Adventure Awaits!

**UPDATE- I'm linking up with Tatertots and Jello's Weekend Wrap Up Party, so I wanted to add a few more notes on the party!**

I missed Anna-Kate's birthday post, but I will add that one very soon! Derek installed a new operating system on my computer and it took most of the week! I'm grateful to have my computer back! 

For those of you who don't love the long picture posts, this one might not be for you! :) 

Saturday was Anna-Kate's birthday party! 

She decided on an "Up" theme party like this one: 

via

I knew she really chose this party because of the balloons and I wanted to customize it, so I came up with our own twist on this party. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out! Anna-Kate had a blast and that's really what it was all about!

I decided on using a silhouette just because I love how beautiful they are and I thought it would blend and add a classic feel to the fun and funky chevron pattern I love so much. Both the chevron pattern and silhouettes are really in right now and I could not be more excited about that! I found a silhouette of a little girl blowing bubbles and decided to edit it on Adobe Illustrator. Then I merged that with a clip art of some balloons. I had to clean up the clip art because it was done in a sketchy style. I was able to fill in the balloons with the colors of her party too!

I used the same design for most all of her party printables, except for the birthday banner (I've got a close up in a picture below). The birthday banner has three alternating styles, chevron, polka dot and stripe. All were the same colors so that they blended well!

I envisioned twice as many balloons, but living in such a small town, I had to make due with my resources available here! I love the way it turned out though! 

My sister picked up some tubs and bowls from Target on her way here. I'm so grateful we made the last minute decision to get those because they really look great with the decor! Plus, I saved them and I can use the tubs for storage in Anna-Kate's room! 

I loved these marshmallows! I bought the large Campfire brand so the marshmallows were huge! These are super easy and quick to make too. I just melted almond bark in the microwave and dipped. Then I used some sprinkles to add a little color. I got so lucky and was able to find a set of sprinkles that matched her colors perfectly! 

You might can see the little tissue paper pom pom garland on the fence. I wish that I had taken a better picture of it because I loved the way it turned out. I just made lots of tiny pom poms and I didn't worry about them all being the same size. Then I just tied them onto twine. Simple and inexpensive but really adds to the decor!

My wonderful sister made these delicious cake pops for me! I will try to share the recipe for the cake- oh my word it was delicious! They were dipped in white almond bark that was tinted pale yellow. We used a few pearl sprinkles to give them a little flair too. I stuck the cake pops (and tootsie pops) in styrofoam that we cut to the size of the bowl. Then we wrapped pink tulle around the styrofoam. I think they are pretty cute!

My sister also found these popcorn boxes at Hobby Lobby for me too! (I wish we had a Hobby Lobby here so bad!!)

I am one lucky girl to have such an awesome sister! :)

We also gave the cake pops as party favors (along with a marshmallow popper and a balloon!) 

I wish I had a better picture of her cute birthday banner hanging! (I have a close up of the first three letters at the end of the post but that's all!) I just hung a line of twine and then used clothespins to pin the letters up individually!

My friend Joanna made these awesome marshmallow poppers from Real Simple magazine's website.  They were a HUGE hit with the kids and adults! So much fun! You can find the tutorial here. She said they were really... simple to make! ha!

Anna-Kate's friend Savanna playing with the popper. 

Too much fun!

It was still just a little too light outside to see the movie and I never got a picture of the "screen" but Derek worked hard to get it all set up and running! The screen was really simple to do. We had an extra white flat sheet and we hung that over some twine and used clothespins to secure it. 

 I got brave this year and thought since it was such a simple cake that I would try to make it myself. I've always been horrible at icing cakes, but I bought a few extra tools to help me out. Plus I had my sister there to help make everything look pretty. :) 

Anna-Kate and Derek are choc-a-holics, so the bottom two layers were dark chocolate fudge (by Dunan Hines- seriously one of the most moist cakes out there...) and the top two layers were french vanilla (also by Duncan Hines). I actually baked the cakes, let them cool and then used a leveling tool to make sure they were the same height and flat. Then I wrapped them and froze the layers for easy icing!

The night before the party I made my icing (buttercream, of course) and then pulled the cake out of the freezer and iced it!

I have to explain my little family candle tradition. (Until I married Derek I did not realize this was unique) In my family growing up we always had three special candles- no matter how old we were. Once we got too old to have candles for every year we pretty much just had three. One for past, one for present and one for future. I still keep that tradition going on, so Anna-Kate actually had seven candles!

Anna-Kate had lots of help opening her gifts! 

Thomas was absolutely amazing the whole time! He mostly laid on the blanket and tried to watch the movie. He was really sweet to sit near Anna-Kate when she opened her gifts. 

She was one tired party girl! 

After she opened her gifts there was one that she and her friends wanted to open so bad! It had lots of little pieces, so Derek and I both told her to wait. However, all of the girls snuck inside and went to play in her room. When I went in to check on them they said "We're sorry we opened her toy up" haha. Then Derek's sister said "We didn't know you were going to come in here!" It was too funny! 

It didn't really get dark enough to watch he movie until around the time everyone left. I think when it cools off we will try to do a family movie night! 

I knew that Anna-Kate loved her party and that really is what my goal was. Planning and organizing the party is lots of fun, but it would not be anything if the birthday girl didn't enjoy it! This is such a fun age and I'm looking forward to life with my little 4-year old!! 

I'm so thankful for everyone that came and made her party special! My sister and dad came in from Tennessee to help me get ready- they were a huge help! My friend Joanna made the marshmallow poppers and Anna-Kate's adorable balloon shoes! Derek's mom helped me print off all of the things for her party that I had designed! I could not have pulled this off without all of the help!! 

I'm linking up to: 

and

and

Click on the pictures and join in the fun!