Big Plans

My daughter's birthday is in March. If your children are anything like mine, they start planning their birthday parties the minute the last one is done.

This was last year's party and it was GREAT...meaning it took place AWAY from  my house (no mess to clean up), it hadn't been done with her friends or us before, both boys and girls had a good time and the "goody bag" was a shirt from the facility. How super awesome is that? I just showed up with a cake and voila! Party!

And BONUS- we asked guests to bring a bag of dog food instead of a gift.  That way Daughter didn't get a bunch of stuff she really didn't want or need.  Later that week we dropped the food off at a shelter in our city. The HUGE payoff was that we all had fun, there was  no "present pressure" for parents and when we dropped the food off, they let us go back and say hi to all the sweet animals up for adoption.
SCORE ONE FOR MOM!

But since I've started blog-stalking, I've come across so many people who are amazingly creative when it comes to party planning.

It has me really thinking about the idea Daughter has come up with-- Mad Scientist party.

Fun, huh? I think so. Plus, we won't be committing a birthday faux pas of "repeat theme".
(Don't laugh at that---those with kids will agree that repeating a party theme can seem a little lame and can cause Mom to feel as though she's somehow less of a creative mom...or maybe that's just me.)

Even though I've got a few months till the party date, I've found some cute blogs with great ideas.

I'm  ready to order some lab coats and get my creative-former-elementary-school-teacher-juices flowing for some snazzy homemade invitations like these...

from partyplanningmom.blogspot.com

And for sure we'll have cake or cupcakes. But I really want to have a super cute food table like 

this adorable idea

photo from celebrationsathomeblog.com

I just love the owls.  They won't be making an appearance at Daughter's party, but you get the idea--themed backdrop, themed snacks, theme theme theme! I think that is the secret...make it all go together and if it doesn't, re-brand it so that it does fit.  

That last part may be  hard for me since I'm a "live inside the lines" kind of girl.  Lucky for me I am married to an "outside the lines" kind of guy and I've surrounded myself with other "outside the lines" people.  

It does take a village, y'all. 

What kind of at-home parties have you thrown? Are there other blogs you've found that have cute party ideas? I'm always looking for great ideas, so share with me so I can be a copy-cat! (In the nicest possible way.....)