The Year of Parties

So for better or for worse, we're really not a big birthday party family.  We celebrate birthdays but don't really get into parties with friends.  It's just not our thing.  But, feeling that Vero needed to have at least one experience with a special themed birthday party, I saddled up with a few random inspirations and trusty Pinterest at my side and made this the year of themed-birthday parties for each one of the kids.

So, hold up, I'm getting ahead of myself.  This year was our first Christmas all TOGETHER as a family.  And what a celebration it was!  As you can tell from the picture below it was practically perfect in every way.

Here are a few other pictures from Christmas morning

Magical, right?

Now, onto the birthdays...

 C has been into reading chapter books.  He's been excited in particular about starting the Hardy Boys series, so I took that as a theme and ran with it.  Taking a nod from the very first book in the series, The Tower Treasure, we based the party on finding the missing treasure from Tower Mansion.  Invitations were mailed in sealed manila envelopes marked "Top Secret".  Guests arrived at "Tower Mansion" to find a crime scene and had to offer up the secret password before entering. 

 Happy 7th Birthday C-dog!

This tray was out for observation for a bit.  Then it was taken away and guests had to use their detective skills to recall as many things from the "scene" as they could.  

Later we played a version of hot potato with the homemade "dynamite" on the tray.   

C wasn't excited about that or anything.  

Check out this magnifying glass cake and the detective holding it.  

Here are the little detectives deciphering clues to find the Tower Treasure.  

The treasure consisted of gold coins and jewels.

After some snacks. guests left with their very own Case Files including mystery solving necessities

 like magnifying glasses, notebooks for writing down clues, spy gear

 and candy to keep up their energy on the job.  

V's birthday is just 5 days after C's which means that in the span of a week we hosted 2 birthday parties.  While we had a great time, I'm not so sure that will happen again :)  

For our vibrant and colorful V, we had a rainbow themed birthday party.  

Invitations went out on paint swatch samples.  

Check out that outfit - yep, she proudly picked it herself.  

What Rainbow party is complete without a rainbow of streamers?

As guests arrived they worked on coloring in a banner. 

Here is the final product.

We played some rainbow themed games, ate some rainbow themed food...

and used the colors of the rainbow to make some beautiful creations.  

Somehow I missed taking pictures of the final products, so this picture of our supplies will have to suffice.  

Happy 7th Birthday V!

Stay tuned for our next birthday party installment - Spa & Camping themes are up next.