Have your next party at Kid's Street!

I love planning parties, but I honestly I haven't thrown a party in years. If you follow me on Pinterest you might think I plan a different party every week with all the fabulous birthday party ideas I keep pinning! You would be wrong, of course. Hubs and I have thrown some good ones in the past - my favorite being Festivus of 2007, and yes there was a metal pole, and no, grievances were not aired. When kids came into the picture we traded in the matchbook favors for balloons and stickers. But in the last two years I have had to cancel kids parties because like clockwork my kids get very ill on their birthdays.

M in the amazing indoor climbing structure!

So, this year we chose to do something different (for us) for M's 4th birthday party. I decided to put all my amazing Pinterest pins aside (gulp) and have her party at an indoor play space called Kid's Street in Needham, MA. The kids are getting older and need more distraction than a ball pit in the basement, and while I love throwing parties I loathe cleaning up after them, so we thought this would be a great alternative.

After M's party this past Saturday we walked out of Kid's Street and my Hubs said to me "so we are going to have all our girls birthday parties there right?" We were beyond happy with everything Kids Street did before and during the party. All I had to do was tell them how many guests and they ordered the food (I was able to somewhat customize the food to my liking) and cake, they set up, they cleaned up, and they took incredibly good care of my guests the entire time.

And speaking of time, they have this party thing down to a science at Kids Street. The entire party lasts only an hour and a half. Initially I was concerned that it wouldn't be enough time, but it was perfect. The time was broken into thirty minute increments - 30 minutes on the amazing indoor climbing structure, 30 minutes in the "gym" (a giant room with a rock wall, gymnastics equipment and other fun games for the kids to play) and finally 30 minutes in the party room where we had pizza and cake. And scene.

M and her birthday crew against the rock wall

The gracious staff cleaned up the room, gathered the extra food and even offered to put it in our car. It was the easiest party I have ever thrown!

If you are in the Boston area and are looking for an indoor location for your child's next birthday party please be sure to check out Kid's Street in Needham! I can't recommend it enough.

PS. Instead of gifts I asked that each parent bring a wrapped book for each child they were brining to the party. At the end of the party each child chose a different book than the one the brought, to bring home as a party favor. It was a huge hit!

(Oh and yes, M was actually sick on her birthday again this year, so I apologize if any party guests have stuff noses now.)




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

How to Create a Professional Looking Photo Shoot At Home

I cannot believe my baby Val is one year old today! I wanted to capture her sweet baby face on this day in a special way, so I decided to go all out and do a photo shoot unlike any I have done before. Usually I just stick the kids in some cute clothes and find some natural light, but this one I planned down to the time of the day. 

I wanted to share with you all how I went about putting together this "cake smash" photo shoot (there wasn't much cake smashing in the end, but I didn't care) so here is what went into this magical shoot.

Timing 
When I photograph the girls I shoot only with natural light, so I needed to figure out what time of day worked the best for shooting in my kitchen. I like to shoot in the kitchen because I have a wall of glass doors that allows a lot of light to come in, and there is a blank wall where I can hang backdrops or props if need be. Usually I shoot in the late afternoon, but Val is pretty cranky then so I didn't want to have to deal with a diva on my set. I had to try and time the shoot for within an hour of when Val got up from her morning nap, so I had everything ready to go for around 11:30 today. And it just happen to be a gorgeous sunny day today so everything seemed to fall into place perfectly!

Props
Fabric Banner: I have seen a lot of baby photos lately with this fabric scrap banner thing hanging in the background, so I figured I would give that a try this time around. I have SO many scraps of fabric in my studio, and had this shipment of excess scrap fabric from a fabulous fashion line called Moxie and Mabel that has been sitting around, so I was happy to finally put it to good use! You can check out their Etsy site if you are interested by clicking here.  The way that I made it is exactly like I make my "no-sew" tutus. I have tutorial on the blog, so click here to refresh your memory. The one I made for this photo shoot was about 4 feet long in length, and I secured it to the wall with thumbtacks.

Vinyl Floor Drop: If you are doing an at home cake smash photo shoot, I highly recommend investing in a vinyl floor/back drop. I got this one on Etsy last year and have used it for many photo shoots with the girls. Just throw it down on the floor, let the kid get messy and then wipe it off. So easy. No worrying about ruining your own hardwood floor with the dye from the icing. They are a little pricey, but are great to have if you take a lot of photos at home.

Cake: Oh the cake! I wasn't planning to make it myself, but I am the kind of person that thinks that if I put my mind to it (and find a tutorial online), I can do anything (crafty, that is). I did some research on YouTube and found an easy way to make an ombre iced cake:

I followed her directions for the most part, but didn't have a flat plate on which to place the cake, so I got creative at the bottom and just did dots (I guess that is the opposite of getting creative). This cake is 4 layers of 9 inch round cakes. In doing research on how to ice cakes, I did learn that you have to put a "crumb coat" of icing on the cake before you actually decorate it for real. This is basically a thin layer of icing that you put all over the cake, and then you place the cake in the fridge for a while until the icing hardens. This will give you a nice flat, crumb-free base to work with. This cake turned out a little lopsided, but I still think it is pretty great.

How cute is this cake!!!

Cake banner:
This I kind of came up with on my own. I have seen these before, but I decided to just wing it and create one without any help. I used Pixelmator to create the little pennant shapes with the letters in them, and then printed that out and cut out the triangle shapes. Then just backed them with some old Amy Butler cardstock I had in my studio, and finally strung them together using embroidery floss. I just attached the end of the string to some dowels I purchased at the craft store, and viola! Simple craft magic.

Wardrobe
What wardrobe? I had three dresses that I wanted to shoot her in, and decided not to use any as I really loved how the props looked together and didn't want any more distractions. I ended up just putting her in this floral diaper cover that I purchased before M was born 4 years ago on Zulily. Finally one of them wore it! And I think it was perfect.

At the last minute I decided to run to iParty and purchase some shiny pink balloons to throw on the floor, and they were a nice added touch before the cake came out.

I think one of the most important things to have when doing this kind of shoot is an assistant! I was lucky enough to have my babysitter help me wrangle Val, and M was happy to kick balloons at Val's head. Ha. But seriously it is a tremendous help, when you are shooting babies or kids, to have someone to make faces or say their name that is not you, as you should be focusing on getting the best shot you can.

Some advice - take a bajillion photos! Don't stop shooting, because some of the best photos aren't the ones that you set up. One of my favorites is of her crawling away with pink icing on her foot.

Here is a slideshow of the entire shoot (the colors look a little contrasty in this slideshow for some reason):


If you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section below as I am happy to help you create this magical set up yourself! I have actually already been asked to do this for someone's child, but don't think I will have the time to invest in doing this for other kids right now. Perhaps when summer is over, and M is back in school I will be offering my services to everyone though!

M turns Two-dles!!!

M in her first outfit of the day

This past weekend M turned 2. Holy crap I am the mother of a two year old.

No more are we counting her age in months, she is just simply 2.

She is no longer a toddler, but a little kid.

To celebrate the completion of her second year of life we had a little Mickey Mouse Clubhouse shindig with close friends and family. As with her first birthday, she was a little under the weather. Luckily this year it was more of a runny nose than the violent vomiting the year before. We decided to press on, as it was nothing a little Nose Frida-ing couldn't help!

My husband's brother, and my sister-in-law, along with their twin two year olds came to stay with us for the entire weekend. I was nervous about how Marlo would react to having two additional kids actually staying with us in the house, but once they got here, and got settled, and started playing together it was just wonderful.

M with her adorable cousins and some serious morning hair

The twins turned 2 in August, and are very different from my little monkey. They run around the house and climb on things like they were born to do it, while M is still a little shaky on her feet when it comes to stairs and climbing things. But M talks a blue streak and the twins say a few words here and there. But none of that matters when they are playing together. It warmed my heart to see them sharing toys so well (well, M was not nearly as good at sharing as her cousins were), and running and laughing and being silly together. When they left on Sunday, and the house was quiet again, I was definitely a little sad.

I had said I wasn't going to buy her much, but M was showered with gifts from my husband and I, as well as all her friends and family. She opened so many presents over a 4 day period that I think she thought every day from now on she would get a present.

Some of the biggest hits were Minnie's Birthday Boutique, Sesame Street Bus, and Mickey's Choo Choo Express. While she hasn't shown terrible interest in it just yet (my kid has the shortest attention span ever - like her mother!) my favorite thing she got was Toobers & Zots foamstruction set. Any kid that loves to build and sculpt will definitely love this set of bendy foam pieces.

And finally my mother bought her Let's Rock Elmo, the it toy of the season. It was last Tuesday (five days before her actual birthday) that I was cleaning up in the kitchen and heard "Elmo Dancing Mama! Look! Elmo Dancing! La la la la Elmo's song!" from the next room. I peak around the corner to the tree and there is my munchkin with a half un-wrapped present in front of her as she dances around it with her hands in the air. I couldn't be mad (hell, I put the presents under the tree a week early) and it was the cutest thing to see her get so excited about the actual gift. Since we have opened it, she has played with it twice. It is cute, and annoying. If you buy the microphone for the kids separately it actually recognizes Grover's voice and sings along, which in itself is pretty cool. But as with most toys like this, he only sings 6 songs, and they get old fast. It was a big hit with all the other kids at the party though!

All in all it has been an exhausting and wonderful past couple days (shout out to my fabulous mother for coming up to help out with everything! Couldn't have done it without you,) and I still can't believe my baby is 2. I feel like it was just yesterday that my water broke, 4 weeks and 2 days early, while I was out walking my dog and bent over to pick up her poop. And now she is running around the house singing songs at the top of her lungs, and filling our days with excitement and drama...so much drama.

A Very Happy Birthday at My Gym

Yesterday I celebrated M's second birthday (which isn't for another two weeks really) along with her 8 Isis buddies and their families. These are the women that I have talked about many times on here, with whom I took my first mommy and me class at Isis almost 2 years ago. We have watched our kids go from drooling lumps of baby goodness to these amazing active little people, each with their own awesome personalities.

Instead of attending 9 different birthday parties within 6 weeks of each other, and celebrating each child individually, we wanted to do one big bash and celebrate all together. Since all of our kids need to run and climb every minute of the day, we decided to try out My Gym Boston.

Having never been to a My Gym party before we booked I didn't know what to expect. I happen to be invited to one a few weeks ago for a friend of M's who turned 3, so I got a sneak preview at the Norwell location. There are things to climb, and slides, and all sorts of fun things, and then the instructors actually lead a little mini-class full of songs and parachute activities. I thought it would be the perfect thing for my Isis group...

And boy was I right! Last night's party was a huge success, and I cannot say enough good things about  My Gym Boston. The instructors were amazing (I am sorry I don't remember your names!) - much better than the ones in Norwell. They remembered each of our 9 kid's names the entire night, were incredibly good with the kids, and made sure a few times that everything was being done to our liking.

The Boston location is about 3 times the size as the Norwell one too (these are the only two I have been to). The kids were constantly entertained and running around with giant smiles on their faces.

The parents were happy too, as we were allowed to bring in drinks (including booze) and food of our own to enjoy in the eating area (not on the gym floor). With our package that we purchased we got pizza for the kids (with plenty left for the adults), juices and water, as well as a delicious cake. They provided all of the paper goods, as well as gave each of the kids a balloon at the end of the night.

There is nothing like having a party where you aren't responsible for entertaining the kids, or cleaning up at the end of the night! And the adults as well as the kids had a great time.

If you are looking for an affordable fun venue for your kids next party, look no further than My Gym Boston. If only they let us adults use the dolphin swing on the zipline!