Jane Howard

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one."

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Rufio's Monster Bash

I am not too sure when I started planning my son's 3rd birthday party, but it seems like it went by so fast. Let just say 6 months ago. That sounds like a long time, but being pregnant and having my due date less than 3 weeks before the party was challenging. Plus all the Holiday planning and let me include all the playgroup activities I volunteered to plan {which I enjoyed making them all happen btw}.  Well I don't want to take all the credit, I have wonderful friends here that helped me out a lot, from helping clear out a room for the baby to making me dinner to babysitting Rufio. My husband took part of it also. Which I am very grateful and I don't say that enough.

Anyways between 6 months ago and when my due date was around the corner, I was able to make my monster favor dolls for the kids to adopt at the party. I don't have any patterns for these, just went with it. I bought all my supplies from all different location at a Daiso store here in Japan. {99yen store, which is the dollar store but better}.

Let me show you first the invitation that I made using my cricut and the monster clipart I ordered from Etsy by TracyAnn. I also used the Rhonna Designs App on my iPhone to design the main invitation.


Next sets of pictures are some of the monster stuffed dolls I made. I lost count of them by the last week before the party. I would say about 35 monster dolls that I finished sewing up considering there were about 30 kids and I had only 4 monsters left.
Anyways, some of the things I used to make these are:
Sewing machine
Heavy duty thread
Felt
Stuffing

I've also made some bean bag monsters for the Bean bag toss activity, but I ran out of time and didnt get the chance to make a cute beanbag toss board. I don't have a picture of it, but what we ended up doing was taping up some streamers on the wall and took 3 green buckets we bought at a Daiso as our bean bag toss activity.  Here is the picture of the bags though!:

Let me just say that Pinterest has been my number one source of inspiration! For the longest, my mind was set to order a monster head piñata, but after seeing an alternative way to do something similar, I got too excited that I dropped the piñata idea as soon as possible.  Punch Box!! Let me tell you, it was a lot of work but it was worth it because it was different and the kids weren't fighting over spilled candy and such on the ground.
What I needed for this project were::
Trifold project board
Paper lunch bags
Spray paint
Colored wrapping tissue papers
An adhesive {I used a double sided tape, which I regretted after the third hole.}
Candy/toys and such for prices.
Here are some pictures of that fun thing!

I used regular glue to glue the wrapping tissue to cover the hole and it wasn't pretty. That's when I decided to use a double sided tape instead.

Another project I decided to stick with was a photobooth/ sign in with the Polaroid picture. And again, I didn't have the time to create a board with some sort of monster theme as a backdrop. What we decided to do was another Streamer backdrop and it's enough to add colors. The main table is set up like this:



I had my Polaroid Intax Mini out for people to use to take pictures of their kids in front of the streamer backdrop, sign the Polaroid print, and hung them with mini wooden clothespin I painted purple on the board, which I made using a foam project board wrapped with wrapping paper, yarn, and cut outs.

Last activity set up I had for the kids was the coloring station. 


So, as I mentioned before, I was due to have my second child 3 weeks before the party. It was definitely a challenge having to keep up with chores around the house and continue planning and creating for this party. I am thankful that one of my friend here, Heather, had helped me so much. I had explained to her my plans are for decorating and since time wasn't slowing down, we had to improvise. And she did awesome by the way. 

I just wished I had the energy everyday to make the decorations I planned on putting up, but I'm satisfied of how things turned out because my friends helped me and I'm grateful for that. 

All in all, even though this party was stressful in some level, it was fun and I enjoyed seeing my son smile and excited at that moment even though I know he won't remember this event.

Anyways, by two weeks before the party, I had forgotten to order the cake, so I had to find someone who lived near me that will do a cake for me plus some cupcakes. Facebook is so convenient, I tell you! I found a lady who does fondant cake, Johanna Gulbert, and was able to take my order even if it was a week of notice. Pinterest has this monster cake that I absolutely love and decided to go for that look, except I've asked to change a color to go with the color scheme of the party. It was an amazing cake and I absolutely love it! She did an awesome job! This cake was definitely a big hit at the party. The kids loved the eyes and asked for them.

I had forgotten to mention that this was the biggest party I've ever hosted with about more than 20 families and some single marines attending.  I've never had my food run out before until this one. 
Let me stop rambling about this party and just show you some pictures:

















These sets of pictures are pictures of the little monsters and their adopted monsters from the party:


















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