My favorite area of the party was the kid’s table! I wanted it to feel like a slightly more elegant version of sitting down at Pizza Hut in the late 90’s. Think pebbled cups, activity placemats, and plain white plates (like you got at the buffet — if you know, you know). The highlight Each place setting had a 3D pizza that was actually a mini pinata full of candy!

I also added a chef’s hat and apron for each child as all the guests were able to make their own pizzas! I set up a huge station that had almost any topping you could think of — from all the meats and cheeses to veggies and even pineapple (which is crazy to put on pizza — I will die on this hill). I loved seeing all the unique creations as I put them into the over and each one turned out better than the last!

I, of course, cannot forget that we had a HUGE dessert table! We called it Gavin’s Italian Bakery and filled it with so many delicious treats. Everything from cannolis and tiramisu to italian cookies and cakes. My favorite part, easily, was the cake and cupcakes made by my super talented mom! She’s made all the cakes for the boys’ birthday parties over the years and is constantly outdoing herself! This year she make “gelato” cupcakes, which were just traditional cupcakes in gelato cups but she made the frosting look so gelato-like! And the cake! You’ll have to just see below but essentially made an entire cake look like a bowl of spaghetti — complete with meatballs! I’m convinced there is simply nothing she can’t do or create!

My final “station” was an Aperol Spritz cart! This drink was all the rage over the summer, and since it has an Italian twist, we simply had to have it for the party!

I always love creating these special events for the boys! Happy third birthday, Gavin!

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Invites were designed by  Christian with ChicInvitations2 on Etsy — I love the way she included so many of the colors and fonts we used throughout the rest of the party! And, of course, I used Chubby Hearts Cookies again for part of our favors!

Upon arrival, guests “scanned” their hand prints to gain access to the lab. They received a NASA badge and were invited to practice losing gravity in the space-themed moon bounce! My favorite part of this party was that it lent itself to so many different activities. I created an entire Astronaut Training program. First, they completed a physical assessment, full of tunnel crawls, jumping jacks, and more. Next, they had a lung capacity test where they determined how many bubbles they could blow in one minute. This was followed by launching a stomp rocket as high as possible and then running over to try and survive an alien attack with Nerf blasters. Finally, they did some asteroid collection and thoroughly examined all the Milky Ways and Starburst their parents would let them consume :)

In addition to activities, there was, of course, an entire dessert bar! I hand painted an entire solar system and hung it from the ceiling, over top of the Galaxy Pops, Rings of Saturn Donuts, Moon Rock Candy, and so much more. These were purchased from various Etsy sellers and Simply Desserts in Fairfax! My mom, as always, made the beautiful cake and I was thrilled how it turned out — and it was hilarious to see all the kids with black tongues & teeth after basically devouring it :) This year, I also added tables just for the kids — they each had a jet pack at their seat back, complete with rocket fuel and so much more!

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Two of my favorite details The adorable pancake invite and the decorated sugar cookies! I searched high and low for perfect invite and decided to reach out to an Etsy seller to see if I could create something custom — I had seen lots of donut invites during my search but nothing pancake related. Our collaboration turned out even better than expected and the pastry bags were such a cute touch. And how cute are these breakfast themed sugar cookies!

For Gavin’s Pancakes & Pajamas birthday party, I knew there had to be an grand breakfast spread. My mom made a fabulous cake that looked exactly like a stack of pancakes and we surrounded it with real pancakes, chicken and waffles, a bagel board, and so much more. There were also lots of donuts and more chocolate milk than the kids can get their hands on. We also had a mimosa bar for the adults, of course!

We created series of tents that the kids could play inside while wearing their cozy jammies. I originally planned for them to eat inside of the tents, but then I realized with all the syrup floating around that that would be a sticky mess! Regardless, they had a blast playing with the tents… and I think they can totally be reused in the future for sleepovers!

We also had lots of activities planned for the kids. When they first arrived, each kid was able to make a fruitloop necklace. We also did a pancake relay and pancake toss with some adorable pancake bean bags I found on Etsy. Finally, there was a ‘donut on a string’ eating contest that proved to be more difficult than expected for the kids. My sweet niece was the only one to finish the challenge! Thankfully, we were blessed with unseasonably warm February day, so the kids were able to play outside after all the activities.

The Pancakes and Pajama birthday party may not be the most detailed party I ever planned to date, but it was a blast celebrating our now-two year old alongside all of the people we love most. And don’t worry… much to the dismay of my husband, I’m already brainstorming future events for both kids :-)

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I wanted everything to be as true to the books and movies as possible, so I kept that in mind while designing the invitation suite. I found a version of the original online and created a nearly identical knockoff but with party information! We even included the same address on the inner envelopes and the red wax seal. I’m OBSESSED with this owl my mom created — by hand! — to “carry” the invite!

For the entry way, it had to be Platform 9 3/4. I created this by using brick fabric that the Hogwarts students could enter through. I also included Harry’s luggage, Hedwig, and the Sorcerer’s Stone for good measure.

Students entered into the Great Hall — first, they stopped by the Sorting Hat to get sorted into their houses. Within the Great Hall was the House Points Counter… of everything I created, this was by far my favorite. There was no template or source guide — this was done completely on our own and I was thrilled how it turned out!

From the Great Hall, students stopped by the Three Broomsticks for some Pumpkin Juice or Butterbeer, of course.

The biggest undertaking in the design process were the shops. I emailed endlessly with a new friend I found on Facebook who had created a similar version of these for her son’s party and her advice and kindness was beyond helpful. Everything in the shops was designed from scratch — my dad built the frames and then my mom and I painted everything by hand. I used a projector to get the lettering just right and then added all the decor the week of the party. Students could borrow robes from Madame Malkins, go shopping at Honeydukes, try at brooms at Quidditch Supplies, and even select a wand at Ollivanders. There was so much candy for each kid that I’m sure their parents were thrilled to take home a week before Halloween :) :)

Outside, students attended Potions Class where they created their own colored potion and Herbology where they designed a baby mandrake! They also played a mini version of Quidditch — 1 point for a quaffle and 5 points for the golden snitch!

Dessert was served in the Chamber of Secrets, where our cake was a 3D basilisk created by my mom!

There was lots of other random decor that you’ll definitely love if you’re a Potterhead!

Landon’s biggest request: costumes! He, of course, wanted to be Harry Potter, so Rob and I went as Viktor & Fleur to be the Triwizards (sorry Cedric Diggory). My parents were the best two professors at Hogwarts: McGonagall & Dumbledore and Gavin pulled out Landon’s old Dobby costume! Our dear friends came as Hagrid, Bellatrix, the cutest golden snitch, and Ron & Hermione!

This party was a huge labor of love, that I certainly could not have pulled off with the help of my parents or the patience of Rob! But the joy on Landon’s face from the beginning to end made it all worth it — plus I could never half ass a Harry Potter party! Next year will definitely take a step or five back for my own sanity, but I’m already looking forward to creating something new!

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I have to start with my favorite two details — the invite and the favors!! I worked closely with Penny from Penny’s Craft Studio on Etsy and she is AMAZING! She made these from scratch and I’m obsessed with the level of detail! And the cookies were done by Chubby Heart Cookies who went above and beyond!

The food table was meant to feel like Hundred Acre Wood. My mom and I hand made a 3D tree out of paper and had the various characters from the books floating down on their balloons! All the foods were aptly named — Piglets in a Blanket, Pooh’s Scrumptious Sandwiches, Produce from Rabbit’s Garden, and so much more.

The highlight of the dessert table was, of course, a 3D hunny pot cake made from scratch by my mom! She’s made some pretty crazy cakes of the past few years (check out the cake version of Granger!), so it’s always fun to see what I can challenge her with for the parties — so far nothing that she can’t conquer!  We filled in with Tigger Tails, Hunny Pots, Acorns, and even more treats for the kids.

Gavin had a test cake for his cake smash and wasn’t super into it… but by his party, he was ready to taste test! We went crazy eating so much cake that eventually he rested his head on the top and we knew it was time to call it! Granger, of course, wanted some licks… luckily it was all vanilla!

Most of the kids who were attending were not babies, so I did plan a few activities for the older ones! We had Mr. Sanders’ Fishing Hole, where they could catch magnet fish; Pin the Tail on sweet Eeyore; and, of course, a hunny pot pinata, complete with Pooh sticking out the top!

Food Signs | Allyson Leigh Events
Honey Jars | Kozy Kabin
Wooden Honeycomb Display | WNS Wood & Tool
Pinata | Ripley’s Party
Invitation | Penny’s Craft Studio
Pin the Tail Game | La Artista Samantha
Favors | Chubby Heart Cookies
Stamps | Edelweiss Post

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If you’ve been following the blog for any time, you know I love planning parties! I’d absolutely never want to be an event planner, but that’s precisely the reason I still love doing it — because it’s just for fun and not for work! Some of our past parties have included a Peter Rabbit Birthday Party, Dog Adoption Birthday Party, and Train Birthday Party, so it was exciting to break out of the birthday world and focus on something entirely different!

For this party, we had two different food tables… one for the kids and one for the adults. The first, for the kids, featured mummy hot dogs, kiwi Frankensteins, blueberry and strawberry spiders, ghost carrots, pumpkin oranges, graveyard pudding cups (of course!), and, my favorite, a DIY caramel apple bar. I was able to reuse the fence from our Peter Rabbit party and had fun creating a wicked witch set up around it!

For the adult table, we had a chili bar and a Mr. Bones charcuterie — which might just have been my favorite detail from the whole party! I LOVE a good charcuterie board and had so much fun decorating this one from scratch with all the best goodies!

Finally, the last big set up was the kid’s table! As Halloween is such a kid-focused holiday, I wanted them to have a special place to sit while eating together and I love the way this table turned out… although I’m not sure the kids appreciated it as much as I did!

We, of course, had lots of games as well! A Halloween can toss, ghost pinata, decorate your own pumpkin and eyeball and teeth dig through spaghetti “brains”. My favorite little activity though, were the costume awards! These golden skeletons were so easy to make and the kids loved getting silly awards for their adorable costumes!

Would I plan a Halloween party like this every year Probably not, but with 2020 being what it was, we all needed a little more magic than usual! This year might be trick or treating with a side of pizza and wine (for the adults, of course!), but it’ll be a blast nonetheless!

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I first selected the furniture and designed the rest of the room around it. With both the furniture and the walls being a soft grey, I knew I needed to add in some color — enter the curtains! I toyed with the idea of doing something custom, but the cost was out of budget and I was so excited when I found these at IKEA! If I told you the full story about finding and getting these just right, you probably wouldn’t believe me, so let’s just say it was quite the adventure. I had a professional tailor add on a blackout liner from Amazon and my mom and sewed the pleats in the top.

My favorite part of the whole room, however, has to be the watercolor alphabet that I had commissioned from a fantastic artist, The Prints and the Pea, on Etsy! I’ve worked with Mollie several times over the years and her work is always phenomenal. I couldn’t find anything like what I was picturing, so I reached out to her on a whim. Let’s just say this exceeded every expectation! Pictures of pictures don’t always come out the best, so trust me when I say this is even more beautiful in person!

If I was being totally honest, I would say this is just a gender-neutral nursery with no real theme; I did tie in a few travel items — globes, planes, and clouds — throughout the space to give it a bit of personality, but overall I just enjoy the subtleness of the space as it will easily transition from nursery to big boy room faster than I can imagine. So cheers to soaking up all the baby cuddles for as long as possible!

SOURCE LIST
Crib, Dresser, Bookcase | Marcelle Collection from RH Baby
Chair | PB Kids
Cloud Mobile & Vintage Plane | RH Baby
White Globe | Magnolia Hearth & Hand
Floor Lamp | Pottery Barn
Cloud Prints | Pottery Barn; Framed by Framebridge
Watercolor Travel Alphabet | The Prints and the Pea on Etsy

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But for this year, I put together something smaller. As a first time parent, I’m not sure if it’s just this age or if kids are like this forever, but his tastes are constantly changing. One day Frozen is the best thing ever and week later, it will be something totally different. So I knew if I planned a party around something he loved, that it may be out the window by the time October rolled around. I went “neutral” and decided to plan a train party — something that is always in style with little boys!

I tried my best to strike a good balance of not going too overboard (since it was just a very small group!) but making the day still really special! For food, I tried to create the atmosphere of a cafe at a train station with all grab and go items — sandwiches, chips, and fruit cups! I love the chalkboard sign my mom designed — from scratch — as the backdrop!

For the dessert table, I kept it fairly simple with just a 3D train cake and a pretzel bar. We did both savory and sweet pretzels with a ton of different topping so everyone could create them to their liking! I thought sweet pretzels would be the favorite but it turns out adults love salty!

For our drink station, I made a Fueling Station complete with Arnold Palmer from the best ever, Chik-fil-a.

I didn’t do too many other crazy setups since this was a small event.One thing I was pretty proud of was the 3D train made completely out of cardboard boxes. I had a ton of boxes leftover after doing a DIY mailbox costume for Halloween that year and thought it would be fun to create this for the party! It was actually super easy and my mom and I threw it together in just a few hours while Landon napped.

And, of course, a few of our sweet birthday boy in his adorable train sweater!

Hoping that next year will finally bring the Around the World party to life, but if not, it’s good to know smaller events like these can still be a blast!

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For the party, I knew I wanted to do an epic dessert bar again — baking is one of my other hobbies and mom is an incredible cake baker, so between the two of us, we could dream up something pretty unique. Plus, what kid doesn’t love dessert! The showpiece was, hands down, the 3D German Shepherd cake my mom built completely by hand with vanilla and chocolate cake, rice crispy treats, and more pounds of icing than I care to know. The entire thing, even the eyes and collar, was totally edible. It was amazing and everyone thought it was professional done! She’s made so many cool cakes over the years, but building a cake to look like our dog Granger might just take the cake (pun intended =P). We filled in with other fun dog themed treats including puppy chow, rice crispy bones, chocolate pretzel fetch sticks, Scooby Snacks, and dog cake pops. My parents also built a dog house backdrop for the table which was absolutely incredible!

For dinner, we had to do a Hot Dog Bar, complete with lots of toppings and sides including mac and puppies, Duke’s Beans, pawtatoe chips, and even a 3D dog veggie tray. You can’t miss my favorite part of the Hot Dog Bar in the pictures below… a menu sign with all of our favorite pups on it!

Finally, for the kiddos, I put together an entire adoption station where they got to pick a pet and then name it, built it a house, and design a collar! The kids were obsessed and I loved seeing pictures the day after of them not wanting to put them down! My momma also organized lots of games for the kids and brought a parachute which they all loved — just wait until you see the look on Landon’s face while throwing this thing in the air, he is completely cheesing!

There was, of course, a part of me that was sad when the party was over. It’s such a joy to get to have everyone you love in one place; I feel lucky to have such great parents who helped me pull this entire thing off and such great friends who freed up their Saturday night to spend it with us. But mostly, that another year with Landon has already come to pass. I know I’ve said this before, but being a parent sometimes feels like a living in a perpetually bittersweet state; each moment of watching them grow and reach a new milestone is more beautiful than the last, but it’s also heartbreaking at the same time.  You know you’ll never get to see those “firsts” for a first time again and you can’t ever go back. Luckily we took lots and lots of photos, so I can always remember the pure happiness on his face the entire day!

And I can’t not share one of my favorite parts of this whole party! I’ve already bragged on our awesome friends and family endlessly, but I need to just one more time! In honor of this being a puppy themed birthday party, we wanted to give back to a local shelter. So in lieu of gifts, we asked all of our friends to bring donations for Landon to drop off… and just look at how much we got! Incredible!!!

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If you sang that a la Tom & Donna in Parks and Rec, welcome. If not, go stop reading this and go watch Season 4 immediately… but come back when you’re done! 

Anywho, I digress. No, it’s not treat yo’self day, but it IS 2018 Behind the Scenes day and this is one of my favorite blog posts to share from the entire year! You get a tiny peek into how much fun it is, in my opinion, to be a Washington, DC wedding photographer and work with some of the most awesome clients in the area! 

Yoohoo — up here!

Being a wedding photographer is about SO much more than photography! I want all my couples to have a perfect day and am happy to pitch in wherever possible to make that a reality!

I call this set of images, “awkward places” — they may look tiny or like unflattering background, but that’s the great thing about hiring a professional wedding photographer; they will pick places that make for beautiful photos! 

And this set “Awkward faces” because, well, you’ll see below. 

Here is the 2018 edition of “what’s in the box#8221;!

And a huge shout out to all of my second shooters this season — Emily, Erin, Rebekah and Meghan (and Rob!) — you’re all amazing! Thank you for keeping me sane and doing all the crazy things I ask on a wedding day. I value your dedication and respect to all my clients dearly and couldn’t provide the same experience for them without each and every one of you. And an extra special nod to Emily who had some crazy veil throwing moments even while PREGNANT last year!

I swear they love me!

And just the standard old photos of me doing one of my favorite things in the world — photographing my clients! You can definitely tell by my hair which images were taken at the beginning of the day and which ones were at the end of a crazy day! =P Shout out to Gal Meets Glam for at least half of the outfits below — thank you for including pockets in your dresses, that makes them perfect for wedding days!

And last, but certainly not least, thank you to all of my clients. I know I say how much I adore you guys a lot and I hope that doesn’t lessen it. I may only have gotten a picture with a few of you this year, but I appreciate each and every one of you so much and it’s been such a joy getting to work with you in 2018.

And just remember… stay out of the forest. 

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In all seriousness, Landon turning one wasn’t quite as emotional as I thought it would be; it’s such a joy watching him grow and each age quickly becomes my new favorite. I hear this will end around 2/2.5 but we have some time to enjoy it until then! 

MONTH 10
This was a really fun month for us because we got to take two different trips with Landon! First we went to Hilton Head Island for a week at the beach (where he started standing on his own for the first time!) and then we headed out to Utah and Arizona for a hiking trip in their many National Parks. Both trips were an absolute blast and way too much to type here — check out the individual blogs for lots more photos and what we did while exploring! HHI and UT/AZ

MONTH 11
This month we did “all things fall” with Landon and it was really cool to enjoy our favorite season with him! By the end of the month, I think we visited at least four different pumpkin patches in the area, several fall festivals, apple picking, and a few trick or treat events. He also started attending daycare two days a week! We have our parents helping us out quite a bit and wanted to make sure we could lighten their load as much as possible. Plus it’s been really beneficial for him to be around other children throughout the day and participate in all the crafts, games, and storytimes he gets at school. He was a little nervous the first few weeks but adapted in no time! Best of all, Landon start walking this month and took his first solo steps on my birthday of all days! 

MONTH 12
The big 1-2! I think most parents would agree, this age comes way too quickly — we blinked and he is already a year old! I loved planning and prepping for his Peter Rabbit first birthday party this month and getting to celebrate with all of our friends! We also had his first real Halloween; last year he was just a week old and I was still broken, so we didn’t really get to enjoy one of my favorite holidays. This year we did a family Harry Potter costume, complete with Harry, Hermoine, Dobby, and even Granger, as a golden snitch. We also (strangely) got our first snow — Landon wasn’t a fan of touching it, but had fun in his marshmallow suit! With an early Thanksgiving, we also got to start doing “all things Christmas” including a few visits to Santa, horse rides, and holiday light shows! 

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Deciding on a theme was probably the hardest part of the whole process — there are so many cool ideas and my friends would jokingly tell you I could plan parties for at least 10 more first birthdays if you let me :) One of my absolute favorite things to do with Landon is read; it’s definitely less so, these days, than it was back in January, but we had recently purchased the complete tales from Beatrix Potter and read several stories a day. He always seemed fascinated by the photos and stories and so I started jotting down ideas as we read each one. Between that and Pinterest, of course, the first birthday plan was born! 

First, we had the food table — the most important part of any party because hungry guests aren’t happy guests! My favorite part of this set up is the adorable carrot pastries (filled with buffalo chicken dip — they were delicious!). 

Next, we had the mimosa bar — an equally important part because, hey, parents need an escape too! We had the swingset outside for the kids and the mimosa bar for parents!

Finally, the dessert bar — my favorite part of all the decor! I had so much fun dreaming up these desserts with my mom and she helped me make almost everything you see here! (Those perfect cake pops were ordered from a local bakery!)

A few other random details — the photographer in me had to style the invite, of course!

And, of course, the sweetest birthday boy himself! In so many ways it’s hard to believe this sweet baby is now a one-year-old boy; but, on the other hand, we also were very intentional about our time the past year and spent as much of it watching him grow as possible. It was an overwhelming day for him, to say the least! He pretty much stuck with mom or dad all day and cried as we sang him Happy Birthday! But don’t worry, those tears disappeared as soon as he dug into that cake!  

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to celebrate with us — I wish I had more photos of the party itself, but we were enjoying ourselves and the beautiful October day we were blessed with for the party. And yes, I’ve already started brainstorming year 2 — I only get a few of these until he picks his own theme ;) 

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