Jake & The Never Land Themed Party

Anne from Domesblissity shares her children's joint party. Both of Anne's children are born in November so instead of planning two separate parties, she asked her children what we their thoughts on a combined party. They both agreed and Jake & The Never Land theme was decided on. There was a girl pirate and a boy pirate, so it was perfect.

Anne made many of the party's elements including the invitation, party loot bags, and the treasure map and chest which she filled with "treasure" for the kids to find.

Various food items were made in theme with the party theme and Anne baked the vanilla flavoured pirate ship cake.

The home's play fort was decorated with skulls and crossbones and transformed into a pirate ship, and her sister dressed as a pirate hosted the games.

You can read more about Jake & The Never Land themed party here.

If you would like to share and submit a past party you've hosted get in contact! Email me on gen.y.mum@gmail.com would love to feature your party on here. 

A Little Golden Book Themed Party

Blogger Teacher by Trade, Mother by Nature went with sweet A Little Golden Book theme for her son's 1st birthday.

Leading up to Master M's celebration his mum collected as many A Little Golden Book's as she could find from op-shops, friends and family. They would be used to decorate the room and prop pieces, and be given to Master M to start his own ALGB collection.

Mermaid Theme Birthday Party

A mermaid theme party was held for a special little girl who turned 5.

Miss M's mum created a magical drinking station and dessert table which included themed cookies, cupcakes, bubble gum flavoured macarons, personalised chocolates and two cakes.

Party Vendors & Details:Cake Topper: Creative Signs Unlimited

Balloons: Spotlight

Tulle skirts: eBay

Personalised chocolate wrappers, bottle tags, bonbonieres tags: Etsy

Cake coconut flavoured cake: Amor's Creations

Strawberry themed cake: Amor's Creations

Mermaid cookies: Amor's Creations

Bonbonieres were sets of mirrors and combs

If you would like to share and submit a past party you've hosted get in contact! Email me on gen.y.mum@gmail.com would love to feature your event on here!

Linking up with Sonia

Colourful Birthday Party Inspo

A casual picnic for a sweet little girl's 1st birthday.

No theme for this celebration but Miss W's mamma loves colour and wanted lots of it for her daughter's 1st birthday party.  She got lots of ideas from Pinterest, so most of the party food, cake decorations, crape paper garland and invitations were DIY. 

On the menu, family favourites that Miss W's mamma knew were popular, and that she could prepare days ahead, including grandma's sausage roll recipe, spring rolls mini quiches, mini pies, fish fritters, fresh corn, fried rice, salads, mini rolls, BBQ chicken, fresh fruit, rocky road, brownies - lots of home cooking with help from family. She also made Miss W's birthday cake! 

What a colourful celebration!

Party Vendors & Details

Location: Back Courtyard, Kirribilli Neighbourhood Centre

Cupcakes: Katrina Tanhueco email: katsmile@bigpond.com

Decorations: Poppies for Grace 

Party Supplies:  Discount Party Warehouse

Meat pies & sausage rolls: David Jones food hall 

If you would like to share and submit a past party you've hosted get in contact! Email me on gen.y.mum@gmail.com would love to feature your event on here! 

Linking up with Sonia

Spa Party Themed Party

Miss L knew exactly how she wanted to celebrate her 8th birthday. A Spa Party was fitting because she wanted to share her special day with her closest friends, doing fun girly things girls love to do. 

Each little girl got a robe to wear once they arrived. Pink lemonade in lit up cocktail glasses, strawberries, watermelon and fairy bread were served while waiting for all Miss L's little guests to arrive.

Once they were all there the girls were pampered with a spa pedicures, chocolate facials and a bit of makeup on each of them. Treatments were given by Miss L's mum and a friend helped with applying make up on the girls.

For the menu chicken nuggets, sausage rolls, party pies, french fries and mini burgers were served. 

At the end of the day each girl's got a bag to take home which included their robe, headband, towels, lip smackers, their cocktail glass and a cupcake.

Vendor and party details:

• Foot spas: borrowed from various family and friends
• Ikea: plastic bowls, mirrors, face towels, hand towels and bath towels  
• Abcoe: cutlery, napkins, plates and light up cocktail glasses 
• Local party novelty shop: milk bottles, straws, pom poms and other decorations
• Girl's robes: made by a family member of Miss L's 
• Cake: made by a family member
• Alaroch: glitter number 8

If you would like to share and submit a past party you've hosted get in contact! Email me on gen.y.mum@gmail.com would love to feature your event on here! 

Diner en Blanc Themed Baby Shower

A few weeks ago it was my sister in law's baby shower. She doesn't have any sisters, so my sister and I took it upon ourselves to plan her baby shower for her.

A few months prior we were thinking about what theme the baby shower would be, then it dawned on me ... "Why does it have to be all cutesy and all about the baby already?" When you become a parent, everything you from that point forward is about your children. Once the baby arrives there will be so many years of upcoming cutesy parties to throw, this should be a celebration of her. Her last hurrah! before her life completely changes, so cutesy was out the door and chic and celebration was in.

A remember seeing a photo from Blake Lively's baby shower. Words that sprung to my mind when I saw it were; celebration, love, sisterhood, rustic and life. I thought that's the kind of vibe my sister in law's baby shower should have. Roughly at the same time the annual Dine en Blanc dinner was held, and I was drawn to the all white theme the party is renown for. So I merged these two ideas together and an All White baby shower theme was set in motion.

The day was as beautiful as I imaged, and was one of the easiest parties I've organised to date. I think its all got to do with the people who helped me on the day. There's my sister who knows I'm particular, especially when it comes to how I do things, and I've been lucky to have a few friends who always offer to help, and knows how I operate too, so we all work so well now. I also lured some unexpectant friends of the mother to be to help on the day.

All the women wore white, except the mother to be - she can wear what she wants. There was white everywhere from the table clothes, serving trays, flowers, balloons, even the marquee was white.

Note: Apologies about the photo quality. I think someone must've changed the camera settings.

Vendor and party information:

• Communicakeit : custom 'Baby Johns' cake topper. 
• Cake'n'Pop : Snickers flavoured cake.
• Balloon Elegance : 3 mega balloons with tassel decorations.
• Pretty Up! : 10 floral mason jar centre pieces. 
• Loomas: array of sweets and baguettes  
• Other food: pasta, rocket and quinoa salads that various people made, father in laws famous deep fried lemon chicken, chicken skewers purchased from Coles, antipasto platter, arancini balls, and many guests decided to bring a plate of food on the day too.
• I asked all my girlfriends to keep any glass jars they may come across several weeks in advance. I collected them and used as drinking cups on the day and used some to keep fresh flowers.
• Drink dispenser : for fresh home made lemonaid and ice tea which, I borrowed from a friend.
• Marquee : belonged to my in laws and proven to come handy over the years. 
• Tables: we borrowed from people but I also purchased two bi-fold tables from Bunnings. 
• Invitation : was created by my sister, copying an invite we liked on Pinterest and printing them onto 6x4 photo prints through Kmart's printing services.
• White table covers: Kmart
• Straws: local novelty party shop 
• Tags: local novelty party shop 

If you would like to share and submit a past party you've hosted get in contact! Email me on gen.y.mum@gmail.com would love to feature your event on here! 

Hot Air Balloon Themed Party

Miss S had a hot air balloon themed 1st birthday party. Her mum really love the movie "Up" and wanted to incorporate the multi coloured hot air balloon for her daughter's birthday party. The main colours she used were pink, yellow & green. 

Miss S' mum designed the invitation, thank you tags & made the bunting. She also made Miss S' outfit which was a simple onesie, iron on cupcake and the number "1". The tutu & bow with tulle was purchased from Spotlight. She also made a thumb print guestbook for guests to sign their name. 

Overall it was a fun day out in the sun as the children got to take advantage of the water park that were accessible at the park.

Party & Vendor Details

Venue: Blacktown Showground

Spotlight: Miss S' DIY outfit

Discount Party Warehouse: For party supplies
Dr Professor Lollies: Sweets and lollies
Ma'Cakes: Themed cupcakes

If you would like to share and submit a past party you've hosted get in contact! Email me on gen.y.mum@gmail.com would love to feature your event on here! 

Minnie Mouse Theme Birthday Party

Minnie Mouse was the theme for Baby A's 1st birthday party. The theme came about because she was gifted a Minnie Mouse toy and it seems to be one of her favourites.

Miss A's parents also decided on the Minnie Mouse theme because they drew similarities to the character. Miss A loved the colour red, shoes, cheeky and a pocket rocket.

Miss A's party was held at Paddington Gates Playground, one of the beautiful spots at Centennial Park. Her parents also set up play areas for all of Miss A's friends to explore and play in.  

Her parents had organised a little picnic with an array of sandwiches, pastries, sweets and of course cake. Her cake was a beautiful and yummy three tier cake, comprising of choc ganache, marble, red velvet flavours.  

Miss A's day wouldn't have been a success without the many hands that helped on the day. 

Party details and vendors:

Minnie Cake and cookies: Sweet Designs
Sansrival macarons: NW Food Cakes and Catering
Food: Bourke St Bakery, palabok and lumpiang shanghai (traditional Filipino food)
Balloons: Party Warehouse
Candy cart: Livi's Candy Cart
Photographer: Corral Photography 

If you would like to share and submit a past party you've hosted get in contact! Email me on gen.y.mum@gmail.com would love to feature your event on here! 

TMNT Party

What is TMNT? .... Well if you grew up in the 90's like I did you would instantly know what it stands for, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!!

This was the theme for Master L's 1st birthday party. So fittingly the party menu mostly consistent of pizza!! They hired a pizza caterer who set up a mobile wood fire outside the venue to make fresh pizza's. They made an array of entree, mains and dessert pizzas for guests, and Master L's family made a few side dishes like salads, pasta and fruit to compliment.

Master L's party was definitely a labour of love with family and extended family all pitching in to help make the day a success as it was. Master L's dad designed the invitations, dad's sister made the cake, balloon creator was a brother-in-law and his mum created his costume. 

Party and vendor details:

Venue: Balcombe Heights Estate
Catering: You Pizza
Cake: Cake and Pop Shop
Kids table and chair hire: Celebrating
Jumping Castle hire: VS Kids Australia

Foil balloons, table covers, giveaways: Big W (check to see whether your local Big W has a dedicated party shop department as not all do)
Hired banner stands, give away stickers and Pin the Mask game printed through Cast Graphics
Decorations, cutlery/crockery/cups mainly sourced from Celebrating
Drink dispensers, trays, serving utensils from a local home wear store called House 2 Home at Crows Nest

If you would like to share and submit a past party you've hosted get in contact! Email me on gen.y.mum@gmail.com would love to feature your event on here! 

Link up with Sonia

Little Ray of Sunshine

Was the theme to Miss C's 1st Birthday, with key colours sunshine yellow, peachy pink and chocolate brown.

The theme came about because when Miss C was a newborn her parents would sing "Little Ray of Sunshine" by Axiom and would always seem to calm her down, even though their renditions were a little off-key. To her parents she was her their little ray of sunshine. 

For Miss C's first birthday party her family did almost everything themselves. After googling instructions on how to, her mum sewed her 50m bunting. It was back breaking work she admits. Charlotte's grandma made the balloon flowers and various photos of Miss C were framed and used as table centrepieces. They also bought hessian material to cover the picnic tables and Miss C's dad designed and painted the birthday backdrop, using a large piece of calico and poster paint in the birthday colours. 

Food was supplied by the help of family and friends. There was nibbles, salads, fried chicken, filipino noodles (pancit), various dessert and of course BBQ, taking advantage of the park's facilities.

Miss C's mum made the birthday cake. Neapolitan ice-cream was her inspiration, and baked three layers of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. 

As party favours, Miss C's mum ordered from ebay plain brown boxes and attached personalised stickers they designed themselves. She stuffed the favours with homemade treats and chocolates. 

Party and vendor details:

Venue: Rouse Hill Regional Park

Photo frame centre pieces: Ikea Tolsby Photo Frames 
Bunting and hessian fabric: Spotlight and Lincraft  
Photographer: Ariane Banaag  
Fingerprint guest book and ink pads: Bleu de Toi on Etsy 
Customised stickers for the giveaway boxes: Vistaprint 

If you would like to share and submit a past party you've hosted get in contact! Email me on gen.y.mum@gmail.com would love to feature your event on here! 

Ain't No Party Like A Gen-Y Party

I like planning parties. I like planning. 

Over the years I've thrown my share of parties (Eli's 1st and Kai's 1st). 

What I love about parties is executing ideas that you have, cause really that's a core component of a party - an idea, a concept. Sometimes we need inspiration, or need to know where or who can help us with our ideas, or just information on how to do things. 

I also love sharing information with people. If you couldn't already tell by this blog, I'm not shy to share my knowledge of things I know or experienced, or my "brain farts". So this blog is going to start, and regularly share past party ideas. 

I've got some amazing friends who have agreed to allow me to share photos and info about parties they've hosted and slowly I'll be sharing them with you. 

I can't wait! 

If you would like to share your party details and photos on this blog, or have any questions about doing so, please email me on gen.y.mum@gmail.com


Linking up with Sonia for this weekend rewind

Kai's 1st Birthday

I thoroughly enjoyed planning Kai's birthday party. Coming up with original ideas and executing them ... that's what I like doing.

Being a first birthday we wanted to capture this milestone and hired a photographer named Freddy Morales. I first met him when he was taking photos of a friend's daughter's first birthday. I saw his style of photography and I knew he would capture this special day beautifully ... and I was right.

Freddy took some amazing photographs of the day. You can sense the emotions in the candid shots he took of our guests, the beauty in the simplest objects and captured stunning portraits of my family. Here are some of my favourite shots. 

For more information on hiring Freddy feel free to contact him on his email address below. Or to see more of his amazing work please check out his website.

webite: http://freddymorales.com.au

instagram: http://instagram.com/fredmmorales

email: fredmoralesphotography@gmail.com

I almost forgot but also a big thank you to my brother in law's bro who pretty much ran the kitchen that day. He came up with recipes for my food requirements and made everything. He even took control of the kids food situation allowing me to focus on entertaining. You were an angel that day (and everyday) and everything was delicious!

Also another big thank you to my fellow crossfitting mama who was constantly helpful leading up to the big day and made chocolate dip strawberries. I think I requested these bad boys just for me and she delivered. 

To my sister in law who made the kiddie bags. You went above and beyond! I got lots of praise for these bags all thanks to you. 

To my extra helping hands that morning and that afternoon who helped set up and pack up. Thank you for always offering your time and agreeing to help out and take in my bossy orders. You know who you are .. love you all. 

Bowtie Themed 1st Birthday Party

Eli had a theme for his first birthday so it was only fair we did the same for Kai's. We joked about doing another Superhero's theme so we could reuse the costumes we had purchased but again that wouldn't be fair.

For Kai's we decided on a Bowtie theme where guests were encouraged to wear a bow tie either in their hair or around their neck. From there the ideas for decorations and food were pretty endless and I actually struggled to pin point one idea and stick to it. If you really want to see where my head space was during the planning process have a look at my pinterest board to see the various things I had pinned.

I found an invite on pinterest and we pretty much copied the design word for word. That is why we didn't pick up the spelling error on our invites for the word neighbourhood which was spelt the American way - Neighborhood. We printed these off and I made some bowties which I stuck onto the invites. 

Originally I wanted to cook as much of the food as possible .. cause I'm over confident like that, but I soon realised it wasn't going to happen especially with two small children to watch over. Plus I didn't know what kind of food I wanted to serve the adults whether I wanted traditional Filipino food or something more western or a combination of both. Kids food I knew I had to cover separately as this was something I learnt hosting Eli's first birthday party. I had a few older kids at his and a few moms asked me if there were any kids food ... of course you need kids food for kids parties!?!

I was driving around one day and was waiting at an intersection when this food truck did this massive 360 spin around a round about that caught my attention. Then it hit me .. "Why don't we have a food truck at Kai's party?" Genus!! No one's done it before and it'll be fun. So I started contacting the various food truck vendors in Sydney to inquire about hiring them for a private function. I think I contacted about five, got responses from three, narrowed down my decision to two and decided on the one based on value and ease of communication. 

We ended up going with Street Sliders. You can go to their page for more information on their menu and catering packages. Pat from Street Sliders was so easy to deal with and worked with us to ensure we were happy and that they met all our catering needs. 

I knew I didn't want to do a candy dessert table anymore but of course wanted to serve desserts. I remember I ordered from a vendor called Looma's a few years back and recall seeing they do mini cakes and pastries so decided to order through them again. What was perfect about their service is they deliver food directly to you, food is always fresh and can take orders 24 hours prior to the day they're required. 

I was stuck on a cake idea for Kai's for ages. As I mentioned I knew ideas for the party were pretty limitless but I knew I didn't want a massive bowtie cake cause to me that would seem a little tacky. I wanted something again, that hasn't been done before, and then I stumbled across an image on Pinterest of this long rainbow cake, and I knew that was what I  wanted. Even though it was really plain I liked the concept and it was long so I could spell Kai's full name on top of it. I had all intentions of making it myself, I even made an attempt at baking a small rainbow cake but again realised I wouldn't be able to do it all. So I asked a family friend who bakes if she could make the cake for me, she agreed.  

For weeks I was researching online where I could find alphabet candles and surprisingly not many Aussie vendors sell them. I found a few but they were not the style I was after, and I found styles I did like but from overseas suppliers who, if they did ship to Australia was charging ridiculous prices. I thought about making my own candles using crayons and even practiced a few times at home but they didn't look as pretty as I'd hope they would turn out. I had to come up with another option. 

Originally I wanted to create a feature wall with using balloons. This was the image I wanted to try and replicate. I thought I could just create the wall on the day. I know it was going to take a lot of effort but thought if I just concentrated on creating this feature wall during the two hours prior to when the party starts it would be achievable .... wrong! Again I soon realised this wasn't going to take an hour or two, these particular balloons were expensive and I learnt we're not suppose to stick anything onto the walls of the hall. So I decided to scraped that idea and not to bother with any decorations. But a few days prior to the party I was second guessing my decision not to have any decorations, so again started sourcing balloons. During my research I found a vendor (Fun Time Party Solutions) who made miniature mega balloons and thought why not have them on top of the cake instead of the candles. So I ordered each letter and a number "1" mega balloon for the day. 

I then found another image and a tutorial on how to create a honeycomb pom pom bunting. I remember seeing these kind of pom poms from party shops and they weren't too expensive so I decided to try and replicate this look. I purchased 40 $1 honeycomb pom pom's from Kmart to create my bunting. 

About a year ago I attended a 1st birthday party and the host had set up a kids table for all the kids to sit at. It was really cute cause they had their own little space to sit and enjoy their food on. I remember thinking it was a great idea so I asked my friend for the vendor's details so I could do the same. Not only did I hire kids tables and chairs from Tiny Tots but also some play equipment for the kids on the day. There was a playground next door to the hall but was suited for older children and many of the kids invited to Kai's party were younger than two.

In my next post I'll share photos from Kai's actual party and how I executed my ideas.