birthday party – Jackie Fogartie

Cookie Monster Birthday Party

February 24, 2015 By Jackie Fo 5 Comments

I’ve always loved Cookie Monster. Elmo gets all the glory with his cute (borderline annoying) high voice, but Cookie Monster….he’s the real unsung hero of Sesame Street. Cookie Monster’s end game? Cookies, cookies and more cookies. And you can’t argue with that. Plus he’s sweet. See below.

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You know who also loves cookies? My two year old niece Claire. Check out the hashtag #claireeats on Instagram to see her eating cookies and pretty much anything put in front of her. The hashtag is probably trending or gone viral or whatever the kids are saying these days. When it came time to decide on a birthday party theme for our very own little cookie lover, it was easy – Cookie Monster! There’s a plethora of Cookie Monster party decorations available. Party City has tons of it as does Etsy and Amazon. You can throw a super cute Cookie Monster themed party for your kiddo without breaking the bank or losing your mind. Plus it’s a real crowd pleaser because come on…who doesn’t love cookies?

Claire’s party was held at My Gym, a little kids gym that’s perfect for two year olds. They can run around, bounce and jump like crazy and get out that precious (read: exhausting) energy. Then they get all hopped up on sugar (aka cookies) and go home and crash from said sugar high. You might remember that Claire’s big sis Brookie had an Elmo themed party at My Gym just a few years ago.

Claire’s mama, my sister-in-law Drew, had the place all decked out.

There was a super cute Cookie Monster Banner flanked by blue balloons:

The kids table was dressed to the nines with Cookie Monster plates, favor boxes from Amazon and confetti!

I looooved these easy DIY plates Drew made.

And what goes better with cookies than milk? In these adorable little milk bottles of course.

For more delicious decoration, there were cookies in jars complete with cookies on a stick from Etsy.

We also had more cookies, in the shape of Cookie Monster himself of course. These custom cookies were baked and decorated by SugarBakers.

To be healthy, the kids had fruit pouches (with Cookie Monster on the front).

#claireeats fruit pouches if she can’t get her hands on a cookie…

Speaking of the birthday girl, let’s talk about her seriously amazing dress (from Etsy, obv). Didn’t you have a personalized dress for your 2nd birthday party? She looks like she’s up to no good here…

Even big sister Brookie got in on the Cookie Monster fun with her very own blue t-shirt.

And don’t you worry, we let Claire Bear eat more than just a fruit pouch for her birthday. She got to bite right into this AMAZING cake.

She actually couldn’t blow out the candles because she had cookie in her mouth. Can’t you just hear the inner dialogue? “Mooooom, can’t you let me finish my cookie before I blow out my birthday candles? Jeez…what’s a girl gotta do around here for a cookie?”

Claire really loved the cake and especially loved the #2 cookie. She’s really embracing this whole turning “2” thing…by eating a #2. In fact she tried to get at it from several angles as you’ll see below.

My two fave pictures from the day were little Claire sitting at the head of the table. How cute is this….she’s like “This is my world, preschool friends. You’re just living in it.”

And then this picture of a super creepy Cookie Monster. I mean, am I wrong or is big Cookie Monster giving the stink eye to his miniature doppelganger in the car? Maybe big Cookie Monster is mad because little Cookie Monster is driving away with all his cookies? The best part is I didn’t even notice this when I was taking the picture, I just accidentally caught this special moment on camera. Of a stuffed animal. Then I then wrote about it for a paragraph on my blog. (What am I doing with my life?)

All this cookie talk has me thinking about cookies….I’m going to raid the cookie jar now. Back later this week with another fun post! Happy Birthday to Claire Bear!

DIY: Cake Pennant Banner

February 11, 2015 By Jackie Fo 1 Comment

I hope you guys didn’t miss my Pink and Purple Horse Party I featured on Monday because that would be a real shame! One of my fave parts of any party is the cake, and this party was no exception. We topped the gorgeous ruffled cake by Kori Kakes with a plastic horse (duh) an a burlap pennant banner made by yours truly! I’ve got a quick tutorial for you so you can make cake banners and bunting until your little heart desires!

The horse party was as at a campsite/farm-ish type of place so I knew I wanted the banner to be rustic. My favorite rustic fabric is burlap, but you can make this out of any fabric you’d like. I’m by no means a professional DIY-er, this is just how I went about it. Believe me, if I can do it, you can do it.

First up, your materials:

Hot glue gun (#1 crafting tool of all time am I right?)
Burlap Ribbon (Wide) or Burlap Fabric
Twine
Wooden skewer sticks (yes, like for bbq-ing kabobs)
Scissors

So unfortunately you need to pull out a measuring tape for this. I don’t know why it annoys me so much to dig through the toolbox but it does. #firstworldproblems Find out how big the cake will be and measure out a piece of twine a little smaller than that. This cake was 11′ so I measured out about 10 inches of twine.

Tie each side of the twine to one of the sticks. You’ll need to hot glue the twine to the stick so it doesn’t fall down.

Thank god the measuring is over and it’s time to start cutting out your triangles. I freehanded this because I think it looks a little more “rustic” if it’s not perfect. Simply draw a triangle on the fabric and cut it out, it’s as simple as that. Then cut out a many as you need to fill the piece of twine.

Using your magical hot glue gun, glue each triangle to the piece of twine. I ended up gluing on a “backer” piece to the backside of each triangle so it looked more sturdy and burlap-y, but you don’t have to.

Note, all this burlap cutting makes a giant mess. Just keepin’ it real here.

Ta-da! There you have it, an adorably rustic DIY Cake Pennant Banner. When you put the banner on the cake, make sure you know exactly where you want it to go before you start poking a bunch of holes in the cake. Not attractive. I like it when the banner swags down a bit in the middle, but it’s totes up to you.

My next post which will come later this week is less rustic and more glitz with an adorable Popcorn Bar fit for Hollywood’s biggest night – The Oscars of course! See you then!

Pink and Purple Horse Party!

February 9, 2015 By Jackie Fo 1 Comment

What’s that thing your parents used to say to you? “Hey is for horses?” Well in this case…

HEEYYYYYYYYYYYYY Girl HEYYYYYYYY…

Following in the footsteps of her legendary Pajamas and Pancakes Party last year, my niece Brooke has officially cemented herself as luckiest little girl in history with another jam-packed birthday party. This time, we’re talking horses baby. Real live horses. So saddle up and get ready for some pink and purple horse party cuteness to celebrate Brookie’s 5th birthday. (Oh, and there’s a goat named Stu. Ha.)

The magical party took place at the beautiful Camp Whip-Poor-Will located right outside Charlotte. With 20 acres of land, creeks, hiking trails and of course horseback riding, the camp is a wonderful place for kids to frolic and do all those kid-type things they do during the summer. It was the perfect rustic and cozy locale for a pink and purple horse-stravaganza.

Guests were welcomed to Camp Whip-Poor-Will by balloons, garland, tissue paper poufs and of course, a “Welcome Friends” sign purchased from party mecca Hobby Lobby. All hail Hobby Lobby for its perma 50% off pricing, am I right? It’s like, how did they know we needed a chalkboard welcome sign with horses on it?

Also welcoming the little riders was a corral of stick horses for each of the girls to take home. The corral was handcrafted by my brother-in-law Michael (is there anything that guy can’t do?) and the horses were bought on Etsy shop My Lue (is there anything you can’t find on the internet?). They. Were. So. Cute.

In addition to stick horses there were real horses too. Each kiddo got to ride a horse around the ring twice and they obviously loved it. Here’s Brookie:

Even my almost 2 year old niece got in on the action, riding with her Mimi (who is being a good Mimi and holding onto Claire Bear for dear life)! That little girl’s got no fear and I love her for it!

The nice horse folks also bought a baby goat for the kids to pet which was amaaaaaazing because the goat’s name was Stuey. As in Stu? Mr. Fo? aka my husband? Hehe, Uncle Stu is a goat! Here are the kids petting Uncle Stu. I mean the goat.

Now that we’ve talked horses and goats, let’s talk outfits and nails because let’s be serious, this animal and farm talk has me a liiiiitle outside my wheelhouse here. I took Brookie to get her nails did for her party and she wanted pink and purple (obv). We went to my favorite place Polished where they all know her because I take her in to get her nails done a lot. Totes normal for a 5 year old. After we get our nails done I typically take her for a sugary treat because why not. #auntsarethebest

She sported a personalized horse shirt from Etsy Shop Bowdacious Baby, a cowboy/tiara hat combo from Party City and purple cowboy boots. Nothing says “Giddyup” like pink nails and purple boots.

Little sis Claire (who turns 2 in 10 days!) got into the pink and purple action too with her own pink cowboy boots. She couldn’t really walk in them properly so it was hilarious to watch her stumble around the farm. Are they not the cutest little sisters you ever did see?

Now for decorations and activities. Sticking with the rustic but girly theme, we used hay bales, burlap favor bags and flowers in galvanized buckets and mason jars to create a beautiful tablescape.

We picked up the bags at Michael’s (aka my second home) and Drew stenciled pink horses on each. We stuck a bandana in each bag and they made perfect table accoutrement and favor bags to take home all their goodies.

Goodies included these adorable horseshoe cookies by the wonderful SugarBakers.

And candy from the horse pinata. Yes, there was a horse piñata, are you surprised? Also, word to the wise. Piñata bats don’t actually work. We watched these poor kiddos try their hardest to break open the piñata for what seemed like 4 hours. Then we had to bring in a ringer (8 year old sibling) to finish the job. Voila – candy everywhere!

Flowers make everything better!

So does cake. The adorable ombre ruffle cake by Koris Kakes was adorned with a horse (of course) and a rustic burlap banner handcrafted by yours truly. I will give a DIY tutorial on the banner later this week.

Here’s the birthday girl blowing out her candles!

There were also some horsey type snacks (think carrots, apples and rice krispy treat hay bales!)

The kiddos definitely needed their fuel for the fun activities like:

Pin the tail on the horse (horse drawn by my weirdly artistic husband Stu aka Mr. Fo. And no, he didn’t trace it!).

There was also crafting and roasting marshmallows. Claire got into the roasting marshmallows which is why her official hashtag is #claireeats. Check it out on Instagram and you will see Claire eating all sorts of things.

There were 15 little girls at this party and they all had an absolute blast. Here’s Brookie with some of her pals (and their new stick horses!):

Here I am with the birthday girl:

And here’s my wonderful sister-in-law (can we just drop the in-law part please) Drew with her beautiful girls. Drew has been planning this party for a long time and it turned out perfectly. Make no mistake, the vision was hers and I just helped implement! She rocked it out of the park on this one.

And finally, as today is Brooke’s actual 5th birthday, I want to say happiest of happy birthdays to my first little niece who I love with all my heart. Brookie you have a sweet little soul (and it has to be said, absolutely perfect hair) and I can’t wait to watch you grow up. But for now, just stay 5 for awhile.

DIY: Cake Pennant Banner

Pink and Purple Horse Party!

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