birthday Archives - Madelyn Ridgeway

favorite things 3rd birthday party

October 3, 2012 October 5, 2012

We recently celebrated my oldest son Solomon’s third birthday and to say I was excited would be an understatement! This was the first birthday that he was really aware of the concept of a birthday and that fact that it entails gifts, cake and other fun stuff. Leading up to the party I asked him what type of party he wanted and his answers were all over the place. I want Buzz Likeyear (Lightyear) “birdday” (birthday) party”, “I want superhero party”, “No, I want balloons!” could all be heard in the span of a few minutes from Solomon. I gotta love him, he didn’t want to choose just one kind of party so I decided he shouldn’t have to. The theme for the party was a Soli’s favorite things party!

Let’s start with the invitation: For the front, I used one of my most favorite pictures of all time taken by Darcy from At Play Photo in an in-home session just before we left our old house. She captured Solomon in his environment with his cape running from room to room screaming “super Soli!” as he saved Teddy from the bad guys.

For the inside of the invite, I created a rhyme to engage the kids before the party and ramp up anticipation. It was such fun for me to have parents coming up to me before the party saying they were stumped on what the favorite things were! Can you figure out Solomon’s four favorite things from the rhyme?

Here are a few pictures from the day including one of the blue mouthed birthday boy!

The party colors were adapted from the Buzz Lightyear character. Buzz colors are typically purple,apple green and orange but since I really wanted to use the blue jean tablecloths I had on hand, we went with navy blue instead of purple. Such a fun color scheme for a little boy’s party!

Each child received a gift bag with one each of Solomon’s favorite things in it.

One big lesson for me from this party- you cannot host a toddler birthday party and play photographer! There were many details I missed out on because I was chasing my 18-month old. Next time I’ll hand the photographer duties over to a professional.

Did you guess the four favorite things correctly?

Love y’all,

It’s Party Time!

March 7, 2012 March 7, 2012

There’s not many things I love more than planning a good party and having children helps feed that obsession! My youngest son, Max will turn one next month and I am so excited to give my little boy an unforgettable, first birthday party. I can’t believe my little baby is turning one already. Every time he hits a major milestone i.e teething and walking, I get a ting of sadness. Max is likely my last baby so I want to nuzzle his little neck and get as many baby snuggles as I can get while they last.

Max and his signature mohawk

Let me put a little disclaimer out there; I confess that I’m a mom who goes a little overboard with her kid’s parties, especially the first one. A friend of mine once told me that from now on I’ll have to give cartoon-character themed parties and give in to a little person’s opinions so I should enjoy planning the first one. Duly noted and agreed!

Max’s party will feature a bow tie and balloon theme with turquoise, chartreuse, and splashes of grey as the color scheme. Here’s a sneak peek of the invitation.

I designed the invitation using illustrator. My plan is to add a couple of fun photos of the birthday boy to the back of the invitation and package the invites in some extra special packaging to be mailed out.

My brain has been in overdrive trying to pair down the ideas for this party. My goal is to make his eyes light up when enters the room. I think I’m on the right road!

Stay tuned for updates on the party planning process.

Love y’all,