Theo's 4th Birthday Party

A few weekends ago we celebrated Theo's 4th birthday party. Remember his music-themed 3rd birthday party last year? About four months before his party I asked Theo what kind of party he wanted. He said, "A chocolate party!" Two months later he said the same thing. Admittedly, I was a bit stumped. I mean, how awesome would a chocolate party be!? But then again, every parent would kill me if all I served was chocolate everything. So then I came up with the idea of "Theo's Chocolate Waffle Bar Party" that would incorporate his love for chocolate AND waffles--plus, give everyone different options including savory ones.

Inspired by my trip to Dinette in L.A., I decided to use metal trays lined with a custom kraft liner. The whole look was made even cuter with these bear face party napkins from my friends at Harlow & Grey. I vowed to never cook all the food for a birthday party again (Lucas' round-themed 2nd birthday party nearly killed me) but this waffle bar was pretty easy. I ordered scrambled eggs and popcorn chicken from the Whole Foods catering department in Berkeley, made a few batches of chocolate waffles in advance and froze them, made some syrups in advance, and just cut some fruit and baked tater tots the morning of. Oh, and you know what saved me was this little guy from Amazon.

Ready for a heart melt? Lucas made Theo this birthday hat out of paper, tape and string--one for Theo and another tiny one for Theo's "baby" stuffie.

Organic fruit and syrups with custom labels ;)

Homemade chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. I really need/want to take a cake decorating class.

A family tradition!!!

Somewhere along the way Theo transformed into a ninja. Haha!

We hired the best kids band ever Your Song My Song. They were taking requests and Theo wanted "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. So they figured out how to play it! High five!

This is the face of a happy birthday boy!

The party favors were delicious butter waffle cookies from Trader Joe's hand dipped in semi-sweet chocolate and sprinkled with rainbow nonpareils. I packaged them in glassine bags and sealed each one with a custom label.

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Favorites: Tea Adventurer Campaign

I can't believe Lucas will be starting kindergarten this Fall. I don't think I'm over preschool yet -- he's ready, I'm not. Tea Collection recently asked me to help them launch their back-to-school campaign by sharing Lucas and Theo's hopes and dreams for the year with their #TEAADVENTURER campaign, a Tea-take on the already popular back-to-school tradition of First Day posters. I'm really loving their latest collection inspired by travels to Argentina and Bolivia (remember Lucas and Theo in their last collection inspired by India?).

We spent a Theo and mama day at Pizzaiolo (one of my favorite restaurants) in Oakland where we devoured pumpkin spice donut holes, a frittata and an almond latte, and then getting Theo his first real haircut at the the Temescal Alley Barber Shop.

Lucas wears the Colorblock Pocket Tee in Thunder, the Rayo Graphic Zip Hoodie in Heritage Blue and the French Terry Playwear Pants in Forest.

Theo wears the Colorblock Pocket Tee in Arabian Spice and the French Terry Playwear Pants in Olive Drab.

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Lucas' 5th Birthday Party

For the last two years, I've been asking Lucas what kind of birthday party he would like to have. He didn't have much of a say for his 1st or 2nd birthdays, but starting with his Superhero 4th birthday last year, he's been very clear about what he wants. Of course, he gets the modernized version of it because that's how I roll.

This year Lucas turned five (can't believe I have a 5-year old!) and without hesitation, he said he wanted a "Wild Kratts" party. If you haven't seen this show, it's worth checking out. It's an educational animated series on PBS, created by and starring brothers Chris and Martin Kratt.  The show is full of fun facts about animals, ranging from polar bears to geckos, and each episode features a particular critter's unique "creature power". Lucas gets really excited learning about animal powers and defenses, and I love when he enlightens me with new animal facts! This year we decided to throw a joint animal-themed birthday party with Judah, Lucas' good friend from school, who turned five the day before.

This year I partnered up with Whole Foods Market, which provided the amazing appetizers, entrees, beverages and desserts for our party. The super-talented catering teams from the two Berkeley locations created a delicious picnic style meal that included fried chicken, mac 'n' cheese, deviled eggs, strawberry/spinach salad, a yummy cabbage crunch salad, "turtle sandwiches" and cupcakes in two flavors. In addition to the lunch menu, they created some amazing food sculptures to go along with our animal theme.  Mice out of lemons? Porcupines out of watermelons? Chickens out of eggs? Crazy cool and fun, right? And as a special added touch, the team at the Gilman store location were kind enough to make us custom paletas in three flavors -- blueberry cream, apple/pineapple and fresh strawberry.

To modernize Lucas' vision of a "Wild Kratts" party, I decided to go for a more generalized animal theme, with "Go Wild" as a primary graphic element. Starting with the invitation design, I painted abstract animal patterns using simple black watercolor paint, and hand wrote "Go Wild" which would later become a logo for the party. I took a cute photo of Lucas and Judah and used it as a custom envelope liner. The envelopes were finished with matching wraparound address labels. The invitations, liner and envelopes were made with recycled paper.

For dessert, I baked a yummy red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, decorated with rainbow sprinkles and five wild animals on top.

If you've seen our other birthday parties, you know that donut holes are a Jackson family  tradition. This year's donut cones were made with the animal printed recycled paper.

Judah's parents got each birthday boy a Wild Kratts "creature power" suit as a gift. Lucas started off as "Chris" (green), but by the end of the party had traded with Judah to be "Martin" (blue).

I love this photo of Lucas testing out the t-shirt favors.  He wasn't crazy about having his photo taken, hence the pouty face. I couldn't resist. 

For the party favors, I made a giant rubber stamp of the "Go Wild" logo, and hand stamped white t-shirts in various sizes that I ordered online. Each friend got a t-shirt to wear at the party and take home. (The shirts were also handy as a change of clothes for several kids who got grubby or cake-covered during the party). 

We originally scheduled the party for Saturday, and had all the invitations printed up. We later changed it to Sunday due to Little League conflicts. I didn't want to waste the old invitations, so I cut off the old RSVP information, and used the top half to make "creature power" trading cards that accompanied each t-shirt. Each trading card had fun facts about different animals. Cute AND educational! The bottom of the invitations were used to create name tags. Big thanks to Jocelyn, Judah's mom, for ironing and packaging each shirt with a custom hand written tag!

Jeremiah (Judah's little bro) and Theo!

We also set out a bunch of animal masks which the kids loved!

Partnering up with Whole Foods Market to provide all the food and desserts was a dream! The catering team was fabulous to work with.

How cute are these "turtle sandwiches" made of turkey, cheese, cucumbers and fresh bread baked especially for us by Whole Foods Market Gilman?

As the party's main event, we had Lick Your Eyeballs present a fun, informative and hands-on animal show. They were amazing! From geckos and frogs, to a kingsnake and caiman lizard, the kids were very brave and gentle with the animals.

Elsa holds a jar of gecko egg shells.

One of my favorite ideas for the party was to make "polar bear ice," aka popsicles. There's a Wild Kratts episode called "Polar Bears Don't Dance," and I wanted the "polar bear ice" to tie into that.

The team at Whole Foods Market Gilman made custom paletas in three fruity flavors (blueberry cream, apple/pineapple and fresh strawberry). All were a huge hit on the warm day.

I designed some packaging for the pops using wax food bags, snipped at the bottom and  sealed on top with a hand lettered label. The package kept the pops from sticking together in the cooler, and also doubled as a place for the melty drips to fall. But as you can see, the package was ripped right off. Devoured in seconds!

Birthday boys waiting patiently to blow candles.

I had no idea Whole Foods Market catered kids' parties, but now I'm spreading the word because the food was spectacular, and the catering team was open to my ideas, accommodating, easy to work with, and even delivered onsite (including compostable plates, utensils, napkins and adorable cups and straws from Susty Party). Special thanks to Lizzie at Whole Foods Market Berkeley for collaborating with me, to Jocelyn and Aaron (Judah's parents), and to my husband Nick, all of whom helped make Lucas' 5th birthday party a smash! For more information about Whole Foods Market catering you can contact the team here.

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Theo's Food Themed 2nd Birthday Party

I can't believe Theo turned two in August. It's amazing how time flies when you're having fun. And when you have kids. This year's party was really similar to his first birthday party -- a pretty low key celebration at our home with family and friends. By the time Theo's birthday rolls around, I feel like I'm just coming down from the excitement and craziness of Lucas' birthday party in April. This year's theme wasn't so clear cut -- Theo generally likes whatever his big brother likes, but no interests or obsessions in particular stood out in particular this year. I realized later that the big difference between Lucas and Theo is that Theo loves to eat. So why not a food-themed party?

The invitations I designed were inspired by his eight favorite foods, which include: blueberries, peanut butter, pretzels, and bok choy. I photographed each of the foods, and laid them out against a white background so they stood out. Under each photo, I inserted the name of the food, followed by Theo's own pronunciation. The invites were flat-printed on heavy, bright white cotton stock, and mailed in a kraft envelope with a custom liner (Theo's yogurt-covered face of course!). Finally, the envelopes were sealed with a black and white wraparound address label. My favorite line on the invitation was, "If you know Theo, you know this kid loves to eat." I mean, he wears the same size pants as Lucas except they're way too long. ;)

We decided to make breakfast at one of our favorite spots, Elmwood Cafe, a tradition on birthday mornings for the kids. We threw on the birthday crown for Theo and I snapped a bunch of sweet photos of the boys on the steps on our way to the car. Lucas has been the most amazing big brother in every way and Theo simply adores him.

It's always so hard to choose just a few items here. Everything is so delicious! We ended up getting the frittata with summer squash, peas, and poblano peppers with organic greens, a mushroom, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich, a cornmeal waffle with organic O'Henry peaches and Vermont maple syrup, a soy latte for me, a house coffee for Nick, and orange juice for Lucas and Theo.

While we waited for our food, I busted out the bag of good ol' random Legos and Matchbox cars to keep the boys busy. It's always fun to see how serious Theo gets when building things. He's got some pretty great fine motor skills for his age (whereas Lucas excels in those gross motor skills if you know what I mean).

After breakfast we walked down the block to pick up our giant order of donut holes from Dream Fluff Donuts for the party -- a tradition at every Jackson kid party. I designed the paper cones using abstract grayed out elements from the invitation as well as Theo's "signature". These are always a big hit with kids and grown ups alike.

And the biggest hit (other than Theo the birthday boy of course) were these S'mores Pot de Creme party favors. To go along with the food theme, I wanted to give something away that our guests could eat. We hired the amazing Andie from Bakin Bit again this year to cater our party (guys, she is crazy talented but also crazy busy!). I had seen these amazing creations she made for Oh Happy Day and asked if she could recreate it using Ball jars that would be given away as favors. They couldn't have bee more perfect -- food themed, delicious, super cute, and the jars are reusable! Many of our friends and family said they were the best dessert they'd ever had. I'm going to have to make these and store them in my fridge! I designed some coordinating labels for each jar to make them even cuter.

For a food themed party you have to have awesome food, right? While brainstorming menu ideas, I thought some sort of bar would be perfect for little ones. My first thought was a grilled cheese bar but then I remembered how last year Andie made this incredible mac 'n' cheese that people wouldn't stop talking about. I suggested a mac 'n' cheese bar and she went with it! She whipped up gooey mac 'n' cheese and had a slew of toppings people could choose from -- breadcrumbs, cherry tomatoes, pea shoots/peas, parmesan cheese, sauteed mushrooms, bacon bits, feta cheese crumbles, jalapenos, green onions, and sriracha sauce. She also made a strawberry, peach, and blueberry (all of Theo's favorites) salad with mint, a kale quinoa salad with cucumbers, and turkey dogs rolled in puff pastry on a stick (another crowd favorite).

The party REALLY got started when Eric (Theo's magical preschool teacher) and Jaime from Your Song My Song showed up to play music, sing, and dance in our backyard. They are just plain awesome and everyone loves them! They also sang Let It Go and you know all the kids got their groove on!

More dancing and noshing from the mac 'n' cheese bar!

The ever so sweet Jeanne from Shop Sweet Things and her adorable kids and hubby George (rockin' the polka dots!)

Not sure what Eric and Jaime did here (did someone take their pants off or something?) but I'm so glad I captured this photo! Theo's confused.

It was way past Theo's nap but Nana was secretly happy about that because look at Theo's little pudgy body melting in her lap.

It's cake time!!! I made a large carrot cake and a bunch of cupcakes. Remember how I said Theo loves to eat? Well, he ate that cupcake AND half the liner!

This year's thank you cards were postcards. Designed with a full bleed photo of Theo walking to pick up donut holes, along with his "signature," these postcards came out super cute while saving money on stamps and envelopes.

Thanks so much for everyone who came to celebrate Theo's birthday. We missed a bunch of friends but there's always next year! :)

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Happy Weekend and a Birthday Party Sneak Peek

Happy weekend friends! This week went by so quickly and now my little baby is 2. What?!? We celebrated his birthday last weekend with a little party at our home. It was so much fun but I'm so glad it's over! Lucas is helping Theo open one present each day, which really means Lucas is helping Lucas open one present each day. Theo is more excited about the boxes and ribbon!

Here are just a couple of pics from Theo's party. Stay tuned for more pictures of the invitations and details of the food-themed second birthday party.

What are you up to this weekend?

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