I hate to have my picture taken. But here I am in all my glory the morning of. I chose not to wear mascara for obvious reasons then – rethinking that decision now! (Oh that is a good picture of my master bedroom before – will be sharing redo soon).
And here’s my sweet BBC just moments after entering this world…sniff.
How cute (and the birthday boy ain’t bad looking, either). I loved the party stuff we got for his first birthday and especially his smash cake!
Tip 1: Hire a photographer that is trying to build a business to take pictures. I had a friend that took pictures for birthdays. Her fee was $300 for the party and you got to pick 35 photos – yowsers! So I asked a photographer that was trying to build her business if she had thought about doing parties. She had not so this was a win-win opportunity. She charged me $50 to take photos for 2 hours and then gave me a CD with about 200 pictures. She even did cool stuff to some of the photos. Then I took her business cards and gave her referrals. She now charges a $300 minimum and upwards of $800! Fun to know I had a hand in helping her get started.
This is one of my favorite family photos that she snapped that day. What a memory…sniff.Second Birthday
We hired her again the second year. More cool photos. She honored her original price for me, too! It is so awesome to have someone do this for you – especially at the young ages. I cannot recommend it highly enough. You get to focus on the fun and you get GREAT photos. Best money I have spent at a birthday party to date!
Tip 2: Use what you have. We did a transportation theme for this birthday. So I cleaned up his dump truck to display the party favors.
Tip 3: See the photo display of BBC through the years? This is a fun way to help everyone reminisce the years during the party.
He had a big fit just before this picture. Hands down one of my favorites pictures and memories.
Didn’t book the VERY popular photographer in time. Photo quality down hill from here!
This was my first birthday party as a stay-at-home mom. I went a little too crafty – oh my! The theme was Thomas so I made an appetizer train with pretzel logs, chocolate graham coal and chocolate chip cheesecake boulder. I even made the lopsided cake (my first half chocolate half white cake)! Laugh!
Tip 4: See those scrapbook pages to the right of the picture? Each year I buy scrapbook paper that goes with the theme of the party and then I have the guests leave a special message for the birthday boy. LOVE this.
Pirates! We ventured out to a pizza joint for this affair. All the kids dressed up. Lots of fun! I even stepped up my skills and made a 3D pirate ship cake with cannons and all. Complete camera failure. I only salvaged a couple of pictures. Why didn’t get I continue with the photographer? Arghhh…
He’s not a baby anymore…sniff.
Tip 5: We decided to only throw a big shindig every few years. This is the year we decided to go to the local Jump Zone. Second best birthday party money I ever spent because all I had to do was bring cupcakes – they did EVERYTHING else! And the kids were all worn out and ready for nap after the party!
And that leads us up to today. Happy Birthday BBC! He’s a big SIX years old. Sniff. He’s in kindergarten now and he is learning so much.
Tip 6: It’s OK to keep it SIMPLE! It’s all about the memories! He’s having a small party at school this morning. Because of this we decided to skip all the big birthday hoopla and just enjoy this year as our little family. We are taking him to his favorite place to eat – Larry’s Pizza – and then to see a movie. I love that we are keeping it simple this year.
Well thanks for walking with me down memory lane. I hope you enjoyed as much as I did.
What is your best birthday party tip?
~Southern Fried Gal
January 27, 2010
thanks for all the fun ideas… I love you train of goodies!
~ Emily N. from “to Blessed 2 Stress”
January 27, 2010
Sweet photos!
I love the Pirate party…my younger brother had one of those one year. I totally agree about keeping it simple. The little kids mostly seem to want to play anyways, and don’t care about the expensive decorations.
January 28, 2010
Love the memory lane pictures!!!
Party tip from this year with a seven year old, and a nine year old with 12 little boys at my house…(Host it somewhere else!)
For real: I did small group centers, and it was the easiest party yet!!!
January 28, 2010
We just celebrated a 5th Birthday last week, so I am all about the nostalgia.
We have never hired a photographer, but I have found it very helpful to have a friend be the official photographer, that way mommy and daddy can be in on the fun of opening presents, playing games or blowing out candles and not have to be hiding behind the camera.
Or worse- have no pictures – like my daughters 1st bday, where we called all our friends and begged them to send us whatever they had.
January 28, 2010
Precious! Thanks for sharing. I felt the same way with G this year. Love the post idea too!