The Easiest Party I’ve Ever Planned
I feel like I learned something in my first three years of hosting children’s birthday parties – they were exhausting the way I was doing them, and I needed to make a change! I was focused so much on every little detail of each party, I hardly had time to enjoy them myself. I remember that after each of my son’s birthday parties I was so tired I needed a vacation after they were finished because I put so much work into them.
When it came time to plan my son’s forth birthday, I decided to try something different. I wanted to focus more on enjoying the party myself with my son, so I made changes in the way I threw this year’s party.
First of all, when it came to invitations Minted took care of most of the work for me. I easily picked a template I loved that was customizable, and the best part was that they allowed me to add a return addresses to the envelopes. I ordered the birthday invitations, and the thank you cards as well. Something small like having the return addresses printed, and having the thank you cards personalized saved so much time!
I also loved the way Minted sent everything. It all came in a protected box and was personalized with information on the designer of the invitations, and a hand written seal from the person who packaged the invites.
As you can see from the invites, we decided to have a movie-themed party! I decided that I didn’t want to worry about making a main table for the party like I always do, or rent somewhere that I would need to decorate the night before or the morning of, so we decided to rent a movie theatre!
Landmark Theatre offers a birthday party package where you can researve seating for your party and have use of a party room after, but because we had so many toddlers to invite who may have been seeing a move for the first time, we decided to rent a whole theatre for our party.
This was amazing for a couple reasons – first of all, no need to decorate, and no need to worry about the clean up! Everything would be taken care of for us which was great.
All of my son’s friends and family were in one room, and we could be as loud and unruly as we wanted! It also gave us the opportunity to invite whole families who wanted to come out as well. We decided to screen The Angry Birds Movie, and it was something even the parents could enjoy.
What we also loved was that we actually had the whole movie theatre to ourselves! We had the party at 10:00am, so the theatre wasn’t even open to the public yet so we had the whole place to ourselves which was pretty cool.
Landmark Theatre creates personalized tickets for your event as well, so not only was it one less thing for me to worry about, but the kids could bring these tickets to the concession stand for their own kid’s snack pack for the movie.
Having the party at a movie theatre was the perfect solution to my issue with obsessing over every little Pinterest-type detail.
Finally I had the chance to enjoy the party with everyone else, and I felt like this was the type of party that everyone could enjoy instead of it just involving kids activities.
I hardly spent any time preparing for the party at all! The only thing I had to handle was the treat bags, which I kept super simple.
I received a cute printable from Crea8ive Design and made little candy bags, and the treat bags were sourced by Party City. I didn’t even stuff them because my son actually really wanted to do it!
We had a great birthday party for my son, and I think I learned a super valuable lesson that I wish I learned a bit earlier. I really don’t want to look back at my son’s birthday’s and think about how much work they were. I really want to remember how much fun they were, and I think my little epiphany paid off!
Item’s in this post were provided to me for review, but all opinions are fabulously my own.
Summer Fun with #MyGeox
When I told my son we were heading shopping to buy shoes, he wasn’t all that excited. Once he found out his new shoes had lights in them it was a whole different story!
We recently shopped at Geox, and they had quite a few options for toddler shoes with the right criteria for my little guy.
We still need velcro on his shoes because he can’t tie his laces on his own yet, and they had quite a few styles with velcro. They also had some pretty stylish shoes with robots on them which almost never happens. Usually I stay away from shoes with robots and characters on them, but these ones were the coolest looking ones I’ve seen!
The wow factor was that they light up when he walks in them. Can I tell you what big deal that is? It’s pretty huge! He’s always trying to see his reflection so he can see the lights come on in his shoes!
He also went home with a cute book that we’ve been reading every night because he thinks it’s hilarious!
I love that my son actually loves putting on his own shoes because he’s excited to watch them light up!
For more information on Geox, visit their website here!
This product was provided to me for review, but all opinions are fabulously my own.
Enter to win Sago Mini’s new Jinja’s House Playset!
We have been big fan’s of Sago Mini and their toddler-friendly apps over the last year. When we travel we always make sure we have some of their latest and greatest apps uploaded for when our son needs some downtime.
They are also a parent-friendly as well! There are zero in-app purchases, so you can rest assured that your child won’t be asking you to download a full version of the game, or if they are allowed to buy characters to play.
Since my son has been such a big fan of these characters in the game, it seemed like a natural progression for him to want to have some of the characters as toys.
Sago Mini released some very adorable plush toys of the characters, which made my son and all of the other Sago Mini fans very happy!
Jinja the cat even travelled with us on a cruise last year! We couldn’t leave him at home!
Sago Mini’s latest launch has been Jinja’s House – a travel-friendly toy that unfolds to create a landscape of much loved character Jinja’s house.
There is not only a little Jinja inside, but also Rosie the Hamster, and there are some cute accessories like chairs, a table, bed, dishes a ladder and slide.
They even included some great little post cards and food for the characters.
My son (and I!) love the fact that this little house folds into a portable playhouse. You can store all of the pieces inside and take it anywhere!
My son loves Jinja the most, so he was very excited to see that Jinja’s house was Sago Mini’s latest toy launch! He carries this house everywhere, and he’s used it as a proper carrying case of all of the pieces that belong in the house. Jinja’s house makes my life easier as well because it packs up so nicely, and it’s a compact playset that keeps my toddler occupied when we are on the go!
To learn more about Jinja’s House, click here!
How would you like to win one for yourself?
I’ve teamed up with Sago Mini to give away one Jinja’s House playset to one lucky reader!
Enter via the Rafflecopter app below to win. This contest is open to both US and Canadian contestants. Good luck!
This product was provided to me for review, but all opinions are fabulously my own.
Summer Shimmer with the Estée Edit Flash Illuminator
I change up my makeup a bit in the summer to lighter formulas, and I use a bit more of a natural palette. I love to added a bit of bronzed look to my face because I use some serious SPF on my skin, and this new Estée Edit Flash Illuminator was a great way to add a bit of illumination to my face!
The best part about of this illuminator is that it can be used in so many different ways.
The shade I’m using is called Day Light which is more of a rosy hue that can be used as a blush, or I liked it mixed with my foundation to add a glow to my skin.
Even mixed with just with a moisturizer it gives a sun-kissed look.
The illuminator not only highlights but hydrates. It’s like having great lighting in a bottle, and it feels great on your skin as well.
This product is so lightweight. It’s so fun to mix it with my different foundations and moisturizers by adding more or less for a different look.
Some of the other illuminator shades are meant to provide different looks; for example Night Light provides a bronzy color that could double as a contour cream, and Spot Light is a pearly white colour that adds a soft-focus highlight.
Click here for more details on the Estée Edit Flash Illuminator.
This product was provided to me for review, but all opinions are fabulously my own.