parties, I always start by considering some of each child’s favorite things. With her, the list was arts & crafts, dance, sparkly rainbow colored things, strawberries, cheese, and red velvet cake. She also always asks for those little muffins and stroopwaffles but I never give those to her because of how loaded with sugar they are…but birthdays get a pass!

Continue reading →

Birthdays, Boys Birthdays, Girls Birthdays, Parties

A Bluey-themed 3rd Birthday

August 17, 2024August 27, 2024by christeenaLeave a Comment

This was probably the most anticipated party I’ve planned yet, only because my older (more experienced) kids seeded the idea in my little one’s head. My youngest is obsessed with Bluey, and maybe only a couple months after she turned two, her siblings said, “You can have a Bluey birthday!” And ever since, she’s been talking about her Bluey birthday, despite not really knowing what a birthday even is. 😆

Thankfully, because she had in mind that it just was going to be what it was, I had plenty of runway to plan, unlike my older ones who often change their mind about what they like on a monthly basis.

I really wanted a character moment at her party, as it was so sweet watching her meet many of the Disney characters when we went to Disneyland last year. Even if it meant my husband would have to dress up himself, we would make it happen. With the growth in popularity of Bluey, I was excited to find that a couple of the character entertainment companies finally added a Bluey to their mix! (It wasn’t available even a year ago).

Continue reading →

Birthdays, Girls Birthdays, Parties

“Sweet Sassy & Seven” Glam-Up Spa 7th Birthday Party

August 25, 2023by christeenaLeave a Comment

If you know my daughter, you’ll know that from as little as she was able to start having preferences as a toddler, she’s loved getting dressed and glammed up! Well, during Spring Break earlier this year, we were in Atlanta, Georgia visiting my best friend from growing up. While we were there, we accompanied their family to get their teen daughter’s ears pierced at a cute little shop called “Sweet & Sassy”. When my 6-year-old walked in, it was as if she entered a complete dream world! Think of Claire’s except so much more; it’s a full-on spa for kids complete with a mani-pedi area, a hair salon, jewelry boutique, and a birthday party space with where kids can get glammed up and even walk down a runway that had balloons and mirrors.

Continue reading →

Birthdays, Girls Birthdays, Parties

A Winnie-The-Pooh Themed Birthday Picnic

August 25, 2023August 25, 2023by christeenaLeave a Comment

Now that we are two years into it, I’m finding that every milestone with your littlest baby is bittersweet because you’re cognizant it’s the last time you are probably going to go through that experience. I find myself definitely holding on to things more (like hey, she still prefers using her baby bottle before bedtime…I’m completely OK with that!). As she approached her second birthday, I started to think about how we could celebrate meaningfully this year. Though she does attend some enrichment classes outside the home, since they aren’t every day and sometimes the attendance is spotty, her closest “friends” are her siblings and cousins, so I wanted to keep it small. It just so happened that we had a little vacation to Santa Barbara planned with both of my sisters and their families (the first time we’ve done that), so it seemed like the perfect opportunity since she would be together with all of her cousins on my side in one place.

Continue reading →

Birthdays, Girls Birthdays, Parties

A Dolphin Themed 2nd Birthday

August 19, 2023August 23, 2023by christeenaLeave a Comment

We just held my littlest one’s second birthday, but before I get to posting that one, I wanted to make sure I finished posting my older daughter’s 2nd birthday (…five years later!!). When my second child turned two, I reallllly wanted to throw her a Winnie the Pooh party because I personally love Winnie the Pooh. But despite my best efforts – reading Pooh stories, getting her Pooh toys, etc – she wasn’t into it! Instead, my free-spirited nature and animal loving girl was in love with dolphins at that time. I don’t recall if she was intrigued through books and toys first and then saw them at Sea World or the other way around, but either way, that was what she was into, and so it seemed only fitting for that to be her theme.

Continue reading →

Birthdays, Girls Birthdays, Parties, Reflections

“You Are My Sunshine” 1st Birthday For My Little Sunshine

June 23, 2023June 23, 2023by christeenaLeave a Comment

I’ve been wanting to write everything down about this party for a while. This was a special one. Admittedly, it was what many considered over the top. But not only was year one a special milestone in and of itself, but that year in particular was really significant for me in my own healing journey, so I wanted it to represent the love and joy I felt for my daughter.

Some backstory: before I had her, I was terrified of having a girl – to the point that I had to go to therapy during my pregnancy. For most of my adolescence, I didn’t have the best experience with other females. And though I deeply love my mom and have an amazing relationship with her now, it was a rocky relationship growing up. As I got older, it caused me to have a very guarded relationship with other women. I wasn’t fully aware of this until I found out I was having a girl and experienced a fear and anxiety, which is what brought those hidden wounds to light. God is so good though – He knew exactly how to heal my heart.

As soon as she arrived, I saw her beautiful little face, which was an incredible moment in itself (she didn’t come out as an angsty 13-year-old as I irrationally feared!). As incredible as that moment was, I had no idea that such sweet joy lay ahead or even existed. She was such a peaceful, easy baby. I remember feeling like her smile would just light up her nursery as soon as I walked in to wake her up every morning. She truly ushered a sweetness into my life that profoundly changed and healed my heart. Her joyful smiles were so big that even her eyes smiled! They embodied the term “bright eyes”, and she truly shined pure light into each day. And she had such a sweet disposition, one that truly disarmed me and finally allowed my heart to let down its guard. She was truly my sunshine. So when it came time to plan for her first birthday, I couldn’t think of a more perfect theme that would celebrate her and capture who she was: my sweet, pure little sunshine.

Continue reading →

Birthdays, Boys Birthdays, Parties

Our “Dragons Love Tacos” 8th Birthday Party

June 10, 2023June 23, 2023by christeenaLeave a Comment

For my son’s 8th, he chose a dragon theme. However, he also requested that we serve tacos that day. So naturally, to tie it all together, we turned it into a “Dragon Loves Tacos” theme, after the beloved storybook!

Since he wanted to invite his whole class, we held the party at a local park instead of our home. It’s such an expansive area, but we did our best to tie the theme together with the colors while creating separate “spaces” for the various activities.

To establish the theme right off the bat, it started with the party invitation. I created a custom paperless post invitation that leveraged the style and characters from the storybook. I didn’t love the ones I was seeing available, so I created my own.

Continue reading →

Birthdays, Girls Birthdays, Parties

Our Water-Fairy Themed 6th Birthday Party

September 22, 2022June 23, 2023by christeenaLeave a Comment

This was a fun one to plan, albeit a new challenge! Last year was the first time my eldest daughter (my middle child) joined in on the party prep. This time, she was ready to be involved in some of the actual planning! It was new version of mother-daughter bonding and a sweet glimpse into the fun ahead of us as she continues to grow and develop her own creative personality.

This year, she has been very much into fairies. It was one of her favorite themes during pretend play this year, and trust me when I say we’ve role-played all iterations (mother-daughter, big sister-little sister, mother-baby, big sister-baby, twin sisters, etc! 😆)! So naturally, she wanted her birthday theme to be fairies. She had also been playing “afternoon tea” with her nanny regularly, as it was their favorite go-to theme while waiting for her brother during his extra-curriculars (over snacks of course). This would work out well, I thought, as a garden tea party fit in easily with a fairy theme!

The planning was going easy, until she had a change of heart at the end of the summer and wanted to pivot to a pool party. That shouldn’t be a problem, I thought. But she didn’t mean to change the theme; just that she wanted it to be a pool party also. When I mentioned that swimming would be hard to fit in with fairies or a tea party, she exclaimed, “I know, we can be water fairies! Pleeeease!” 😭

Well, I couldn’t say no to my sweet girl who has the biggest heart. So, water fairies it would be! 💗

Continue reading →

Birthdays, Girls Birthdays, Parties

Our Teddy-Bear Themed 1st Birthday for our Sweet Baby Bear

August 25, 2022June 23, 2023by christeenaLeave a Comment

This was a special one. She’s our third and probably last baby. I remember when we found out her due date – which was the same month as my other daughter – one of my first thoughts (embarrassingly) was how daunting it would be to have to plan two birthday parties in the same month. Yet when the time came, it wasn’t daunting at all. It came easily, for the planning process and making it special for her was just was a natural expression of my heart!

While every birthday is special, the 1st is unique in that it is a marker of such a meaningful milestone in our lives. It is the first full cycle around the sun, the first full course through all the seasons, the first full year of getting to know our baby; the only year she is a baby. We get to pause in gratitude for the immense joy she has added to our family and celebrate this little person that we’ve gotten to know – who she is and who she’s becoming.

With each of my kids, I wanted their 1st birthday party to reflect an element of who they were. For my son, it was his big personality and his love for music. For my other daughter, it was the light she brought and how she reflected the sunshine. For this precious one, I wanted to reflect her sincerity, her sweetness, and for lack of a better word, her cuteness.

While she was still in utero, the kids had begun calling her “Jellybean”. The name stuck, and we expanded on it as we got to know her. Her sweet nature lent itself to many nicknames along the way, including “Pumpkin,” “Little Strawberry”, “Baby Bear,” “Josiebear,” and more. As I thought about how to bring this to life, the concept of a dessert bar that reflected her sweetness as well as her many names came about. And since one of her primary nicknames was “Josiebear” due to her cute, round, pudgy self, I decided to wrap the whole theme around teddy bears.

Continue reading →

Birthdays, Boys Birthdays, Parties

Pokémon GX themed 7th Birthday

November 27, 2021June 23, 2023by christeenaLeave a Comment

It’s one thing to design a party around a theme you are familiar with, and another around one you don’t know anything about. Pokémon is all the rage at my son’s school these days. I’ve never been into it, so this was a world I had to learn and quickly try to immerse myself in.

To make it slightly more complex, he requested not just a Pokémon party but a “Pokémon GX” theme. From what I could gather, the GX isn’t so much part of the show but refers to a specific type of Pokémon card 🤷‍♀️ that is further along in “evolution” and more powerful (but mainly just more shiny, holographic, and therefore fun 😄).

To my knowledge, there hasn’t really been a Pokémon GX party planned before so there wasn’t much to go on. After brainstorming, I decided to keep the overall colors close to some of the original popular Pokémon characters.

Continue reading →