Celia is one of my favorite clients and I love doing all of her events… from her wedding to baptisms to birthdays, she always trusts me to bring some fun designs and decor to her celebrations! This double-birthday bash was no exception!
So many details for this fun fête! Celia made/found at least half the decorations (and all of the favors) herself. She is totally creative and not afraid of a DIY project.
One of the most important parts of this event was to keep it safe. Celia lost her Grandmother earlier in 2020 to Covid so she didn’t want her party to be a super-spreader. She broke visitors into groups, hosted everything spread out and outdoors and even had themed masks as part of the party favors!
She always wants me to design original artwork for these, so because this party was a hybrid of Candy/Sweet Treats theme for baby Oliver and Dinosaur Ice Cream social for big brother Jaxson, I did two different invitations and artwork styles with the boys’ likenesses.
Thanks to Jennifer Kaye for these photos.
DETAILS (AS TOLD BY CELIA):
To start off, I have two sons, with summer birthdays and therefore two celebrations to plan for. My plan was to have a “One Sweet Year celebration” for my one-year-old, Oliver in June. This theme seemed fitting because he just loves food and thought how cute would that be?! For my sweet toddler his creativity helped me pick a theme…Between reading National Geographic books on dinosaurs and daily pretending to be T-rex or triceratops I knew instantly DINOSAURS was the theme for my Jaxson. Of course, I never imagined that their birthdays would fall during a pandemic and we would have to social distance in order to safely celebrate with those outside of our immediate household. Though discouraged at first, I had a great conversation with my planner, Kristen of Kio Kreations, and we discussed how we could implement a social distancing event following guidelines our state (Illinois) has in place. I decided it was best to have a single birthday party event (combining both boys’ birthdays into one day) and the attendee groups would be broken down into 3 time slots/groupings of people to minimize exposure. Due to the abrupt end to the preschool program due to COVID, I knew my preschooler would love seeing his classmates along with some family friends—I designed to create a birthday parade Ice cream social with two different time-slots to host guests. So basically, our party consisted of a short two-part Ice Cream Social, followed by a longer, extended family party that still maintained socially distancing practices.
Our birthday parade drive-by guests were welcomed with a special treat from the Cold Stone Creamery ice cream truck we rented. Guests spaced out in the front yard to eat their treats and kids played with sidewalk chalk and enjoyed their ice cream and just simply got to be kids! It was wonderful! We had music, chalk and inflatable donuts for kids to play with and dance. It was great seeing children smile and enjoy each other’s company after many months of isolation. As a thank you to our guests, we gave them a dinosaur or candy-themed mask (made by my mother), a sweets box filled dinosaur-themed cupcakes, ice cream-themed pretzel sticks, donut-themed kabobs and custom sugar cookies AND we also sent each child off with a dinosaur theme/ice cream theme favor bag!!! These bags were filled with play-doh, a dinosaur cookie cutter, ice cream bowls, dino eggs, rainbow lollipops, Nerds rope candy, mini gumball dispensers, dinosaur gummies and dinosaur party sunglasses. Did we go a little overboard?! Yes! Was it worth it to see those smiles?! Yes!!
After our ice cream social(ly) distant friends’ event, we had our immediate family join us for a outdoor barbeque in our fenced backyard. We spaced tables out by family and provided hand sanitizer and family tongs, as well as a bucket of beverages for each table. The tables were decorated with a colorful floral + candy centerpiece that was whimsical and fun.
We also had some food pre-packaged and the main food was made by the food truck/caterer we hired for our event. They served BBQ ribs, burgers, chicken breast, and hot dogs with sides of corn, macaroni cheese and roasted potatoes.
We also had a “Dino Dig” table which featured an assortment of dino eggs (cheese balls), dino claws(fritos), and dino bones(pretzels). All of these delicious snacks were placed in individual dinosaur cupcake liners. We also had a cheese, crackers and meat table set up for our carnivores.
Our sweets table was filled with a huge variety of desserts including churros, cupcakes, cake pops, sugar cookies, dinosaur print cookies, ice cream themed pretzel rods, and assorted candies. The boys each had the most special birthday cakes ever to go with their individual birthday themes! They were almost too perfect to eat! Almost…!
After eating, kids were entertained with a fun zone that included hours of twist balloon creations, face painting, and a big bubbles show. The kids loved this!! Everyone (including the parents) got involved in creating these huge bubbles! The party wrapped up with the breaking of our ice cream and dinosaur piñatas. These were a big hit (pun intended!)
This was, by far, our most fun birthday yet! The fact that we pulled off such an amazing day for our boys while also keeping everyone safe meant so much to me. Being able to see both Jaxson and Oliver’s smiles of joy to see everyone they love join them on this special day made all of my mommy planning efforts worthwhile. It was THE BEST DAY!
VENDORS:
Venue: Client’s backyard in Bensenville, Illinois
Planning, Balloons, Flowers, Invitations, Banners, Signs: Kio Kreations http://kiokreations.com/
Photography: Jennifer Kaye Photography https://jenniferkayephotography.com/
Catering/Food Truck: BBQ on Wheels www.bbqonwheels.com
Ice Cream Truck: Cold Stone Creamery www.coldstonecreamery.com
Birthday Cakes: KD Cakes by Donna Olsen https://www.facebook.com/KD-Cakes-by-Donna-Olsen-361676563857726/
Entertainment: RC Juggle Entertainment https://www.rcjuggle.com/
Cookies: Chris’ Creative Cookies (https://www.facebook.com/chriscreativecookies/
Themed Pretzels: Sugarberry Bar
Inflatable donuts, donut + ice cream balloons, ice cream light up: Amazon
Dino Décor + Faux Leaves: Hobby Lobby
Dino Candle, High chair banner, birthday hats: ETSY
Name Letters: Veronica Carcamo