The one where my crafty side remembers that it exists...

My sister-in-law is having a baby boy in July, and while her family is throwing her a shower in June, my mother-in-law wanted to have one hosted by our side of the family, as well, so she could invite all of her friends to it. My other sister-in-law and I were tagged to plan it, with some help from one of the family friends, and hooooooooo buddy.

I had fun.

I was in charge of the decorations, and on one of my many trips to the outlet mall that is now a mere SIX MINUTES from my house since we moved in December, I scoped out the baby clothes in the various children's stores to try to get some ideas of a possible theme. One ridiculously adorable skull & crossbones hat discovery later, I made the executive decision that we were going to do a pirate theme, and to Pinterest I went.

Honestly. How did people plan parties before Pinterest became a thing?

I knew I wanted to make decorations that could be used for both the party and the nursery, and I wanted the favors to be fun, but not cardboard. After spending WAY too much money at Michaels,* I spent WAY too much time playing with stain and paint and scrapbooking paper and stickers. And I kind of loved every minute.

The prep:

And the party:

 

 

 

 

  

 And (BONUS!) the goofy party crasher:

I'd forgotten how much fun it is (to me, anyway) to put something together like this. For Brigid's last birthday, because we had our house on the market, we did a birthday in a box kind of event at the local gymnastics place, one of those things where they plan everything except the cake. And for Caitlin's last birthday, which also happened to be her first? Well, we were living out of boxes following one failed house closing, coming up on our second (ultimately successful) attempt, and just getting back from a Disney vacation. Plus, it was the day after Thanksgiving. Let's just say the poor child was lucky she got anything remotely resembling a celebration that day.

I plan to make up for it this year. I may just start planning it now...



*After my first trip into Michaels, I called my sister-in-law to inform her that I'd already spent $100 in a craft store, and all I had for the party was a $5 fishing net. My shopping habit seems to have extended itself into the craft supply market now, unfortunately...