Hellobee

Olive’s birthday is in October and Charlie’s birthday is in December, but we decided to throw them a joint birthday party so they could say goodbye to their closest friends before moving to the Philippines at the end of this month. I booked an outdoor playspace that provided pizza, balloons, and cupcakes and was going to make a banner and call it a day. Then a week before the party, Charlie and Olive decided on their Halloween costumes — Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. It seemed like a perfect theme for a birthday in the month of October, and the wheels in my head started spinning because I love Halloween! Luckily Minhee of Paper+Cup Design is one of my closest friends, and she is the master of speedy design and crafting. We pulled this party together in just 2 days, and I love how it turned out!

Once you have a theme and color scheme, everything just falls into place. Red was the obvious choice. Minhee designed the “all the better to eat you with” sign, as well as book covers that everyone thought were real books we’d written and tried to read them!

The venue provided cupcakes and pizza so I bought marshmallows, Pirate’s Booty, strawberries, red apples, champagne+pomegranate juice and coordinating servingware.

The “Once Upon a Time in Brooklyn” banner that Minhee came up with reminds me of the classic fairy tale opening and one of my favorite books, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, at the same time. Plus October is prime apple picking month here in New York!

This rendition of Little Red Riding Hood was a Caldecott Honor book with beautiful illustrations, so I taped them to a wall. I prefer the darker Brother’s Grimm ending!

This magnetic chalkboard wall served as a photo backdrop.

We added green leaves to mini honeycomb balls to make an apple garland.

Minhee designed these photobooth props.

And we made wolf masks for all the kids.

Since the venue had a little playhouse, we decided to turn it into Grandma’s Tattoo Parlor. Minhee designed custom tattoos with Charlie and Olive’s name, the Brooklyn Bridge, pretzels, I love New York apples and more.

Olive is drinking apple juice of course!

The playspace had a rock pit, cork table, wood blocks, Tegu magnetic blocks, wood cylinders, and a playhouse that kept the kids busy.

Charlie spelling out Happy Birthday!

For favors I knew that I wanted to give away our children’s books since we wouldn’t be able to take them with us to the Philippines. I made these woodland animal themed favor bags (inspired by supermakeit), Minhee designed custom bookmarks and bookplates to put inside them, and we gave away 2 books to each kid.

One thing we didn’t anticipate was so many kids wanting to sit down and read the books during the party!

Our friend’s 1 week old newborn, who was born 3 weeks early. You forget how teeny tiny newborns are!

We really made the party about Charlie and Olive’s closest friends. They’ve known a lot of these kids since they were 1!

Pirate’s Booty is always a big hit…

But the kids even ate the apples!

We had a guest list of 18 kids (including Charlie and Olive), 3 babies, and over 20 parents, which was perfect for the venue. We invited all the siblings of Charlie and Olive’s friends, since it’s much easier for parents to be able to bring all their kids to a birthday party. I always have too much food, but I did a pretty good job this time around. We had 5 pizzas and 1 box was leftover. The kids filled themselves up on the Pirate’s booty, marshmallows, cupcakes and strawberries, otherwise the last pizza probably would have been eaten.

Somehow our number 4 balloon disappeared at some point.

We requested no gifts on the invitation since we’re moving abroad, but we did receive some really thoughtful gifts like lots of handmade cards from their friends, and donations made in Charlie and Olive’s name to children’s charities.

The party space was in the backyard of a wonderful Brooklyn toy store called Norman and Jules.

We lucked out with the weather because it was cold and rainy all week, and the sun decided to show up on the day of the party. I’m always stressed out when throwing a party because I’m taking pictures, talking to guests, and making sure that everything is ok. But it was totally worth it to see Charlie and Olive having fun with their bestest friends in the whole world. We’ve made some great friends in Brooklyn that we’ll really miss!

Sources:

Venue: Norman and Jules
Design: Paper + Cup Design
Olive’s Dress: Le Bee’s Knees
Olive’s cape and basket: Amazon
Charlie’s Wolf Costume: Halloween Costumes
Mini red honeycomb balls and cupcake toppers: Oh Happy Day
Polka dot cups, striped napkins/straws, popcorn containers, strawberry baskets, cupcake liners: Shop Sweet Lulu
Plates, red cups, polka dot napkins, pitchers, platters: Party City
Number balloons: Bargain Balloons