Strikes & Spares

Whew! Am I tired or what?! It’s always amazing to me how hard I work to get the house clean and in order for out of town guests and then it ends up even messier by the end of the weekend. Oh well, it’s worth it. The boys had a great time with their grandparents in town for Mini #1’s birthday. The party was fantastic and all the kids had a really great time.

I’m sure you can decipher the party theme for yourself. Yep, bowling! It seems that day a couple months ago when I took the boys bowling, was a huge hit. So mini #1 really wanted a bowling party. I must say, I was a little skeptical at first about this idea, but it was really fun. And in my party planning process, I found two new absolutely fabulous vendors I am so excited to share with you!

Now, you all know me, so everything not only has to match but completely coordinate. And a lot of the times, I use colors as my theme but this time I used my invitation as my theme. I have to tell you, I had a really hard time finding a cute and original invitation that I was pleased with. Nothing was jumping out at me. I did find some really cute bowling shoe invitations but at over $100 for a very small quantity of invitations, that just was not going to go over too well with Mr. Monogram if you know what I mean. So I hit up my old standby, ebay. One of my friends always uses ebay for invitations and I never think to check there. But I was all over it this time! That’s when I found these adorable invitations from Paper Cuts LLC. I really wanted his monogram added to the top of the invitation and Kelly was so sweet to accommodate me and even included an extra invitation for keepsakes. She had them completed and in the mail to me the following day if you can believe that! I couldn’t have been more pleased with how cute they turned out and the 3-D bowling ball attached to the invitation was a such a fun detail!

So with the invitations all sent out, I had to work on the cake. I mean, we all know the cake is pretty much the main attraction at any party, right? And after scouring the internet I found an adorable cake design over at Family Fun (a really great parent/teacher resource, btw). I printed up the design, took it to the bakery and the final product was beyond cute. Mini #1 was super excited about his cake although I must say, I was not thrilled with the black and blue mouths the black icing from the bowling ball left!

Needless-to-say, the kids bowled and danced and had a really fabulous time at the party. The grandparents were a huge help and even bowled a little themselves. This was amusing to me since I don’t think my mother has ever throw a bowling ball in her life! But everyone had a fun. And when it was time for the party to end, I was most excited about the party favors. I am not a big fan of handing out bags of candy at the end of a party and really like to do something unique and memorable for the favors. So when my friend forwarded me Laura Poland’s cookie website, WeddingCookie.com, I knew I’d found my favor! Think Rolling Pin Productions but without the inflated price. I called Laura a week before my party and told her what I had in mind. And while she didn’t exactly have what I was looking for, she found the cookie cutter I was looking for and had the cookies finished and Fed-ex’d to me on Tuesday. By Thursday they were waiting for me at my front door, completely in tact and perfectly packaged. Laura was so great to customize the cookies to match the birthday party invitations for me, again, tying in my theme, and I couldn’t have been more pleased. They arrived already individually packaged and tied with a matching red ribbon and I must say they were a HUGE hit! So if you’re getting married, throwing a baby shower or some sort of party, make sure you call Laura. If you don’t see what you’re looking for on her website, call her anyway and see if she can help you out. Her prices are unreal for the quality and size of favor you are getting and I can’t recommend her enough.

So I guess it’s time for me to stop procrastinating and get back to picking up all the mess around the house. Thanks to everyone who left sweet Happy Birthday messages for mini #1! He was so excited for his party and his birthday that he was dressed and ready by 8 a.m.! I’ve got a great project for tomorrow, but right now I’ve got to go. Hope you all had a great weekend!

P.S. You know I can’t sign off without mentioning Britney’s shaved head! WHAT?!?!