SAGE'S 4TH BIRTHDAY + 4 TIPS FOR PARTY PLANNING

Sage turned 4 a few weeks ago and we celebrated with a strawberry themed party. Now that the girls are getting older and imaginative it's been fun coming up with party themes together with them. This theme was all Sage's idea and it was so fun being creative with all the details and sticking with the idea of sweet strawberry decorations. I love that the theme also is a reflection of who Sage is right now-- sweet with a bit of spunk, but delightful and full of goodness!

I created a lot of the decor on my own and just grabbed the basic things like table cloth and plates from Target and pretty flowers from the grocery store. I drew up some strawberry illustrations and hung them on twine for a simple background piece. Sage and I had fun decorating her cake together, placing strawberries on top with flowers and sprinkles scattered around. She was pretty proud of it and the strawberry cake flavor was delicious! We also decorated sugar cookies in the shape of strawberries together and I loved how cute they turned out.

We always love having an activity or game at their parties so we came up with a relay race for everyone (adults included) using only your mouth to grab a strawberry and run it across the yard into another bowl. It was pretty comical and entertaining--and surprisingly competitive. :) We loved celebrating our Sagey-girl this way. I love that her siblings jump right in to celebrating everything with her too and seeing how much they love their sister!

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With so many parties we've created over the years I thought I'd give a couple of my go to tips for keeping it simple, but meaningful at the same time:

1. Choose something you and your little can do together to make the party special for them: I let them pick out a theme, then we always bake and decorate a homemade cake together. It's become one of my favorite traditions to do with them

2. Choose a color theme: I find it best to use no more than 3 colors that blend well together for the overall appeal to be pleasing to the eye

3. The dollar store can become your best friend: I've found so many party goodies here that are simple and cheap. I usually grab the basics and then add cuter details around it to jazz it up a bit--like flowers, the strawberry illustrations, balloons, etc.

4. Come up with a simple activity for kids to do together (and maybe adults too if you have them stay for the party). I find that having an activity creates a fun atmosphere for the kids and give them a bit of structure instead of having a handful of kids running wild haha! A simple craft or game to play is perfect--plus it makes a sweet memory for everyone. 

Find more inspiration on my Instagram story highlights under "party"

Do you have any other ideas you add to your parties? I'd love to hear your thoughts too, leave a comment below. 

Raleigh's Golden 6th Birthday!

A few weeks ago we celebrated our oldest turning SIX! I don't know what it is about this age, but it felt like such a bigger leap in her getting older than any other year before did. She turned 6 on September 6th so a golden birthday party theme was inevitable--it helped that gold is one of her favorite colors right now too! :)

She and I had been talking and planning this little party for months and it was so fun to come up with everything for her special day together. Her biggest requests were to have dancing and a piñata, so we did just that. We had family and a couple close friends over for an evening of dressing up in gold colors and hanging out together then ended the night with eating her favorite meal for dinner...mac and cheese! 

I've started a little tradition with the girls the day before their party baking the cake and decorating it together at home. I love that they get excited about it and we get to plan how it will look and all the pretty things to put on top. Raleigh's was pretty simple. I used a box cake, with pre-made frosting and added some gold spray sugar and sprinkles for extra details, then topped it off with sprigs of flowers here and there to add to the vibe of "pretty gold" I was going for. She loved it! 

It seemed perfectly fitting to have a golden themed party to celebrate because I think everything about her exudes light and joy and it's just so easy to love her. She loves people and being a part of the fun and naturally invites everyone around her into whatever she's doing. She's inclusive and silly, and bright eyed and smart. She cares deeply and is artistic and since the minute she was born she's made everything better. I find myself staring at her more these days, wondering how we got so blessed to have such a radiant beautiful girl like this--God is so good and I'm just so proud and honored and humbled to be her mama. 

We love you deeply Raleigh girl! 

A few sources from our party set up:

Flower arrangements: Milk and Honey Florals

Gold plates, napkins, gold utensils, baking supplies: Walmart baking, wedding and party section

Table cloth, golden crowns and gold sparkle runner: Target party section

Gold and white balloons for homemade balloon arch: Amazon

Raleigh's golden sparkle dress: Amazon

Gold star piñata was homemade

Twins 5th Birthday Fairy Party

It's been a little over a week now since we officially have three 5 year olds running around our house now. If you're confused by that, our oldest is still 5 and will be 6 in September--her and the twins are 10.5 months apart!

We celebrated their big day in fairy style with just our family for a sweet morning brunch. Anything having to do with fairies or princesses is all they've been into lately, which I kind of love to be honest. I love to watch their imaginations run wild as they dress up and pretend and invent new ways to play together. It brings me back to all the things I used to do as a kid and all of a sudden I'm 5 years old again too.

I scored some things on Amazon for the party like these dresses and shoes that the twins have been wearing non stop. For the birthday activity all the kiddos painted and decorated fairy houses to take home. I was so surprised at how into it they all were and loved that it was something they all were excited about. Seeing each little house at the end of it all was probably my favorite, they all turned out so dang cute!! I love making intentional times like this at their parties, a little activity they can all look forward to and remember back on  as they grow up.

These twins of mine have sure given us more life and laughter and challenge than we ever imagined, but reflecting on this past year with them was something that made Shane and I both choke up at the thought of how sweet our year with them has been. They are feisty and fun, and strong-willed and kind and creative and smart and determined. So many similarities between them, but each in their own unique and different way. I'm pretty proud I get to be the one they call mom and I loved celebrating them in this way.

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Here are a few links and inspiration ideas for more things I grabbed for the party in case you were wondering:

Girls fairy outfits: Most of it I found on Amazon, all linked here

Fairy houses and accessories: Houses and mini mushrooms I found online & the rest I grabbed at the dollar store like the moss, clear stones, and butterfly stickers. Similar items here
**Dollar store is a great place to browse for cheap craft stuff. (the adults helped hot glue the stones and moss on once the houses were painted)

Craft paint: All the craft paint I grabbed for .50¢ each at Walmart--  a little tip: I chose 6 colors that all coordinated so it wasn't a big eye sore of color by the end of it ;)

Table decor: I usually browse the birthday section at Target for some cute things, like the gold paper plates and scalloped white table cloth. For flowers I bought the greenery fillers and cheapest pink ones at our local grocery and sprinkled them around the house in jars to add a pretty touch. I used the moss and stones and wooded tree pieces we had laying around as the center of the table to make it look "fairy garden" like. 

Cake: I love to have my kids bake the cake with me and decorate it together for their party--a little tradition we started a couple years ago. I found some fun edible glitter spray and sprinkles in the baking section at Walmart for these that I've used over and over again for the last few parties. (Walmart surprisingly has a ton of fund baking stuff to make cakes and desserts pretty if you're into making them yourself)

Cake topper: I was inspired by this pin I found on pinterest and made the number 5 myself with glitter

Fairy crowns: I made these myself out of craft things we already had at our house and grabbed some fake flowers from the dollar store to add. I will give a little tutorial on that soon! 

Fairy wings: These I also saw at the dollar store (win!!) and grabbed 8 of them for the kids. They were an ugly lime green color to begin with so I bought gold metallic spray paint to change them up and make a little prettier.

Final touch--Fairy topper Illustrations: The little fairies I illustrated and taped onto a wooden stick and place around the flowers and on top of the cake was a last minute idea I had. My girls are ALWAYS asking me to draw things for them these days so it felt fitting to draw them a fairy for their party too. They were quite a hit with them!

I wanted to gift these fairy illustrations to you as well just for saying "thanks" for being here and following along! Simply download the illustrations here, cut them out and add a stick to the back with some tape or glue. If you end up using them I'd love to see how it turns out so don't forget to tag me on Instagram @coleykuyperart #coleykuyperart.

Twins 4th Birthday!

Yes, I realized that it is OCTOBER already and I'm JUST now posting these. But I'm documenting them nonetheless. The twins turned 4 in July and we celebrated with a sweet and simple rainbow popsicle party. Having a summer birthday growing up in Phoenix doesn't give much room for doing anything outside other than swimming. And I'm sure you can see by the sweaty glow on our faces in these pictures that this day was a HOT one. But it didn't stop us from doing something special. Swimming was their favorite activity all summer so it only made sense that we added that into the fun. This summer they both learned how to swim on their own fully so that was another milestone to be remembered in this fourth year of their life. 

These twins of mine never cease to keep me on my toes, constantly challenging the boundaries and figuring out what they can and can't get away with. It's exhausting to say the least, but recently the thing I've reflected on most in being their mama is how much of myself needs to grow up. The things that are hard in parenting them have began to shift my perspective and grow my heart in ways I didn't know needed to grow before. And for that I'm eternally grateful for this gift in them that I see God has given. Apart from the hard stuff, they are the epitome of joy and excitement and all things FUN. They know how to laugh at the silliest things and create beauty and kindness around them. 

Throwing this rainbow themed party for them was just a reflection of who they are...bright, beautiful, and something you always want to be around. We ate melted popsicles, swam until the sun went down and celebrated with homemade rainbow cupcakes. These girls have been a surprise and challenge since the moment we found out they were arriving, but my heart couldn't be more thankful for them and how they have made our family what it is today.