Vic has already blogged about it, but I need to throw my two cents in too... we threw a rainbow baby shower for our good friend Vicki this weekend.  We had a blast picking out cute rainbow ideas on Pinterest... and nicely reining each other in when we started to go over the top.  Here's Vic and I with the mama-to-be.



I held myself back from designing eight zillion things for this party--I just made an invite, thank you cards and some favor tags.  I'll eventually make more to sell on Etsy but in the meantime you can buy the invitation here.  Did you know I love chevron-ny things?  I do.



Our most fun feat was baking rainbow colored treats.  They turned out MUCH better than I anticipated and were a lot of fun to make.  Although somehow we were convinced that we should take a shot of tequila in the middle of our baking.  The best part is that Sol and I bought the tequila at a Walmart in Mexico several years ago.  And even better is that our credit card was declined when we tried to buy it, so we had to take a cab back to our hotel, then back to Walmart to buy our Mexican loot.  Oh, Mexico.  Please don't judge me for any of that.  I think I only confessed that because I've had half a beer as I type this.  Please don't judge me for that either.  Anyways, a rainbow cake and some rainbow skewers.  Also the cute cookies in the picture above, painstakingly rolled and stacked by Vic.



Chevron Rainbow Shower!  It's a cute one, you know you want to buy all our stuff and throw one yourself...

Like all parties, this one started with an invitation.  I like to say that the invitation sets the tone for the party, the envelope sets the tone for the invitation and the stamp sets the tone for the envelope.  I can't remember what kind of stamps I used--it was either Reagan or Kansas, but either way it set the tone from the beginning that this was a party for Republicans. (By the way, just prior to this sentence is a joke. Pretty much only the first sentence makes any sort of sense.) I printed the invitations at my new favorite website, MPix.  They are a Kansas company and the only place I'll be printing cards in the future.  They were fast, gorgeous and affordable.  You can even print the back!  And the paper was shiny!  Swoon.  Obviously, I used Paper Source envelopes, as if there was another option.



My pal Sarah poked fun at me for printing my own fabric, and I probably deserved it.  I was going to buy the boys matching bow ties off Etsy, but once I realized how much it was going to cost me and how easy it was to make them (they are just a smaller version of the bow pillows I made) I decided to make my own.  And then I remembered that my best friends over at Young House Love had custom printed fabric for Clara's first birthday and I decided I just had to have some too.  I used Spoonflower--it was super easy and still way cheaper than had I bought some on Etsy.  I ended up making three bow ties for my three gentlemen, a belt for Braden and a blindfold for "Pin the Mustache on the Braden."  If you are interested in printing the same fabric, shoot me an email and I'll give you the file you can upload.  Seriously, mustaches on the bow tie.  Could it get any cuter?  I do not think so.

I made all the other standard items we sell in our Etsy shop... cupcake toppers and wrappers, water bottle labels, treat bag toppers (that I converted to lollipop tags last minute), a banner, food labels and thank you cards.  All that could be yours for the low price of $45!!! Or you can buy them individually if you don't need the whole shebang.







My parents gave me a Silhouette Cameofor Christmas because I neeeeeded one real bad.  And then it mostly sat in the box until a few weeks before the party, but let me tell you what, that bad boy was my hero in party prep. It's actually amazing. You know what a printer is, right?  Basically it's a printer but instead of printing with ink, it slices with a blade.  MAGIC.  It cut out hundreds of mustaches and bow ties, as well as the fancy backdrop behind the dessert table. I'm not kidding, the thing was magic.  I had to make myself stop making garlands because I was getting a little out of control.  (Me? Out of control?  Never!)



Who doesn't love pictures of the birthday boy?  Just like I did for Finley's first birthday, I made a banner out of pictures from Braden every month.  Oh that boy.



I used a recent photo of him to add some embellishments to--a top hat, bow tie and mustache.  What a debonair little fellow.  Finley did NOT like that there were things on Braden's face!


I had quite a few extra mustaches laying around and thought it would be fun to stick them on a family photo.  It's the little things that put a party over the top.  I'm not sure that necessarily a good thing.



One of my favorite things was "Pin the Mustache on the Braden."  This would have been a big hit with a slightly older crowd... the three year olds weren't that into it.


And the super trendy idea that I was so excited for... the photo booth.  These are all the rage now--I see them all over the silly party blogs I follow.  It was perfect for a mustache party.  The Silhouette cut out cute little accessories that I put on sticks for people to pose with.  So fun.  The 30 foot garland in the background is currently for sale in the Etsy shop if you are interested.






Here's a post detailing the menu and food from the mustache party.  And here's a post with a preview of the whole thing.


And all decorations are available here in our Etsy shop! These boy party ideas were also featured on Spaceships and Laser Beams.
- See more at: http://spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com/blog/2013/02/party-central/boy-party-ideas-add-yours-02-26-13#sthash.PDmVsMMH.dpuf

Well, this party was a lot of fun to cook for!  I tried to keep the foods "little" and "manly" to go with our theme.



The main food was "little man burgers." Unfortunately they didn't get photographed (although we did something similar at Finley's first birthday party) but they were little sliders on Hawaiian rolls.  We had Buffalo (chicken, buffalo sauce and blue cheese), Hawaiian (BBQ sauce and pineapple on chicken), Cheeseburgers and Burgers with lettuce and tomato.  Totally cute.  We also had cute little pigs in a blanket which I did remember to photograph.  These went quick--I should have made more!

I kept seeing this idea float around Pinterest--little crudites in individual cups!  They were bright, easy to eat and little.  And the little bow tie on the cup made me smile. Sol sweetly cut up red pepper, carrots, celery, zucchini and added a snap pea.  I saw lots of recipes for fancy dips--but I used a fun Parmesan Ranch Peppercorn from Wegman's.

The cake and cupcakes are my FAVORITE cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen.  It's a lot of work to make, but so so good.



Victoria sweetly made and shipped us these sugar cookies.  Aside from being the cutest things in the ENTIRE world, they made me take back every mean thing I've ever said about sugar cookies.  Even without chocolate, I loved them.  Thanks Vic!


And the favors were these silly lollipops.



Such a fun party!  That officially concludes the posts about mustaches.  And just in time--Finley's third birthday party is Saturday!  Get ready for some sailboat pictures.



In case you missed it... here are the Mustache Bash Decorations and a party overview. All decorations can be bought on Etsy.

Finley's third birthday party was almost a month ago... and I've delayed in posting about it because the party blog biz is very particular about not accepting posts that have been published elsewhere (apparently, including this rinky dink blog) so I got passed over by my favorite party blog, Amy Atlas, for Braden's party and wasn't about to let that happen twice. So I had to wait to share about it here until I knew if they were going to take it.  And obviously, that pretty much killed me... and then I got too lazy to post it in a timely manner.

But here it is!  The sailboat party!




We were lucky to order a rooftop carrier a few weeks before the party that came in an ENORMOUS box that I immediately knew needed to be a giant cardboard boat.  Sol sweetly cut, taped and painted this bad boy.  He's the best.  Now the box is hanging out in the family room with the beanbag in it... obviously it's perfect for watching TV.  Sol bribed them with their party favors to take this picture--I am SHOCKED that all five kiddos were willing to get in the boat and wear the hats. And look at the camera.  This picture belongs in a museum--that's how rare it is.



The kids really did have a lot of fun.  This was our first "kid" party.  We had four little friends over--and that was about our limit.  Braden kindly slept through the whole party, and it would have been a little tough had he been awake!



We decorated sailboats and floated/sunk them in the baby pool.  It held their interest for a bit.



They played in the giant boat, while Sol pretended to be a giant and "attack" them.  Only some of the kids thought this was funny.



We sent them home with a little personalized shovel and pail, a bag of chocolate pretzels, as well as their personalized hats and boats.  I can't even begin to explain how loved those pretzels were--seriously, I couldn't get them to eat anything else.  Not even their cupcakes!